In Europe, this meant spending a lot of money. First, the Marshall Plan spent $13 billion on rebuilding Western Europe with grants and credits that Europeans would spend on American consumer goods and on construction. Capitalism's cheap food and plentiful stuff, it was hoped, would stop the spread of communism. The US also tried to slow the spread of communism by founding NATO and with CIA interventions in elections where communists had a chance, as in Italy. But despite all the great spy novels and shaken, not stirred martinis, the Cold War never did heat up in Europe. Probably the most important part of the Cold War that people just don't remember these days is the nuclear arms race. Both sides developed nuclear arsenals, the Soviets initially with the help of spies who stole American secrets.