The coming into being of the first elected Communist government in the world had also drawn the attention of US imperialism, which had embarked on a cold war against world communism. The US secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, said at a press conference in September 1957: “Local election victories by Communists in India and Indonesia are a dangerous trend. It is a dangerous trend whenever Communists move towards political control.”
Subsequently, the local antagonisms that led up to the so-called liberation struggle against Communist rule found ready support from the US. That the US provided funds to the Congress leadership for the struggle to topple the Communist ministry was confirmed later. A later American ambassador to India, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, in his memoir A Dangerous Place, confirmed that the CIA gave money to the Congress leadership on two occasions to fight the Communists—the first time for Kerala during the first Communist ministry and a second time in the 1960s for West Bengal.
