How is the Marshall Plan an example of Cold War tactics?

The Marshall Plan forced the USSR to build up its military, which weakened its economy.

The Marshall Plan showed the USSR that the United States would not back down from military threats.

The Marshall Plan allowed the United States to compete for power with the USSR without using force.

The Marshall Plan moved the USSR and European countries closer to becoming long-term allies.

Best answer: The Marshall Plan allowed the United States to compete for power with the USSR without using force.

Explanation/context:

The "Marshall Plan" was named after the man who then was US Secretary of State, George C. Marshall. Officially the plan was called the European Recovery Program. Marshall announced the plan in 1947, and it went into effect in 1948. The intent was to provide aid and rebuilding to European economies after the damaging effects of World War II.

In his speech introducing the plan, Secretary Marshall had said: "Our policy is not directed against any country, but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos. Any government that is willing to assist in recovery will find full co-operation on the part of the United States. Its purpose should be the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist."

The view in the communist-controlled Eastern bloc was that the US was trying to use such a policy to spread its influence and threaten their patterns of government under communism. So the plan ended up building allies for the US in Western Europe, while the Eastern European countries sided with the Soviet Union. So it was an example of Cold War tactics of competition between the US and the USSR, apart from the use of military force.