containment
The spread of communism was scary for more countries than just the United States. With that fear and not enough protection, the US stepped in to make sure that countries that didn't want to go under communism were saved and given their political freedom back. The goal was not to inflict war, but to simply help out those who were seeking it.
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CommunismThe spread of communism from the USSR on its trip to Germany was huge. It took over Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. US officials and other parts of the world were scared that more countries would be taken over. The largest targets they were in fear for was Germany, France, and Italy. The US wanted to get involved and stop any more countries from falling into communism under control of the USSR. Greece and Turkey were on the verge of being taken over until Truman stepped in and helped them take back control. The Containment Policy was put in place. This was so the American troops would not go out because it was impossible to stop the spread of communism, but they would assist countries that were in danger of going under communism. They even offered to assist some of the communist countries in the east.
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MARSHALL PLAN17 billion dollars was sent over to Europe over the duration of 4 years. The Marshall Plan was a put in place to help the economy over in Western Europe and help them get back on their feet. After the money was sent out after the war, industries in Western Europe produced at speeds twice as fast as they did before the war happened. There were many mixed emotions from the American people about sending all of that money over, but they were spending more on liquor then they were sending overseas for aid. After all that money was flushed into their system not only did it help repair the countries, but their industries and economies also. Not only did this money help overseas, but it also helped the American economy spike up after producing more trades with those countries.
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germanyGermany was divided into 4 sections, Berlin itself was soon to follow with also being divided into 4 separate sections. East Germany was established and that was under control of the Soviets while the West was under democracy. Stalin blocked off all routes going to the West. Truman didn't exactly want to fight but he wasn't going to leave with the threat of Stalin taking over so he stayed put. He brought in a lot of food and supplies to the people via airplanes. Stalin was suddenly looked down upon in the world since he wasn't doing anything like that for his side. This just showed that America was gaining its title back as one of the best superpowers and that they weren't scared to fight.
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