<P> Marshall Plan funds were also used to support a Ukrainian right - wing guerilla group called Nightingale . The Nightingale battalion (Nachtigall Battalion) had been established by the invading Nazis in Spring 1941 to create a common front with Ukrainian fascists and other right - wing radical Ukrainian nationalists of the Ukrainian National Organization against the Soviets . The US point - person for Nightingale was Mykola Lebed (sometimes spelled Mikola Lebed), founder of the terrorist arm of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which had murdered thousands of Jewish people, Russians and Poles during WWII . Starting in September 1949, the US began parachuting Ukrainian militants into Ukraine, an operation that continued for five years . The aim of the CIA infiltration operation, ultimately unsuccessful, was to dislodge Moscow's control over Ukraine . </P> <P> The Marshall Plan was originally scheduled to end in 1953 . Any effort to extend it was halted by the growing cost of the Korean War and rearmament . American Republicans hostile to the plan had also gained seats in the 1950 Congressional elections, and conservative opposition to the plan was revived . Thus the plan ended in 1951, though various other forms of American aid to Europe continued afterwards . </P> <P> The years 1948 to 1952 saw the fastest period of growth in European history . Industrial production increased by 35% . Agricultural production substantially surpassed pre-war levels . The poverty and starvation of the immediate postwar years disappeared, and Western Europe embarked upon an unprecedented two decades of growth that saw standards of living increase dramatically . Additionally, the long - term effect of economic integration raised European income levels substantially, by nearly 20 percent by the mid-1970s . There is some debate among historians over how much this should be credited to the Marshall Plan . Most reject the idea that it alone miraculously revived Europe, as evidence shows that a general recovery was already underway . Most believe that the Marshall Plan sped this recovery, but did not initiate it . Many argue that the structural adjustments that it forced were of great importance . Economic historians J. Bradford DeLong and Barry Eichengreen call it "history's most successful structural adjustment program ." One effect of the plan was that it subtly "Americanized" European countries, especially Austria, through new exposure to American popular culture, including the growth in influence of Hollywood movies and rock n' roll . </P> <P> The political effects of the Marshall Plan may have been just as important as the economic ones . Marshall Plan aid allowed the nations of Western Europe to relax austerity measures and rationing, reducing discontent and bringing political stability . The communist influence on Western Europe was greatly reduced, and throughout the region, communist parties faded in popularity in the years after the Marshall Plan . The trade relations fostered by the Marshall Plan helped forge the North Atlantic alliance that would persist throughout the Cold War in the form of NATO . At the same time, the nonparticipation of the states of the Eastern Bloc was one of the first clear signs that the continent was now divided . </P>

What countries did not accept the marshall plan