In 1948 the United States initiated the Marshall Plan of aid to assist in the rebuilding of Europe, Allies and Axis countries alike – except for the Soviet Union, which refused to participate, and its Eastern European satellites, which were blocked from receiving aid by the Soviets. The Plan was in many ways similar to what Keynes had proposed at Versailles after World War I. As Keynes predicted, reparations and war debts were paid for by loans from the US, leaving no one better off.