The Marshall Plan - officially called European Recovery Program, ERP - was an initiative of the United States to help Western Europe, in which the Americans gave financial aid worth about 14 billion dollars at the time for the reconstruction of those European countries devastated after the Second World War. The plan was in operation for four years since 1948. The objectives of the United States were to rebuild those areas destroyed by the war, eliminate barriers to trade, modernize European industry and make the continent prosperous again; all these objectives were intended to prevent the spread of communism, which had a large and growing influence in post-war Europe. The Marshall Plan required a decrease in interstate barriers, reduced business regulation and encouraged increased productivity, union membership and new "modern" business models.
