Marshall Plan
First established on June 5, 1947 newly appointed Secretary of State George Marshall wanted to rebuild war-torn Europe and stimulate the economy back to prewar levels. This plan was established to send aid to countries in Europe devastated by the war and struggling to pay back any war reparations caused during the fighting. Marshall believed that by aiding the countries in need would lessen the chances of the country falling into Soviet control and becoming a communist state. As a total, European nations received close to $13 billion which was spent on food and machinery which was later invested on industrial capacity within Europe. The United States got positive results from this as they contained any communism from spreading into central and Western Europe and also gaining allies which would later become part of North Atlantic Treaty Organization. With the success of the United States, the Soviet Union wasn’t as fortunate as many of the war reparations being paid to them from European countries were coming from United States Marshall Plan and this upset communist leaders. The main reason behind the upset leaders are that they didn’t want any U.S affiliation within their communist economy and turned down aid to benefit them from Marshall Plan due to this ideology. As a whole, the Marshall Plan helped gain allies and contain communism for the United States while the Soviets were trying to increase their sphere of influence but were not successful in the final product.
http://www.marshallfoundation.org/TheMarshallPlan.htm
http://www.marshallfoundation.org/TheMarshallPlan.htm