ABSTRACT
The ideological campaign which Harry S. Truman led rapidly expanded to involve millions of people. The competitive scare-mongering of anti-communism which the political elite indulged in, and in which the Republican Party excelled, legitimated and fuelled organised efforts to seize the agenda and turn it down routes which attacked the elites themselves. The growth of television – 86 per cent of American homes owned one by 1959 – assisted the dissemination of the official line as network news divisions were enlisted to support the cause as early as 1948. The USA has more voluntary associations of every kind than any other political system, partly because the federal structure of political institutions provides so many points of access for pressure groups and special causes wishing to influence policy. Advocacy of a more militant, militarist nationalism in combat with international communism was justified by mainstream politicians, while opposition to Civil Rights was mainstream thinking on the Right of American politics.
