Happy anniversary to the Marshall Plan, signed into law by President Truman on this date in 1948. With its tiny (by today’s standards) budget of $5 billion, the US helped rebuild 16 European countries in the aftermath of WWII. Secretary of State (noble and enlightened by today’s standards as well as the standards of the day) George C. Marshall ended up calling for American aid to help rebuild Europe. Of course, Moscow refused to allow other (forced) signers of the Warsaw Pact to receive any aid, but to this day, the Marshall Plan remains the most successful foreign policy of the United States government. It’s one thing we actually got right.