<P> The phrase "equivalent of the Marshall Plan" is often used to describe a proposed large - scale economic rescue program . </P> <P> The reconstruction plan, developed at a meeting of the participating European states, was drafted on June 5, 1947 . It offered the same aid to the Soviet Union and its allies, but they refused to accept it, as doing so would allow a degree of US control over the communist economies . In fact, the Soviet Union prevented its satellite states (i.e., East Germany, Poland, etc .) from accepting . Secretary Marshall became convinced Stalin had no interest in helping restore economic health in Western Europe . </P> <P> President Harry Truman signed the Marshall Plan on April 3, 1948, granting $5 billion in aid to 16 European nations . During the four years the plan was in effect, the United States donated $17 billion (equivalent to $193.53 billion in 2017) in economic and technical assistance to help the recovery of the European countries that joined the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation . The $17 billion was in the context of a US GDP of $258 billion in 1948, and on top of $17 billion in American aid to Europe between the end of the war and the start of the Plan that is counted separately from the Marshall Plan . The Marshall Plan was replaced by the Mutual Security Plan at the end of 1951; that new plan gave away about $7 billion annually until 1961 when it was replaced by another program . </P> <P> The ERP addressed each of the obstacles to postwar recovery . The plan looked to the future and did not focus on the destruction caused by the war . Much more important were efforts to modernize European industrial and business practices using high - efficiency American models, reducing artificial trade barriers, and instilling a sense of hope and self - reliance . </P>

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