Explain the Marshall Plan and the policy of containment.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers will vary. In 1947, when it appeared that local Communist parties, backed by the Soviets, would take over Greece and Turkey, President Harry Truman took action. He convinced Congress to appropriate $400 million ($4.2 billion in 2018 dollars) in aid for those countries to prevent the spread of communism. The president also proclaimed what became known as the Truman Doctrine. It would be "the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." The Truman administration also instituted a policy of economic assistance to war-torn Europe, called the Marshall Plan after George Marshall, who was then the U.S. secretary of state. During the next five years, Congress appropriated $17 billion (about $176 billion in 2018 dollars) for aid to sixteen European countries. By 1952, the nations of Western Europe, with U.S. help, had recovered and were again prospering. These actions marked the beginning of a policy of containment, designed to contain (prevent) the spread of communism by offering U.S. military and economic aid to threatened nations. To make the policy of containment effective, the United States initiated a program of collective security involving the formation of mutual defense alliances with other nations.In 1949, through the North Atlantic Treaty, the United States, Canada, and ten European nations formed a military alliance-the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The treaty declared that an attack on any member of the alliance would be considered an attack against all members.