U.S. expenditure on foreign grant programs 1945-1988

For foreign grant programs ending between 1946 and 1988, the United States spent a combined total of 10.85 billion U.S. dollars (91.76 billion FY2018 dollars). The largest share of this total went to the GARIOA program, which provided relief to areas that had been occupied by the U.S. after the Second World War, most notably Germany, Austria, and Japan, as well as South Korea, the Philippines and other Asian and Pacific areas. Of the grants, around 1.5 billion U.S. dollars went to Germany and Austria, while 2.24 billion was allocated across Asia and the Pacific. This program also saw Germany receive 800 million dollars in the form of a loan.

UNRRA

The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency (UNRRA), as well as its associated and successor programs, received the second-largest share of these grants, with the U.S. contributing almost 2.75 billion dollars (almost three quarters of the program's total funding) between 1946 and 1948. This was one of the first major programs of the newly-formed UN, although U.S. involvement in this program was largely replaced by the Marshall Plan in 1948. Over 750 million dollars was also distributed across Oceania between the 1950s and 1970s, as part of the region's development and support.

The above programs were major, international undertakings, often spread across continents. For more country-specific programs, the largest was related to the Philippines, which became independent from the U.S. in 1946, and included the transfer of U.S. assets and aid to the fledgling nation. In terms of the Cold War, large sums were also allocated to civilian relief during and after the Korean War, and 280 million was spent on assisting refugees from the Soviet Union between 1973 and 1982.