The marshall plan was an economic plan designed to deter western europe away from the seemingly attractive traits of communism in a period of vulnerability. It would provide economic aid to the war ravaged nations of the west in an attempt to galvanise an alliance against the communist ideology. It was certainly designed to keep europe from falling to communism and it significantly heightened tensions between Western Europe and the communist bloc, with the Soviets establishing their own economic plan called COMECON, which tied all economic development in the East to the soviet union.