re nations will come to know the advantages of freedom and liberty. It is to this end that we have enacted the law I have now signed.It was brought to Truman's attention that Europe was by no means content in their economic recovery. Britain was near bankruptcy, Italy, France, and Germany were plagued by a terrible winter. More aid was needed to keep their democratic governments afloat. Thus, a direct result from the Truman Doctrine was the Marshall Plan. This came about when Truman appointed General Marshall as Secretary of State. In that position, he observed "Europe's economic plight." Marshall proposed a plan that would offer aid to all nations "West of the Urals." (Truman, 355) This included the U.S.S.R. and her Eastern European satellite states. They, however, refused the aid. By March 1948, Congress had appropriated the first installment. Truman signed it into law on April 3, 1948. By its consummation in 1952 it would provide more than $13 billion in aid to war-ravaged Europe. This was a grand change in U.S. Foreign policy. We had gone from isolationists to internationalists. This Doctrine is in direct contrast to the Monroe Doctrine. The Monroe Doctrine served as the U.S. Foreign policy for well over 150 years. It essentially stated that the U.S. would not intervene in the World's affairs as long as no one interfered with hers. With the Truman Doctrine, we completely reversed that role that had been only briefly breached during the World Wars. Our new policy was one of Containment: To contain the spread of Communism to the states in which it presently inhabits. Our relationship with the U.S.S.R. after Truman's declaration was in continuing deterioration. A major threat to our relationship was the Berlin Blockade of 1948. On June 24, 1948, the Soviets enacted a total blockade on Berlin. The U.S. response was to airlift supplies into the cutoff West Berliners. By its end 277,804 sorties delivered 2,325,809 tons of goods to Berlin-...
