Page "Marshall Plan" Paragraph 20

The American administration of Harry Truman began to believe this possibility in early March 1946, with the Soviets ' violation of the withdrawal deadline in Iran, and Churchill's Iron Curtain speech, given in Truman's presence a few days later.

In the administration's view, the United States needed to adopt a definite position on the world scene or fear losing credibility.

The emerging doctrine of containment ( as opposed to rollback ) argued that the United States needed to substantially aid non-communist countries to stop the spread of Soviet influence.

There was also some hope that the Eastern European nations would join the plan, and thus be pulled out of the emerging Soviet bloc, but that was not to happen.