I mentioned this the other day. The US in 1947 was faced with Europe facing economic collapse with all the attendant societal disasters that would also result. The fear was that one of those disasters would be all of Europe being absorbed into the greater Soviet sphere.
To avoid that AND to avoid American soldiers once again fighting in Europe, the decision was to fund an ambitious foreign aid package that became known as the Marshall Plan. This was America’s first attempt at funding foreign nations for their benefit as well as ours. It was probably the most well spent money ever for this country, not to mention France, GB, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, Greece, and Germany.