The war in Croatia was the second secessionist conflict in Yugoslavia, following the conflict in Slovenia. The Tudjman government portrayed the conflict to the United States as a war of democracy versus communism and good against evil. The Croatian ministry of information grew in size and the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party strengthened its influence over Croatian television, radio and print media. At the time, the Western media was based in Croatia, leaving them susceptible to being influenced by the Croatian government. In the summer of 1991, Croatia hired Ruder Finn whose services included communications with U.S. government representatives as well as the international news media, to bolster its public image. The strategy had included mobilising the 2.5 million Croats in the US to lobby their own representatives in Congress. The firm organized trips to Croatia by U.S. congressmen, combining the visits with videos of death and destruction. The dominant perspective in Western media and discourse remained that Serbian expansionism, not Croatian secessionism, caused the conflict. In London, Croatian representatives entered negotiations with lobbying firms, including Hill and Knowlton, offering 500,000 pounds for the creation of a media campaign to win official recognition and raise the profile of Croatia.