period. People like Senator Arthur Vandenburg were authentic conservatives and they were not too keen on foreign aid or foreign entanglements, especially so immediately after WW2.
The Truman Administration soon saw that the only way short of war in stopping the Iron Curtain from closing over all of Europe was an ambitious economic recovery plan. The military establishment and the intelligence establishment concurred on this. For the reasons previously mentioned the GOP was late to the party. That is where Vandenburg, along with the backing of George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower who cajoled until the Marshall Plan was enacted. That was followed shortly thereafter by America’s military guarantee of European free self-government, NATO.
That may well not have happened without the involvement of Vandenburg. There is no one like him in today’s GOP.

[Post edited by Chuck Taylor at 04/20/2024 07:03AM]