The Marshall Plan

What happened

Proposed by Secretary of State George Marshall in a June 1947 speech and enacted by Congress in 1948, the European Recovery Program channeled some $13 billion into rebuilding war-torn Western Europe. Aid was offered to all of Europe but rejected by the Soviet Union and its satellites.

Why it matters

The Marshall Plan revived Western Europe's economies, bound them to the United States, and deepened the division of the continent into rival blocs.

Sources

• Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State. Marshall Plan, 1948 · Reputable source