The PRIMARY goal of the Marshall Plan was to
A) ensure that the United States would be the first country to reach the moon.
B) provide millions of dollars in loans to countries around the world.
C) secure European allies for the United States after World War II.
D) help stop the increasing Soviet influence in Cuba.

Explanation: B is right (of course) ...Marshall plan was an offer of aid to European countries (not to other countries) including USSR. Marshall plan (1946-1947) was a plan prepared at the time when the Cold war was slowly commencing (in "Fulton Speech", 1946, Churchill mentioned "Iron Curtain"). It was an attempt to help and initiate some sort of coperation but, of course, there were deep ideological differences and Truman, Kennan, Marshall and others knew it. In Czechoslovakia there was an agreement about acceptance of American offer but after consultations with Moscow (proof of Czechoslovakian submissive and permissive attitude) Czechoslovakia decided not to send delegation to negotiations (1947). Czechoslovakia was the last country that refused. That was the beginning of the Cold war. In 1949 NATO came into being.