Eastern Europe accepts Marshall aid

In OTL Stalin felt that the Marshall plan would give the US control of his satelite's economies if accepted. As I understand it Truman and Marshall proposed it with the assumption that the Communists would say no.

WI Stalin, or a saner Soviet leader, had said 'yes'.

I suspect that it would have been tricky for Truman to get Marshall aid through Congress, and he might not have fought so hard for it.

I think that these events were before both the Berlin Blockade and the Czech coup.

Could the Cold War have been stopped?
 
Interesting POD. If you Leninist leader in stead of Stalin, this might be possible. After the Russian Revolution, Lenin instituted the New Economic Plan to help the Russian economy which allowed for the creation of private businesses and nationalisation of heavy industry. If something similar were set up after the war, then Marshall funds going to the Warsaw Pact becomes plausible.
 
I don't think that woulda stopped the Cold War - I think it woulda just made the countries of Eastern Europe, particularly more forward ones like Hungary and Czechoslovakia, more developed and more wanting to straddle the line between East and West.
 
Top