1. International Cooperation Administration, European Productivity and Technical Assistance Programs, A Summing Up, 1948-58 (Paris, 1959), 139. [BACK]

2. For formal definitions of the various conceptions of productivity that French experts formulated, see Comité] national de productivité] (hereafter CNP), Actions et problèmes] de productivité]: premier rapport, 1950-53 (1953), 118-23. By 1953 productivity was no longer a synonym for output or efficiency of labor—an earlier crude notion suggesting ''anti-human timing" that had aroused labor's resentment and fear—but became a broader synthetic notion of efficiency, a result of a complex combination of factors including equipment, materials, and organization. [BACK]

3. For a general interpretation of American postwar international economic strategy see Charles S. Maier, "The Politics of Productivity" in Between Power and Plenty, ed. P. J. K. Katzenstein (Madison, Wis., 1978), 23-49. Maier's focus is not the productivity drive itself, but how the United States used international monetary and trade policy and foreign aid to promote economic efficiency and affluence as a way of resolving political and class conflict, especially in Europe and Japan. An introduction to the U.S. productivity effort is William A. Brown and Redvers Opie, American Foreign Assistance (Washington, D.C., 1953). A recent critical analysis, based on archival research, is Anthony Carew, Labour under the Marshall Plan (Detroit, 1987). [BACK]

4. I have analyzed the technical assistance program more fully in Richard F. Kuisel, "The Marshall Plan in Action: Politics, Labor, Industry and the Program of Technical Assistance in France," that will be published in the collected papers of the colloquium entitled Le Plan Marshall et le relèvement] économique] de l'Europe . An introduction to the productivity drive in France is Jean Fourastié], La Productivité], 3d ed. (1957). The drive's official report is CNP, Actions et problèmes], of which there is an English version: French Embassy, Productivity in France: Problems and Progress: An Abstract of the First Report of the French National Productivity Committee, Commercial Counselor's Office (Washington, D.C., 1954). [BACK]

5. The ECA had allocated only 34 million dollars; by the end of 1951 no more than half this sum had been actually expended, according to Immanuel Wexler, The Marshall Plan Revisted (Westport, Conn., 1983), 93. [BACK]

6. AN, F60ter 517, Bingham (MF/ECA) to de Margerie, 31 January 1950. Those individuals prominent in negotiating the productivity program who are mentioned in these notes include (among the Americans): Averell Harriman, the special representative in Europe; Richard Bissell, assistant deputy ECA

administrator; Barry Bingham, head of ECA/France; Clinton Gordon and Bert Jewell, chief labor advisers to ECA/Washington, D.C.; Henry Martin, director of labor information/OSR; Harry Turtledove, labor information officer/OSR; Kenneth Douty, chief labor adviser ECA/France; and James Silbermann, head of productivity studies in the Labor Dept., Washington, D.C. On the French side: Jean Monnet, commissioner for economic planning; Henry Bonnet, ambassador, and R. Donn, commercial counselor, in the Washington embassy; P.-P. Schweitzer and Bernard de Margerie, successive heads of the Interministerial Committee on Questions of European Economic Cooperation; Pierre Girmanelli, director of economic programs at the Ministry of Finance; and Robert Buron, head of the CNP. [BACK]

7. MF, OD, CRU, GSF, box 60, Bingham to ECA/Wash., 8 May 1950. Citations using this form are from the archives of the ECA housed by NARA in record group 469. The abbreviations for these citations are identified at the beginning of the notes. [BACK]

8. OSR/E, LID, OD, CSF/France, box 8, Desser to Timmons (ECA/France), 19 July 1950. [BACK]

9. OSR/E, LID, OD, CSF/France, box 6, Douty to Bingham, 7 February 1950. Also OSR/E, LID, OD, CSF/France, box 8, Turtledove to Martin, 31 January 1950. [BACK]

10. OSR/E, LID, OD, CSF/France, box 6, Bissell to Gordon and Jewell, 27 March 1950. [BACK]

11. AN, F60ter 518, MAE, ''Conversations de Washington sur l'Assistance technique à l'Europe," December 1951. ECA position reported in Le Monde, 28 July 1951, and the New York Times, 25 July 1951. [BACK]

12. Richard M. Bissell, "The Impact of Rearmament on the Free World Economy," Foreign Affairs 29 (April 1951): 404-5. [BACK]

13. William Joyce, ECA productivity chief, made this comment in a speech. French press reaction is summarized in MF, OD, CRU, GSF, box 61, ECA/France to ECA/Wash., 16 August 1951. [BACK]

14. MF, OD, CRU, GSF, box 61, Timmons to Sec. of State, 10 August 1951. [BACK]

15. Barry Bingham, ECA chief in France, thought Buron and Monnet "displayed more interest in and understanding of productivity than any other persons in public or private life that we have met in France" (MF, OD, CRU, box 60, Bingham to ECA/Wash., 11 April 1950). Yet Buron wondered whether the French could ever accept the rules of American production. Even those people of French stock who lived in North America, Buron noted, the Québécois] of Canada and the Cajuns of Louisiana, seemed to prefer their traditional ways to progress. He concluded, "There is a psychological, perhaps a metaphysical, problem here. The Frenchman distrusts progress. He doesn't adopt it with the enthusiasm of the American" (Robert Buron, Dynamisme des Etats-Unis [1957], 87). [BACK]

16. Ministère] des finances et des affaires économiques] (hereafter MFAE), archives, B16.023, Grimanelli, 24 April 1951. [BACK]

17. AN, 80AJ80, Donn to Monnet, 17 February 1949. [BACK]

18. Joint Committee on Foreign Economic Cooperation, Knowledge of the Marshall Plan in Europe, 19 October 1949 (Washington, D.C., 1949). [BACK]

19. AN, F60ter 381, Secrétaire] d'état] de l'information to Président] du Conseil, 12 November 1948. [BACK]

20. MF, OD, CRU, GSF, box 60, Bingham to ECA/Wash., 22 July 1949. [BACK]

21. Michel Hincker, "L'Opération] 'Productivité],'" Cahiers internationaux no. 29 (1951): 51-58. [BACK]

22. Auguste Lecoeur, Les Dessous de la campagne américaine] sur la productivité], conférence] prononcée] . . . 14 mars 1952 (1952). Also Comité] central du Parti communiste français], La Productivité] du travail, Documents économiques], no. 3, May 1951. [BACK]

23. MF, OD, CRU, GSF, box 62, Taff to Pioda (OSR), 25 September 1951. [BACK]

24. AN, F60ter 394, Préfet] du Cher to Ministre de l'intérieur], "Manifestation à Vierzon", 29 February 1952. [BACK]

25. For example see Force ouvrière], 27 July 1950; Le Monde, 21 June 1950. [BACK]

26. Each syndicate specified different conditions for joining the CNP, according to CNP, procès-verbal], séance] du 10 octobre 1950, AN, Fourastié] papers, box 15. [BACK]

27. MF, OD, CRU, GSF, box 61, Desser to Bingham, 15 March 1950. [BACK]

28. OSR/E, LID, OD, CSF/France, box 8, Turtledove to Martin, 31 June 1950. [BACK]

29. See, for example, the criticism leveled against the CNP by a prominent CNPF official: René] Norguet, "Rapport sur les travaux de la commission de la productivité]," CNPF: Bulletin no. 84 (1952): 40-42. [BACK]

30. MF, OD, CRU, GSF, box 61, Gingembre to Carmody, 12 September 1951. Excerpt published in Le Monde, 15 September 1951. [BACK]

31. OSR/E, LID, OD, CSF/France, box 8, Cony to Martin, November 1950. Jean-Roger Herrenschmidt, "La Préparation] des missions de productivité] en France," Productivité] française], May 1952, 26-27; Pierre Bize, "L'Assistance technique au service de la productivité] française]," Productivité] française], February 1952, 6-10. [BACK]

32. The French government paid for the teams' cross-Atlantic journey; French employers covered the salaries of team members during the trip, and the ECA covered the dollar expenses (per diem, travel in the United States). See the convention of 5 October 1949 (ECA, P/TA, OD, CSF, box 6). [BACK]

33. MF, OD, CRU, GSF, box 59, Bingham to Schweitzer, 26 July 1949. [BACK]

34. ECA, P/TA, OD, CSF, box 6, Hares, "Comment on the Productivity Program," 1949. [BACK]

35. AN, F60ter 517, Schweitzer to Bingham, 7 October 1949; and MFAE archives, B16.022, Grimanelli to MFAE, 25 May 1950. [BACK]

36. AFAR, Missions de productivité] aux Etats-Unis, annuaire, 1949-53, (1953), 7. An extensive report on the CNP's activities, including the missions, is CNP, Memorandum sur la politique française] de productivité] et l'assistance technique, 18 July 1951, AN, F30ter 518. [BACK]

37. Of 4000 team members surveyed, 45 percent were employers, managers, or technicians; 25 percent were workers or foremen; and the remainder were mostly fonctionnaires : see P.-L. Mathieu and Philippe Leduc, "La Politique française] de productivité] depuis la guerre" (mémoire de maîtrise], Institut d'études] politiques, Paris, 1961), 64-65. [BACK]

38. M. Lemarsquier, "L'Action de l'AFAP et du Comité] national de la productivité]" in CEGOS (Centre d'études] générales] d'organisation scientifique), Les Facteurs humains de la productivité] américaine] 1 (1951): 4. [BACK]

39. Such records are post-mission interviews with AFAP staff; policy debates within the CNP/AFAP; and follow-up evaluations of the drive's success. See AN, Fourastié] papers, boxes 14-17, and notes 85 and 86. [BACK]

40. Carew, Labour, 139-57; Pier Paolo d'Attore, "ERP Aid and the Politics of Productivity in Italy during the 1950s" (paper, European University Institute, 1985). [BACK]

41. Pierre Baruzy, "Compte rendu des sessions . . . d'industriels américains]," CNOF (Comité] national de l'organisation française]): Revue (February 1952): 26-29. [BACK]

42. Bernard Pigoreaux, Cinq Semaines aux Etats-Unis avec une mission de productivité] (n.d.), 41. [BACK]

43. See, for example, the analysis of the metallurgists' trade association: Albert Metral, "La Productivité] américaine]," Les Etudes américaines] no. 32 (1952): 18-20. [BACK]

44. French electronics companies could not readily import America's huge markets, easy credit, or industrial relations. But they could specialize production lines, undertake market studies, and simplify work. This report is AFAP, Les Industries de l'électronique] aux Etats-Unis, rapport de la sixiéme] mission de la construction èlectrique] (1952). [BACK]

45. Quoted in Pierre Badin, Aux sources de la productivité] américaine]: premier bilan des missions françaises] (1953), 57.

46. Ibid., 37. [BACK]

45. Quoted in Pierre Badin, Aux sources de la productivité] américaine]: premier bilan des missions françaises] (1953), 57.

46. Ibid., 37. [BACK]

47. Luc Boltanski, "America, America . . . Le Plan Marshall et l'importation du 'management,'" Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales 38 (May 1981): 19-41. [BACK]

48. Among the differences between the terms is their scope: "management" encompassed far more staff personnel than the more narrow French term direction . For management see AFAP, Productivité] . . . problème] de direction (1954); Jean-Michel de Lattre, "Vue cavalière] de l'entreprise américaine]," Productivité] française], March 1953, 39-54; AFAP, Productivité] aux Etats-Unis, essai de synthèse], rapport de la cinquième] mission française] d'experts (1953), 35-62; AFAP, La Comptabilité] mesure et facteur de productivité]: rapport de la mission française] des experts-comptables aux Etats-Unis (1952); Jean Milhaud, ''Aspects humains de l'Amérique] au travail," Hommes et techniques nos. 78 (1951): 15-19, and 79-80 (1951): 19-34. [BACK]

49. Report of management consultants' mission in Le Monde, 30 September 1950. [BACK]

50. "Défauts] de l'industrie française . . . chefs d'entreprise américaines]," Productivité] française], February 1953, 53. American managers' critique is also in CNP, Actions et problèmes], 81-82. [BACK]

51. James Silbermann, La Faiblesse de la productivité] française] vue par les Américains] (1952), 8. [BACK]

52. De Lattre, "Vue cavalière]," 49. [BACK]

53. AFAP, Productivité] aux Etats-Unis, essai de synthèse], 31. [BACK]

54. Badin, Aux sources, 32. [BACK]

55. R. Donn, "Les Etats-Unis tirent leur génie] et leur puissance de la productivité]," Productivité] française], December 1952, 24. [BACK]

56. Badin, Aux sources, 58. [BACK]

57. CNPF views reported in MAE archives, B Amérique], Etats-Unis, rélations] commerciales franco-américaines], 253, Seydoux to Bonnet, 14 December 1951. For lag in French advertising see Marc Martin, L'Histoire de la publicité] en France (1992). [BACK]

58. AFAP, Le Marketing, conférences], discussions, octobre-novembre 1956 (1958), 7-8. [BACK]

59. Claude Foussé], Traits caractéristiques] de la prospérité] américaine] (1953), 88. [BACK]

60. AFAP, Rapport de la mission d'étude] du marché] et publicité] (1954), 8. [BACK]

61. Foussé], Traits caractéristiques], 63-64. [BACK]

62. Badin, Aux sources, 35. [BACK]

63. AFAP, Intégration] du travailleur dans l'entreprise (1953), 81. [BACK]

64. J. Gouin, "Le Climat social d'une entreprise américaine]: Barber-Greene company" in CEGOS, Les Facteurs humaines de la productivité] américaine] 3 (1951): 1-3. [BACK]

65. AFAP, Les Relations humaines aux Etats-Unis, rapport de la mission de productivité] T.A. 38-395 . . . octobre 1954 (1955), 25. [BACK]

66. De Lattre, "Vue cavalière]," 45. [BACK]

67. AFAP, Productivité] . . . problème] de direction, 58. [BACK]

68. Badin, Aux sources, 25-26. [BACK]

69. One technical adviser analyzed the costs of France's imperfect markets, that is, the waste caused by manufacturers' lack of information about consumers or by consumers' ignorance about products—all of which drove up costs, created uncertainty, and undermined the optimal exchange that a market was supposed to bring. See Jean Dayre, "Productivité et organisation des marchés," in AFAP, Productivité d'une nation, productivité d'une industrie (1951), 30. [BACK]

70. M. P. Weinbach, "Emploi des statistiques dans les entreprises privées américaines," CNOF, October 1954, 21. [BACK]

71. De Lattre, "Vue cavalière," 54. [BACK]

72. Quatre Syndicalistes français aux Etats-Unis (n.d.), 10. This report is in AN, 81AJ69. [BACK]

73. André Blanchet, Le Monde, 14 October 1950. Blanchet wrote a series on "Les Leçons de la productivité américaine" for Le Monde, on 11, 12, 14, and 17 October 1950. [BACK]

74. A FO delegate observed the respect for "the human personality at work. Men of all types, organized labor in the lead, seek to maximize workers' freedom by making more comprehensible and less exacting the indispensable discipline of production and by providing workers with a growing part of this production. In France we quibble about the idea, we examine it closely and touch it up. In the U.S.A. they seriously try to implement it" ( Quatre Syndicalistes, 11, 19). [BACK]

75. Quatre Syndicalistes, 21. [BACK]

76. AFAP, Quelques Aspects de l'organisation et du fonctionnement des syndicats ouvriers américains, par une mission syndicale française, octobre-novembre 1951 (n.d.), 44. [BACK]

77. MF, OD, CRU, GSF, box 58, Max Rolland's letter relayed to A. Harriman by J. Hutchison, 11 May 1950. [BACK]

78. Lucienne Rey, "Le Syndicalisme américain vu par des militants français," Rapports France-Etats-Unis no. 46 (1951): 52-56. [BACK]

79. Blanchet, Le Monde, 14 October 1950. [BACK]

80. Quatre Syndicalistes, 20. [BACK]

81. Quatre Syndicalistes, 21. [BACK]

82. Quelques Aspects . . . des syndicats ouvriers américains, 47. [BACK]

83. Badin, Aux sources, 58. [BACK]

84. I make such an assessment in Kuisel, "The Marshall Plan in Action." [BACK]

85. ECA follow-up surveys of individual enterprises are in MF, OD, CRU, GSF, box 62. [BACK]

86. AN, Fourastié papers, box 14, AFAP, "Projet spécial de 'follow-up' des missions," March 1955; and AN, 81AJ42, AFAP, "Enquêtes sur l'exploitation des missions de productivité, première partie: chefs d'entreprises et cadres, 1er semestre 1956. [BACK]

87. AFAP, "Projet spécial," 3. [BACK]

88. AFAP, "Enquêtes sur l'exploitation," 15.

89. Ibid., 18. [BACK]

88. AFAP, "Enquêtes sur l'exploitation," 15.

89. Ibid., 18. [BACK]

90. AN, Fourastié papers, box 16, Henri Migeon to Grimanelli, 27 November 1952, annex to: CNP, commission exécutive, proces-procès-verbal, séance du 27 novembre 1952. [BACK]

91. AN, Fourastié papers, box 16, CNP, commission exécutive, proces-procès-verbaux, séances du 13 octobre, 22, 27 novembre 1952. [BACK]

92. René Richard, "Productivity and the Trade Unions in France," International Labour Review 68 (September 1953): 290. [BACK]

93. AN, Fourastié papers, box 16, CNP, Commission "productivité" et coopération du personnel des entreprises: Groupe de travail spécial, compterendu de la réunion du 22 novembre 1952. See also address of Georges Villiers in CNPF: Bulletin no. 87 (1952): 1-2. [BACK]

94. MF, OD, OFD, box 7, Labouisse to Sec. of State, 1 December 1952. [BACK]

95. For such examples see Le Monde, 31 October 1954; La Vie française, 11 December 1953; Le Figaro, 18 May 1953; and French Embassy, Recent Developments of the Productivity Drive in France: An Abstract of the Third Report of the French Productivity Agency, Commercial Counselor's Office, Industry and Productivity Division (Washington, D.C., 1956). [BACK]

96. Commissariat général à la productivité, Objectifs et réalisations, 1955-56 (1956), xvi. [BACK]

97. MFAE archives, 16.027, Ardant, Note, 27 November 1956. [BACK]

98. In most of these respects the Italian productivity experience parallels the French (see d'Attore, "ERP Aid"). Carew ( Labour, 180) concludes that from the perspective of integrating organized labor the productivity drive was "pretty much a disaster" in France, Italy, and Germany. [BACK]

99. See, for example, Bernard Jarrier, "La Croisade pour la productivité," Esprit, February 1952, 285-308. [BACK]

100. De Lattre, "Vue cavalière," 45. [BACK]

101. AFAP, Productivité aux Etats-Unis, essai de synthèse, 15.

102. Ibid., 14. [BACK]

101. AFAP, Productivité aux Etats-Unis, essai de synthèse, 15.

102. Ibid., 14. [BACK]

103. AN, Fourastié papers, box 14, AFAP, "Réunions d'exploitation des issions de productivité: mission 'produits amylacés', 17 juin 1954," 16-17. [BACK]

104. Foussé, Traits caractéristiques, 13. [BACK]

105. Robert Buron, "Les Eléments de la productivité américaine," Productivité française, January 1953, 2. [BACK]