The development which affected the Truman administration most markedly was the British government's official notice in February 1947 that it could no longer afford to supply military and economic aid to Greece and Turkey. These were key Mediterranean countries which the U.S.S.R. sought to bring into its orbit. In what became known as the Truman Doctrine, the President announced that the U.S. would give economic and military aid to the area.

This was the inauguration of an ever-widening program under which the U.S. took over the global burdens that England had borne since the middle of the 18th century.

The foreign-aid program was soon expanded following an address delivered by Secretary of State George C. Marshall at Harvard University in June 1947. He proposed vast U.S. financial aid to restore Europe's shattered economy. Although he included the U.S.S.R. and its satellites among the prospective beneficiaries of the Marshall Plan (European Recovery Program), Moscow chose to regard the offer as an "imperialistic" maneuver, and refused to join. The total cost of the Marshall Plan for the years 1948-52 was approximately $13,500,000,000.

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