The Marshall Plan

The US Marshall Plan was definitely a large and successful move on their side towards the US Policy of Containment, since it allowed them to strengthen many non-communist nations and arguably stopped these nations from becoming communist nations. The Marshall Plan was proposed by the US Secretary of State, George Marshall. After Europe had been ruined by not only WW1 but also the recently elapsed WW2, the Americans had fears of these European nations, especially the many who had become homeless following the wars, embracing communism. If this happened, it would be difficult for the Western nations to “win” the cold war in having more power. Therefore, the Marshall Plan suggested and implemented ways in which the US spent millions of dollars on rebuilding Europe, thereby maintaining most of Western Europe as a stronghold of capitalist economies and a democratic government.

The US policy of containment had a main aim of containing the spread of communism and upheld two ways in which this was to be done. Firstly, it wanted to strengthen non-communist nations which could join the ranks of the non-communist countries on the side of the US, and also wanted to form strategic alliances with non-communist countries. At the time where the policy was instated, the US and the Soviet Union were the two major powers at play in the world – and the difference in their economies, capitalism and communism was a difference not to be ignored. Both of these powers were on opposite sides, and each frantically tried to expand the powers on its side. The Soviet Union started by taking over many Eastern European countries and the US in turn responded by strengthening its ranks in Western Europe. The US had many ways in which it enforced this policy. It had the Marshall Plan in which it helped the European nations to strengthen and thereby made these nations loyal to the US and to capitalism. It also formed strategic alliances, and helped in strengthening other communist nations, such as in the Korean War where it supported non-communist South Korea in its fight against the communist North Korea which had tried to take over South Korea,

The Marshall Plan was a key aspect of the US Policy of Containment, and definitely reflected the policy. In line with the idea of strengthening non-communist nations, the Marshall Plan gave much support to many of the European powers which had grown weak after the long WW2. By doing this, it made sure that these European powers would be grateful to the US (making them more likely to support capitalist ideas and not lean toward communism) and also strengthened these capitalist and democratic societies, helping in making the non-communist countries become stronger in ranks than the communist ones. The Berlin Airlift was in many ways just a specific case of the Marshall Plan in action. When the city was blockaded (and no supplies could reach it, therefore) by the Soviets, the Americans and British delivered many supplies, thereby helping in supporting a non-communist country. This meant that they were strengthening a place with a capitalist government, which again meant getting more support for the western capitalist economies against the communist Eastern ones.