In my thesis paper I intend to highlight the critical factors that determined the characteristics of the Marshall Plan, the attitude of the United States toward the European Recovery program, the reaction of the participants to the specific criteria of the proposal and the issue of Soviet participation, leading to the exclusion of the USSR and the Soviet satellites from the recovery aid. These components are essential in order to get a broader view of whether the Marshall Plan was the cause of the development and consolidation of the two-bloc system in Europe, or it just happened to be a byproduct of this process.