History in a Nutshell: The Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, the Cold War and the Collapse of the Soviet Union

The wreckage of Europe as a result of the continual state of war throughout the continent during World War II left a path of desolation that ran from the barren islands of Scandinavia all the way down to the warm beaches along the Mediterranean. Those countries in the heart of the conflict like German and France were utterly devastated. The reconstruction plan forwarded by the only major player not to suffer any damage within her borders, the United States, maintained that the threat posed by the Soviet Union and the forces of communism would could potentially be much greater than the actual violence imposed by the fascist governments in Germany and Italy. The only viable way to stem the potentiality of this threat was to create a muscular capitalist economy under the auspices of a democratically elected and run government in countries throughout Europe. The political component of this plan became known as the Truman Doctrine and it was backed by an economic extension designed to solidify the political ends that became known as the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan was named after Secretary of State George Marshall and it consisted of a strategy to recreate Europe from the ashes left behind by Hitler's monomania. Over 13 billion dollars was delivered to Europe over four years to facilitate the reconstruction of an entire continent. (By way of contrast, over 13 billion dollars will be sent to "rebuild" Iraq in just this year alone. But, hey, you can't argue with the results, right?) An invitation was extended to the Soviet Premier, Josef Stalin, but Stalin (rightly?) considered the Marshall Plan to be mostly an ideological carrot held out to the incredibly needy people of Europe to get them to assimilate fully into the larger plans for American world domination following the country's elevation to superpower status after World War II.