As the last month of the election campaign began, Time magazine published an article which argued that an FDP victory would push Italy to "the brink of catastrophe".

[2] The U.S. consequently intervened in the election by heavily funding the centrist coalition led by Christian Democracy (DC) and launching an anti-communist propaganda campaign in Italy.

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) claims that the Soviet Union responded by sending exorbitant funds to the FDP coalition.

"[7] The FDP campaign focused on living standards and avoided embarrassing questions of foreign policy, such as UN membership (vetoed by the Soviet Union) and Yugoslav control of Trieste, or losing American financial and food aid.

The PCI led the FDP coalition and had effectively marginalised the PSI, which suffered loss in terms of parliamentary seats and political power.

[f] The PSI had also been hurt by the secession of a social-democratic faction led by Giuseppe Saragat, which contested the election with the concurrent list of Socialist Unity.

The areas affected by the violence (the so-called "Red Triangle" of Emilia, or parts of Liguria around Genoa and Savona, for instance) had previously seen episodes of brutality committed by the Fascists during Benito Mussolini's regime and the Italian Resistance during the Allied advance through Italy.

[13] The National Security Act of 1947, that made foreign covert operations possible, had been signed into law about six months earlier by the American President Harry S. Truman.

U.S. agencies also sent ten million letters, made numerous short-wave radio broadcasts, and funded the publishing of books and articles, all of which warned Italians of the "consequences" of a communist victory.

[17] Italian historian Alessandro Brogi dismisses the CIA's claims as "overexaggerated" and notes that the Soviets only undertook "ad hoc last minute diplomatic [and] financial action" because it feared that inaction in Italy would set a precedent for U.S. intervention in Eastern Europe.

That was partly because of Italians' traditional bent for conservatism and, even more importantly, the Cold War, with the U.S. closely watching Italy, in their determination to maintain a vital NATO presence amidst the Mediterranean and retain the Yalta-agreed status quo in western Europe.