ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how European apprehensions about McCarthyism and the international situation inevitably found their way into the Bilderberg discussions, underlining the highly emotional nature of the transatlantic relationship. Hotel De Bilderberg was a medium-sized, family-run hotel, mainly chosen for its quiet and remote location in the forests of the eastern Netherlands. It was not a particularly fancy hotel – old curtains had to be used as tablecloths in the conference room – but security was relatively easy to maintain since there was only one access road. In terms of practical arrangements, Paul Rijkens made available a team of Unilever employees that prepared the conference and staffed the eight-person conference secretariat. Representatives of the European democratic Left criticized the American reaction to communism and emphasized social progress as the best method to combat the communist parties in Western Europe.
