- Hooray. World War II is over, but Europe is in ruins. What can a country like the United States do to help? How about setting aside over $13 billion to help rebuild the smoldering continent?

That's what the European Recovery Plan, a.k.a., The Marshall Plan, sought to do, restore the European economy by giving foreign aid to countries that needed it. It was a brilliant move to win the peace by George C. Marshall, the plan's creator.

Marshall had been a career military man and, during the war, had served as the Army's chief of staff. He oversaw the US military strategy and was one of the key figures behind the Allied victory. Marshall retired from the Army at the end of the war.

But President Truman valued his brains too much. After serving as ambassador to China, Marshall was appointed secretary of state in early 1947. Soon after, he developed his European Recovery Plan and announced it in June of that year.

From April 1948 to December 1951, the United States shipped food, fuel, machinery, and money to European countries. The goal was to help them get back on their feet after the devastation of the war. In one sense, this was good-deed foreign policy.

The United States was being a friend, using its considerable resources to help wartorn Europe. Plus, the last time the world left a conquered nation in ruins, Nazi Germany rose to power. But there were other reasons to implement the Marshall Plan as well.

By investing in the economies of European countries, the US helped create new markets for its exports. Perhaps we could interest you in a Buick. There was a strategic objective too. The US wanted to isolate the Soviet Union to keep it from expanding its sphere of influence beyond Eastern Europe. How better to make capitalism appealing than to spread around money in a wartorn country?

By the way, here are all the countries that received Marshall Plan aid in alphabetical order. Ready? Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and West Germany.

Now, if you listen closely, you might have noticed a couple of major European countries that weren't on that list. The USSR didn't trust the US intentions with the Marshall Plan and forbade Poland and Czechoslovakia from receiving American aid. Too bad for them because the plan worked.

The gross national product of Marshall Plan countries grew as much as 25%. It put Western European industry back on its feet. The American export economy boomed. And Soviet-influenced communism was contained to Eastern Europe. Nice work, George Marshall. In 1953, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. The greater honor for Marshall, though, may have been seeing Europe rise from the ashes thanks, in part, to the plan that bears his name.

- Young people, in large numbers, came out and joined what became known as the Red Guards. These largely terroristic organizations were used to publicly humiliate, assault, and, in some cases, even murder political enemies of Mao and the Communist Party.