Cold War international history was not only the conflict among the United States and the Soviet Union and their allies at the governmental level,but also involved a considerable number of grassroots and nongovernmental organizations who played a variety of roles and exerted important influence on the development of the Cold War.The typical examples were Henry Mayers and his Cold War Council. In early 1961, Mayers and some likeminded people established the Cold War Council through which they were engaged in the socalled anticommunist expansion struggle. They carried out activities frequently, propagating communist expansion and the threat the United Stated was facing, urging American Government to take forceful measures to strengthen its overseas propaganda war. They kept a close contact with different nongovernmental organizations and congressmen at home, spurring on government actions together, particularly requesting the government to set up a Freedom Academy aiming to provide training to overseas propaganda fighters. Their activities won support and response of many grassroots and nongovernmental organizations, which intensified the Cold War atmosphere at home and broad. The appearance of Henry Mayers and his Cold War Council or “the Mayers Phenomenon” was a mirror of times, reflecting the intensity of the Cold War and strong anticommunist sentiment among American grassroots.The facts indicate that many grassroots and organizations were not the Cold War bystanders or passively involved in it, but active participators, powerful promoters and strong supporters instead. To a certain extent, they played a role that American Government could not play in the aspects of mobilizing American people and changing enemy countries’ ideology and so on, which helped to accelerate the end of the Cold War eventually.

Henry Mayers; Cold War Council; Freedom Academy; propaganda war;the history of the Cold War