Quick questions on The Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan explained: N(A)-Level History

The Truman Doctrine, named after the American president, was a promise that the United States would support countries that were threatened by communism. The president argued that the world was divided into free nations and those under the control of dictatorships, and that America had a duty to help the free ones resist. Under this doctrine, the United States offered money, supplies and support to countries in danger of falling to communism. The aim was clear: to stop weak or threatened countries from being taken over by communists.

The Marshall Plan was the economic side of containment. After the war, much of Europe was in ruins, with destroyed cities, shortages of food, and widespread poverty. The United States feared that this poverty and despair would make communism attractive, because desperate people might turn to it for answers. So under the Marshall Plan, the United States offered huge amounts of money to help European countries rebuild their economies.

The Soviet Union saw the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan as hostile acts aimed against it. Stalin viewed the Marshall Plan not as generosity but as a trick to spread American influence and to pull European countries into an anti-Soviet camp. He refused the aid for the Soviet Union and forbade the countries of Eastern Europe under his control from taking it, even though they badly needed help. This deepened the divide in Europe, with the West accepting American aid and the East cut off from it, hardening the split that defined the Cold War.

Explain why poverty helped communism and how the plans were meant to remove that, rather than just listing what they were.