¹ For a general overview of the problem of Italian foreign policy after the Second World War, see Ennio Di Nolfo, Rainero, Romain and Vigezzi, Brunello, eds., L'Italia e la politico di potenza in Europa, 1945–1950 (Milan: Marzorati, 1987)Google Scholar; Di Nolfo, Ennio, ed., The Atlantic Pact Forty Years Later: A Historical Reappraisal (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1991)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Pastorelli, Pietro, La politica estera italiana del dopoguerra (Bologna: II Mulino, 1986).Google Scholar For some specific articles see, among others, Nuti, Leopoldo, ‘La missione Marras, 2–22 dicembre 1948’ in Storia delle Relazioni Intemazionali, Vol. III, No. 2 (1987), 343–68Google Scholar; Smith, E. Timothy, ‘The Fear of Subversion: The United States and the Inclusion of Italy in the North Atlantic Treaty’, Diplomatic History, Vol. VII (1983), 139–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Toscano, Mario, ‘Appunti sui negoziati per la partcipazione italiana al Patto Atlantico’, in Toscano, M., ed., Pagine di storia diplomatica contemporanea Vol. II, Origini e vicende della seconda guerra mondiale (Milan: Giufrè, 1963), 455–519Google Scholar; Varsori, Antonio, ‘La scelta occidentale dell'Italia, 1948–1949’, Storia delle Relazioni Intemazionali, Vol. 1 (1985), 95–159 and 303–68.Google Scholar

² For a summary of the different positions, see Vigezzi, Brunello, ‘De Gasperi, Sforza, la diplomazia italiana e la politica di potenza dal trattato di pace al Patto atlantico’, in Nolfo, Di, Rainero, and Vigezzi, , L'Italia e la politica, 3–57.Google Scholar

³ Sherwood, Elisabeth D., Allies in Crisis: Meeting Global Challenges to Western Security (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁴ For John Hickerson's views, see for instance his Decision Memorandum to the Secretary of State, 11 February 1949, in NAW, RG 59, 840.20/2–1149, as cited by Sherwood, , Allies in Crisis, 20.Google Scholar On Hickerson's role, see Smith, , ‘The Fear of Subversion’, 139–55.Google Scholar On the overall domestic consequences of the inclusion, see Vannicelli, Primo, Italy, NATO and the European Community (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974).Google Scholar

⁵ Nenni, Pietro, Tempo di guerra fredda: Diari, 1943–1956 (Milan: Sugarco, 1981), 480–1.Google Scholar

⁶ Ardia, Danilo, Il partito socialista e il patto atlantico (Milan: Angeli, 1976).Google Scholar

⁷ Formigoni, Guido, ‘La sinistra cattolica italiana e il patto adantico (1948–1949)’, in Bariè, Ottavio ed., L'alleanza occidentale. Nascita e sinluppi di un sistema di sicurezza collettivo (Bologna: II Mulino, 1988), 261–330.Google Scholar

⁸ Italian historian Pietro Scoppola believes that such a development was almost a foregone conclusion after the failure of De Gasperi's attempt in 1953 to modify the Italian electoral system: Scoppola, Pietro, La repubblica dei partiti: Profilo storico delta democrazia in Italia, 1945–1990 (Bologna: Il Mulino, 1991), 320.Google Scholar

⁹ For an overview of US policy towards Italy in the 1950s and 60s, see among others Brogi, Alessandro, L'Italia e l'egemonia americana nel Mediterraneo (Florence: La Nuova Italia, 1996)Google Scholar; Di Scala, Spencer M., Renewing Italian Socialism. Nenni to Craxi (New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989)Google Scholar; Margiocco, Mario, Stati Uniti e PCI, 1943–1980 (Bari: Laterza, 1981)Google Scholar; Nuti, Leopoldo, ‘L'administration Kennedy et sa politique italienne: un ‘test case’ du processus de décision dans la politique étrangère des États-Unis’, in Relations Internationales, Vol. LXXXIV (winter 1995)Google Scholar, and ‘I socialist o i missili? La politica estera dell'amministrazione Kennedy e l'Italia’, in Italia Contemporanea, Vol. CCIV (1996)Google Scholar; Platt, Alan Arthur, US Policy toward the ‘Opening to the Left’ in Italy. (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1973)Google Scholar; Wollemborg, Leo, Stars, Stripes and Italian Tricolor (New York: Praeger, 1991).Google Scholar

¹⁰ For Italian concern over the strategic implications of the treaty, see the intervention of the Italian Foreign Minister, Martino, at the North Atlantic Council meeting of 9 May 1955, in Telegram from the United States Delegation at the North Atlantic Council Ministerial Meeting to the Department of State, 10 May 1955 in Foreign Relations of the United States (from now on, FRUS) 1955–1957, Vol. IV, Western European Security and Integration, 10–14.

¹¹ Memoria: Programma Off-Shore per l'esercizio finanziario 1955–1956, in Archivio dell'Ufficio Storico Stato Maggiore Esercito (AUSSME), 1–5, Carteggio Classificato Ufficio Operazioni.

¹² Diario Storico SMD, 6 July 1955, AUSSME. The transfer was announced by a SHAPE communiqué on 27 July 1955: Deputati, Camera dei II, Legislature, Atti Parlamentari. Discussioni dal 26 ottobre al 15 dicembre 1955 (Roma: Tipografia della Camera, 1958), 22031.Google Scholar

¹³ Promemoria: Dislocazione in Italia del connngente USA proveniente dall'Austria, in AUSSME, 1–5, Carteggio classificato Ufficio Operazioni, 1955.

¹⁴ Prince Löwenstein, Hubertus zu and von Zuhlsdorff, Volkmar, NATO and the Defense of the West (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press Publishers, 1975 [reprint of the original 1957 edition]), 278–82.Google Scholar In early August the Italian Defence Staff was provided with secret information about both Honest John and Corporal, which might imply that SETAF was already equipped with both missiles: AUSSME, Diario Storico SMD, 1 August 1955.

¹⁵ A similar point had been made about the US forces of occupation in Trieste as early as 1947, when the Joint Chiefs of Staff declared the presence of Allied troops in Trieste as ‘at least in some degree a stabilising influence on Italy and France and a deterrent to Communist penetration into Italy and to Communist covert operations’: US Military Assistance to Italy. Report by die US Army Survey Group to Italy, 13 October 1947, in NAW, RG 319, P and O 091 Italy TS (Oct 13, 1947), Sec. 1, Case 1, Part 1.

¹⁶ Foreign Service Despatch no. 775 from Rome (Luce) to the Department of State, ‘Conversation with Minister of Defense Paolo Emilio Taviani’, 17 October 1955, in NAW, RG 59, Central decimal files 1955–1959, 765.00/7–2255, box 3603.

¹⁷ Italian Minister of Defence (Taviani) to the US Secretary of State (Wilson), 11 January 1957, in NAW, RG 59, Central Decimal Files 1955–1959, box 2539, TAB A to 611.65/2–1457. A similar comment was attributed by the US embassy to Prime Minister Segni, who reportedly would have been glad to have as many as ten US divisions in Italy: Foreign Service dispatch # 996, ‘Request by Minister of Defence for Increase in US forces Stationed in Italy’, 21 January 1957, in NAW, RG 59, Central Decimal Files, box 3620, f. 765.5–MSP/1–257, 765.5–MSP/1–257.

¹⁸ On this point see Nuti, Leopoldo, ‘US Forces in Italy, 1955–1963’, in Krieger, Wolfgang, ed., US Forces in Europe: The Early Years (Boulder, Colorado: Westview, 1994).Google Scholar

¹⁹ The Ambassador in Rome (Reinhardt) to the Secretary of State (No. 3343, section one of three), 25 June 1962, in JFK Library, NSF Countries: Italy, box 120, folder Italy General, 6/6/62–6/30/62.

²⁰ On the Jupiter missiles in Italy, see my ‘L'ltalie et le missiles Jupiter’, in Vaisse, Maurice ed., L'Europe et la Crise de Cuba (Paris: Armand Colin, 1993)Google Scholar, and ‘Dall'operazione Deep Rock all'operazione Pot Pie: una storia documentata dei missili SM 78 Jupiter in Italia’, Storia delle Relazioni Intemazionali, Vol. XI/XII, no. 1 and no. 2 (1996/1997).Google Scholar For an overall treatment of the Jupiters, see Nash, Phil, The Other Missiles of October. Eisenhower, Kennedy and the Jupiters (Chapel Hill: North Carolina University Press, 1997).Google Scholar

²¹ The White House was informed by Manzini, Fanfani's chef de cabinet, via Allen Dulles (the brother of Foster Dulles and since 1953 Director of the Central Intelligence Agency) of the Italian PM's desire to settle the IRBMs issue in a most intimate colloquium: Telephone call to Allen Dulles, 29 July 1958, in Dulles, Foster papers, Minutes of Telephone Conversations of JFD and Christian Herter (1953–1961), reel 7 of 11 (Frederick, MD: Univ. Pub. of America).Google Scholar Memorandum of conversation, July 30, 1958, in Foreign Relations of the US (hereafter FRUS), 1958–1960 Vol. VII Part 2, Western Europe (Washington: US Govt. Printing Office, 1993), 473.Google Scholar

²² For the talk with Eisenhower, see State (Dulles) to Paris (tel. 413), 30 July 1958, in NAW, RG 59, 711.56365/7–3058, b.2906. See also State Memorandum on IRBM agreement with Italy, from EUR/RA Robert H. McBride to L/SFP Mr Yingling, August 7, 1958, in NAW, RG 59, 765.5611/8–758, b. 3622.

²³ Nuti, Leopoldo, ‘Dall'operazione Deep Rock all'operazione Pot Pie’, 144–5.Google Scholar

²⁴ ibid., Needless, to say, the Socialists were on the contrary quite pleased with the news of the missile withdrawal.

²⁵ ‘New Edge to Italy's Foreign Policy’, The Times, 31 January 1963, 13.

²⁶ Memorandum for Governor Harriman from George Lister, ‘Recommendations for Action in Italian Affairs’, 5 December 1963 in Library of Congress Manuscript Division, W. A. Harriman Papers, box 15 cl.; Memorandum to Governor Harriman from George Lister, ‘Visit of Segni and Saragat’, 9 January 1964, in Library of Congress Manuscript Division, Harriman Papers, Subject File, box 484, f. Lister, George. I wish to thank Mrs Audrey A. Walker of the Library of Congress for her precious help in obtaining the declassification of these two documents.

²⁷ Riccardo Lombardi a P. Nenni, 2 November 1963, in ACS, Archivio P. Nenni, Serie C. 1944–1979, b. 30, f. lettere di Lombardi, Riccardo; e di Giovanni Pieraccini a P. Nenni, 15 novembre 1963, ibid., b.36, fasc.1731, lettere di Pieraccini, Giovanni. In the first letter Lombardi, according to some information received from the DC, excluded any further postponement of the creation of the MLF, while the second letter stated the exact opposite. See also the two letters from Altiero Spinelli to P. Nenni, 8 November and 14 November 1963, in Archivio Storico della Comunità Europea, Fondo Spinelli, DEP-I-58. On this issue see also Wollemborg, Stelle, strisce e tricolore 175–6.

²⁸ On the PCI's strategy in the 1970s, see Amyot, Grant, The Italian Communist Party: the Crisis of the Popular Front Strategy (New York: St Martin's Press, 1981)Google Scholar; Sassoon, Donald, The strategy of the Italian Communist Party: from the resistance to the historic compromise (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1981)Google Scholar; Serfaty, Simon and Gray, Lawrence, eds., The Italian Communist Party: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1980)Google Scholar; on the US perspective on the ‘historic compromise’, see the Memoirs of Brzezinski, Zbigniew, Power and Principle: Memoirs of the National Security Adviser, 1977–1981 (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1983)Google Scholar; Njølstad, Olaf, Peacekeeper and Troublemaker. The Containment Policy of Jimmy Carter, 1977–1978 (Oslo: Institute for Defence Studies, 1995), ch. 3, ‘The Threat of Eurocommunism: Italy’; Wollemborg, Stars, Stripes and Italian Tricolor.Google Scholar

²⁹ For an overall treatment of this period of Italian history, see Craveri, Piero, La repubblica dal 1958 al 1992, in Storia d'Italia dall'Unità alla fine della Prima repubblica. Vol. V (Turin: UTET, 1995)Google Scholar. For an interesting insight on how the US embassy viewed this phase of Italian politics, see the memoirs by one of the protagonists, Clarridge, Duane, A Spy for All Seasons. My Life in the CIA (New York: Scribner, 1997), ch. 10, ‘Rome, 1979–1981’.Google Scholar

³⁰ On Lagorio's foreign policy, see Cremasco, Maurizio, ‘Italy: A New Role in the Mediterranean?’ in Chipman, John, ed., NATO's Southern Allies: Internal and External Challenges (London: Routledge, 1988)Google Scholar; Sherwoood, , Allies in Crisis, 171.Google Scholar

³¹ On the dual-track decision, see Smith, Gaddis, ‘The Dual Track Decision and Its Consequences’, in Kaplan, Lawrence S., ed., American Historians and the Atlantic Alliance (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1991), 116–35.Google Scholar

³² Cremasco, M., ‘Italy: A New Role’, 206–7Google Scholar; see also Ilari, Virgilio, Storia militare della seconda repubblica 1943–1993 (Ancona: Nuove Ricerche, 1993), 404–5.Google Scholar

³³ Ferraris, Luigi Vittorio, ed., Manuale della politica estera italiana 1947–1973 (Bari: Laterza, 1996), 351.Google Scholar

³⁴ Cremasco, M., ‘Italy: A New Role’, 207.Google Scholar

³⁵ Beginning in 1959, ENI had entered several barter agreements with the Soviet government for the exportation of Soviet oil to Italy at a very low price in return for ENI's sale of a wide array of manufactured products, ranging from ball-bearings to pipelines and including five tankers, which remarkably improved Soviet export capacity. ‘The World Petroleum Outlook’, INR Report no. 8479, 9 June 1961 (document released through the FOIA).

³⁶ For the documentation on this episode, see John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Papers of J. F. Kennedy, National Security Files, Regional Security, f. Pipe embargo, box 223.

³⁷ Kaplan, Lawrence S., NATO and the United States. The Enduring Alliance (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1988), 160–1.Google Scholar

³⁸ Ilari, , Storia militare, 541–2.Google Scholar For the allegations, see for instance Willan, Philip, Puppetmasters. The Political Use of Terrorism in Italy (London: Constable, 1991), ch. 8, ‘Operation Gladio’.Google Scholar

³⁹ Willan, , Puppetmasters, ch. 8, ‘The Coup Season’.Google Scholar For the most recent example, see Biondani, Paolo, ‘Stragi decise in USA, Rumor sapeva’, Corriere della Sera, 11 February 1997, 14.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Rumours about a military coup were collected by SETAF as early as 1958: Report Number R-350–59, ‘Political Activities Involving Military Personnel’, 9 April 1959, in National Archives Washington, Record Group 319, ACSI, Reports from the Military Attaché (Document released through the FOIA); a subsequent example of the same kind can be found in Incoming telegram P-4–480, 28 June 1964, in Declassified document research system (DDRS), 1992/1394.

⁴¹ Cf. Vasconcelos, Alvaro, ‘Portuguese Defence Policy: Internal Politics and Defence Commitments’, in Chipman, , NATO's Southern Allies, 101.Google Scholar

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