The Marshall Plan was officially called the European Recovery Program (ERP) and was a large-scale program named after then Secretary of State George Marshall to aid Europe in which the United States provided monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II. The Marshall Plan was in operation for four years and sent approximately $13 billion worth of economic and technical assistance to help the recovery of the European countries that had joined in the Organization for European Economic Co-operation (OECD). The $13 billion in aid under the Marshall Plan followed the $12 billion in U.S. sent to aid to Europe between the end of World War II and before the Marshall Plan took effect. The Marshall Plan was replaced by the Mutual Security Plan at the end of 1951. The goals stated by the U.S. were to rebuild a war-devastated region, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, and make Europe prosperous again. The initiative, however, also had a political agenda behind it -- stopping the spread of communism. The U.S.S.R. forbade its allies from taking part in Marshall Plan.

 

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^[1] Source: This image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US-MarshallPlanAid-Logo.svg is in the public domain.

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