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led to a purge of all the radical elements in the unions and civil rights organisations.Conditions in America resembled not so much the 'free' society as the tyrannical one thatTruman had castigated. It was with this background that Hollywood's production of CivilWar films, and especially Civil War westerns, increased.The western had featured in Civil War films since 1937. However the 'west' of the westernwas a Hollywood creation with myths and traditions of its own. It was based on the frontiertheory of Frederick Jackson Turner who saw the frontier as 'free land' and the 'foundationof America's democratic institutions.' 53 The independent westerner became the trueAmerican with courage, skill, authority and an understanding of the country, a superiorindividual able to survive and overcome the savage wilderness. 54 In the words of ColonelDodge in Dodge City (1938), 'What the west stands for is honesty, courage, morality,culture.' In the west there are no shades of grey: it is good against evil, the wildernessagainst civilisation, the small man against big business. The western unrolled America'sManifest Destiny. 55 The white man had a natural right to the west and its resources but thatright had to be gained through hard work. This was America's way to greatness. Progresswas good and irreversible. The west created a national identity and the westernsdemonstrated America's cherished core values in their purest form - democracy, equality,individualism and progress.56The revival of the western - it too had declined during the war - fitted the age. 57 Americahad to defend and promote its free enterprise values. With Hollywood dominant across theworld, outside the Communist bloc, the movie industry was in a central position to do thisand Washington worked closely with Hollywood to promote America's ideology overseas.This also helped Hollywood's financial position. 58 It therefore combined a number ofqualities that were attractive to Hollywood. The western was a popular genre withcomparatively low production costs. The modest profit of westerns could keep the studiosrunning. Their plots were easily understood, with the 'good versus evil' theme and aHollywood romance. There was no difficulty in inserting a Cold War message into thestory, which would please Washington and possibly help to soften its anti-trust stance andhead off further attacks. Giving the western a Civil War setting had the advantage of68