What was the name of the US program that rebuilt Western Europe?

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What was the name of the US program that rebuilt Western Europe? It was the Marshall Plan. Officially called the European Recovery Program, it was launched by the United States after World War II to help restore Western Europe’s damaged economies.

US Secretary of State George C. Marshall outlined the idea in a June 1947 speech at Harvard University. Congress authorized the program in 1948, and President Harry S. Truman signed the legislation on April 3 of that year. Aid was provided mainly as grants for food, fuel, raw materials, industrial equipment and infrastructure.

The program operated for roughly four years and assisted 17 European countries with about $13.3 billion in contemporary dollars. The Soviet Union rejected participation and pressured Eastern European governments to do the same. The Marshall Plan is often confused with Lend-Lease, which supplied wartime aid, or the Truman Doctrine, which was a broader policy of containing communism.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Aug. 2026

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