The Morgenthau Plan was a proposal to eliminate all German industrial plants in the Ruhr region and convert Germany into a primarily agricultural and pastoral nation. It included provisions for deporting millions of Germans to labor camps across Europe as war reparations.
The Second Quebec Conference took place between September 12 and 16, 1944 in Quebec City where Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt agreed to the plan. The resulting memorandum called for eliminating warmaking industries in the Ruhr and Saar regions.
Journalist Drew Pearson publicized the Morgenthau Plan on the 21st of September 1944 which Joseph Goebbels immediately used in Nazi propaganda efforts during the final seven months of the war. He declared that Jew Morgenthau wanted to turn Germany into a giant potato patch.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Directive 1067 became effective on the 10th of May 1945 when approved by President Harry Truman and directed US forces to take no steps looking toward economic rehabilitation of Germany. It strictly forbade fraternization with Germans including attending church services or shaking hands and violators risked being fined $65.
By March 1946 imported food supplies would last another sixty days before running out completely while average daily kilocalorie intake reached only 1,080 during 1946 and 1947 according to Alan S. Milward. William Clayton reported to Dean Acheson on the 27th of May 1947 that millions of people in cities were slowly starving.
President Truman rescinded punitive JCS 1067 on national security grounds in July 1947 and it was replaced by JCS 1779 which stressed that orderly prosperous Europe required contributions from a stable Germany. The Marshall Plan extended loans instead of free aid to West Germany after initial resistance.