This document was written when I was in high school. I have little or no authority on this topic. Make of this what you will.
With Europe struggling in the post-World War Two, Russia saw a chance to spread communism into this unstable region. The United States became suspicious of Russian motives when its influence was extended into Eastern Europe. Eventually, Truman and his current US government created The Marshall Plan, which aimed to aid European countries. This caused the Cold War to develop in Europe.
On June 5th, 1947, Truman’s Secretary of State, George Marshall, introduced this ambitious plan for European aid. After the speech, European nations wanted to know what the US required from them to receive aid. A conference took place in Paris, France to discuss The Marshall Plan. The Soviet Foreign Minister was invited to the conference, but walked out calling what the US was doing “economic imperialism.” 16 representatives from interested nations decided they would need 19 billion dollars to prevent disaster in Europe.
Marshall pitched this plan to congress during late 1947 into 1948. He insisted that the plan would reduce the expansion of Soviet influence. The spread of the Soviet’s power helped sway Congress to approving aid. This was amplified when communists pledged to destroy world capitalism in October 1947. The bill passed and $5.3 billion was to be sent to Europe during the first 12 months.
Most of the countries that accepted aid were in the western part of Europe as the eastern countries had been taken over by Russia. This magnified the division between Russia and the West. As Churchill put it, an “Iron Curtain” had descended upon Eastern Europe.
According to Professor Theodore Geiger (Eyewitness to the Cold War):
[The Marshall Plan] was not totally an altruistic effort. The U.S. had enormous self-interest in the success of the Marshall Plan. Otherwise it wouldn’t have been undertaken. America had a vital stake in the recovery of Western Europe…. We were doing well by doing good.
The self-benefit was more friends in Europe who were democratic, capitalist and against the spread of communism.
Russia saw this maneuver by the Americans as aggressive. They saw it as a move “to impose [American] influence over countries they gave Marshall aid.” Because of this view, “the Marshall Plan was never accepted in [Russia]” (Dimitri Sukhanov, ECW). Vladimir Yerofeyev, former Soviet Foreign Minister worker:
Stalin was always suspicious and he wasn’t keen on it from the very start…. They just want to tear the people’s democracies away from our sphere of influence, to win them over, to infiltrate them, to pull them from the Soviet Union.
These divisions between the United States and the Soviet Union were created by the Marshall Plan. This lead to the start of the Cold War with Russia and the United States building up economic, military and political force. It also lead to the end of the Cold War by giving us stronger alliances than the Soviet Union and because of American economic ties to the revival of Europe.
Duiker, William J. and Spielvogel, Jackson J. World History. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1998.
George C. Marshall Foundation. The Marshall Plan. http://www.marshallfoundation.org/about_gcm/marshall_plan.htm#moscow_conference (6 April 2003)
Educator Guide Cold War. Marshall Plan: Eyewitness to the Cold War. http://www.turnerlearning.com/cnn/coldwar/marshall/mpln_eye.html (6 April 2003)