American Policymakers did no want to repeat the mistakes that were made during the post war world after WWI. They wanted to establish a sense of peace between the nations and create stable democracies.

The Marshall plan was a plan devised to call the nations of Europe to draw up a program for economic recovery from the war. The United States would then support the program with financial aid.

Secretary of State George C. Marshall unveiled the plan in 1957. It responded to the concern of American policymakers that Communist parties were growing stronger across Europe, and the Soviet Union might intervene to support more of these movements.

The Soviet Union was invited to participate in the Marshall Plan, but it declined the invitation and refused to accept the help and pressured its satellite nations to do the same. To them, the Marshall plan was seen as "a vicious American scheme for using dollars to buy its way into European affairs".

However, seventeen other Western European nations joined the plan. They included Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and West Germany.

Congress approved the Marshall Plan in 1948. It was formally known as the European Recovery Program. The United States sent nearly $13 billion in grants and loans over a period of four years. The region's economics were quickly restored, and the United States gained strong trading partners in the region.