Over the first four years after the war, the U.S. government and private sources supplied 28 billion to finance the payments imbalance with the rest of the world. This pattern continued with Marshall Plan in 1950-1951 and largely with military aid thereafter The chief consequence of these actions was to ensure European recovery and to enshrine the dollar as the key international currency. That is,the dollar became the primary medium of international payment and the currency serving as the store of value for all others participating in the system.
Beyond these immediate economic issues lay a set of political and security matters that cried out for U.S. attention. Further, the ability to persuade the leadership of many nations to participate in the new liberal world order depended on their confidence in the United States and its willingness to ensure their security. The recent war had demonstrated the vulnerability of many parts of the world to a determined and aggressive state. Much of the leadership in Europe considering joining the U.S. defined system was deeply worried about political effects of Soviet military power in the heart of Europe. Thus,when events such as the Soviet-inspired coup in Czechoslovakia or the Soviet blockade of berlin intensified these fears, The United States felt compelled to act. The result,by 1949,was the North Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO) which represented a standing U.S. commitment to defend Western Europe. U.S.international leadership depended on the ability to use its superior power to reassure allies and contain the Soviet Union. Especially critical was preventing Soviet actions from undermining confidence in and encouraging challenges to the United States. Many in the U.S. government concluded that the success of the postwar system rested in the image of U.S. power in Europe and on preventing the use or threat of force from affecting the shape of international politics.
A related set of political and security issues was defined b relations among states in the emerging western system. The United States played a crucial role in encouraging cooperation, including convincing some like the french that their security would be ensured even as the German economy was being revived. A U.S.imposed requirement for receiving Marshall Plan aid was European cooperation in establishing the scope of their economic problems and in administration of the funds. Much of the impetus for European unity came from constant encouragement by the United States. The occupations of Germany(a collective enterprise with the British and French)and japan(entirely by the United States) produced substantial efforts to change the domestic politics of these nations.
A final and equally important element of U.S. hegemony was ensuring access to vital resources through the normal course of market relationships Nations should not feel the need to use military force to gain a special position on these resources. Perhaps the most important of these was oil. The principal agents of control of this resource were the large American British,and Dutch multinational oil corporations,but U.S.political and military power in the Middle East was an equally important ingredient. This was especially evident in the U.S. effort to force the Soviet out of Iran in 1946,in the intervention in Iran 1953,and in the close relationship with Saudi Arabia, The consequence was to ensure plentiful supplies at relatively cheap and stable prices.