Marshall formally announces what will become known as the European Recovery Program during a ceremony at Harvard University. The Marshall Plan offers billions of dollars in U.S. aid to European countries -- including those under Soviet occupation.

Soviet spies in London keep Moscow up to date on the Marshall Plan, which the Kremlin views with growing suspicion. Stalin orders his foreign minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, to pull out of a Paris conference designed to frame Europe's response to the Marshall Plan.

As Molotov leaves Paris, he accuses the West of working to divide Europe into two hostile camps. In fact, Czechoslovakia considers attending the Paris conference on the Marshall Plan -- only to be told in no uncertain terms that Moscow is against it.
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