Rebuilding Europe.

In June 1947 U.S. secretary of state George Marshall proposed what became known as the Marshall Plan, in which suffering European nations trying to rebuild would receive American aid. The program, according to Marshall, would be "directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos." European nations, including the Soviet Union, responded quickly to the American offer. The Soviets and their allies withdrew after the first meeting, but the sixteen remaining countries reached an agreement with the United States. These countries initially asked for $29 billion in aid, but the United States cut this amount to $17 billion over four years, with $5 billion going to Europe in the first year of the program.

Motives.

Marshall's proposal represented the culmination of much debate in Washington as to the best foreign-policy approach to the postwar world. Essentially, those...