Communism in Czechoslovakia

Primarily US interest in the European arena was triggered by fear of Communist take-overs in Italy and France, where Communists were briefly the largest single party in the Assembly. A severe winter of 1946-1947 had caused economic dislocation that undermined a post-war optimism about the potential for recovery of western Europe's economies. Serious concern arose in Washington about the ambitions of Communism in Europe.
However, the first country to enter economic crisis was Britain: over-stretched by huge military commitments.
The US abrupted the "lend lease" war loan agreement in 1945 after the Japanese war came to an end. The US had loaned Britain $48.5 billion. Britain's adverse trade balance soared. On 27 February 1947 Britain informed Washington she could no longer afford sending financial aid to the governments of Greece and Turkey(in addition to her substantial military commitment to Palestine,where the British mandate was coming under severe pressure from the campaign by Jewish nationalists and terrorist groups to set up a state of Israel).
Crisis meetings were staged between members of Congress and State Department officials. The possibility of a Communist take-over in both Greece and Turkey might manifest the spread of Communism to Iran and India.
Truman announced a support package for military and economic assistance in Greece and Turkey. "It must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures."
This marked the beginning of America's cold war foreign policy and the point of relations between Communist "East" and non-Communist "West". Local Communist parties were making significant gains in Eastern Europe;Hungary, Romania and Czechoslovakia. It was clear Stalin was intending every country of central Europe into a Soviet Empire. The Marshall Plan (US Secretary of State) was an altruistic gesture by the US to help the impoverished Western allies but was also a gateway for the US to import strong commercial interests in a market of several hundred million persons.
US Congress at first were hostile to the plan but as Czechoslovakia was turned over to Communist control in 1948 resistance to the plan diminished.
The French found the Communist threat highly advantageous. Mendes-France commented: "The Communists are rendering us a great service. Because we have a "Communist danger", the Americans are making a tremendous effort to help us. We must keep up this indispensable Communist scare."