mmunism. The containment policy that flowed over into the basis of the Marshall plan was of “defensive nature” and “encouraging…the survival of free institutions”. Rees argued that the the communist ideology would influence those in Europe due to their lack of structure after the war, he believed “American opinion was beginning to see that it could not let Europe…fall to the Soviets by default”. To support his argument that ideology was a key motive he quotes Truman “the constant threat of unpredictable Soviet moves resulted in an atmosphere of insecurity…among the peoples of Western Europe”. This emphasises Rees argument that the Marshall plan was introduced to combat the “increasingly suspicious” Soviet policy. It also indicates that ideology was a long term factor behind the introduction of the Marshall Plan as he saw that the US and Soviets would always be on an ideological collision course, due to those early events as said earlier.

A secondary argument that Rees presents is that a motive behind the introduction of the Marshall plan was humanitarian. Contrasting the Kolko’s view that Americas motive behind the Marshall plan was for selfish reasons. Rees argues that Americas interest was more focused on actually protecting Europe, rather than focussing only on their own benefits. He says that “American power was still the ultimate guarantee of Western collective security”, this emphasises that the Americans needed to protect Europe and their “free institutions”. Rees mentions that “the entire continent would have to be rehabilitated with US aid”. The language highlights that in Rees’ eyes it was about fixing Europe with the US’ help as hero’s, not the US doing it in their own interest.