The United States and Italy, 1940–1950: The Politics and Diplomacy of Stabilization

373 Pages·1986·3.046 MB·English

by  James Edward Miller

THE
UNITED
STATES
AND
ITALY
1940-1950
THE POLITICS AND DIPLOMACY
OF STABILIZATION
JAMES EDWARD MILLER
The
United States
and Italy,
1940-1950

The
United States
and Italy,
1940-1950
The Politics and Diplomacy
of Stabilization

James Edward Miller

The University of North Carolina Press
Chapel Hill and London
© 1986 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Miller, James Edward.
The United States and Italy, 1940-1950.

Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
I. Reconstruction, 1939-1951-Italy.
2. United States-Foreign relations-Italy.
3. Italy-Foreign relations-United States.
4. United States-Foreign relations-20th
century. 5. Italy-Foreign relations-20th
century. I. Title
D829.18M55 1986 327.73045 85-10035
ISBN 0-8078-1673-6

Publication of this book has been aided
by the generosity of the National Italian
American Foundation.
Contents

Preface ix
Abbreviations in Text xv
Introduction: The Problem of Stabilization 3
Part I:Involvement
1. American Liberals and the Fascist Challenge, 1940-1943 11
The Fascist Challenge 12
Liberals and Fascism 16
The Anti-Fascist Coalition 24
American Antifascism at War, 1941-1943 28
2. The Politics of Surrender, January-October 1943 35
Roosevelt and Postwar Reconstruction 36
The State Department and Italy's Future 42
Mussolini's Fall and Its Impact 45
Armistice Politics 49
Sforza or Badoglio? 54
Defining American War Aims 62
Part II:Occupation
3. Allies at Odds, October 1943-June 1944 67
A Soviet Role in Italy? 68
Deadlock in Italy 77
Soviet Intervention 88
Compromise 92
vi CO N TENTS

4. A New Deal for Italy, June 1944-May 1945 96
Rome, at Last 96
Toward a New Deal 102
The Quebec Conference and a New Policy 110
Elaborating the New Policy 117

Part Ill:Reconstruction
5. Reconstruction: American Plans and Italian Realities, 1944 131
Building Italian Democracy 131
Italy's Role in the International Order 145
Economic Relief 150
6. Italy and American Hegemony, 1945 154
Containing the Left 155
The Prospects for Peace 162
Testing the Economics of Free Trade 176
The Italy Lobby 185
7. The Reconstruction Stalls, 1946 188
Completing Italy's Political Reconstruction 189
A Peace through Compromise 193
Economic Stagnation 205
Part IV: Stablllzatlon
8. Crisis and Intervention: The Reorientation of American Policy,
January 1947-April 1948 213
Elements of the Crisis 214
The De Gasperi Visit 215
The Ratification Fight 219
A Military or Economic Response? 223
The Fall Crisis 235
Intervention 243
CONTE NTS vii
9. Stabilization: The Triumph of the Conservatives 250
The Marshall Plan-Italian Style 251
Reorganizing Italian Labor 255
Splintering the Italian Socialist Party 263
NATO and the Polarization of Italian Politics 266
Conclusion: Toward an "Historic Compromise"? 272
Abbreviations in Notes 275
Notes 279
Selected Bibliography 325
Index 345

Preface

On Monday, 4 April 1949, the foreign ministers of eleven
nations met in the ornate Departmental Auditorium on Constitution Avenue in
Washington, D.C., to sign the North Atlantic Treaty. President Harry Truman
and Secretary of State Dean Acheson made opening remarks that stressed the
defensive nature of the new pact. Each of the European foreign ministers then
rose to reply. Count Carlo Sforza, Italy's foreign minister, spoke midway
through the program. For Sforza personally and for Italy, this was a moment of
the greatest significance.
Sforza was the living embodiment of Italy's newly forged ties with the
United States. In July 1940, he arrived in the United States as a refugee from
fascism, seeking an American commitment that Italy would have a free post­
war choice of its government institutions and would retain its national sover­
eignty and boundaries. Two years later, in the same Departmental Auditorium,
Sforza's efforts bore concrete fruit when Acheson publicly committed the
United States to a significant role in Italy's postwar reconstruction. As the
leader of the Italian exile movement in the United States and later as a
spokesman for moderate antifascism in liberated Italy, Sforza was closely
identified with the introduction of American power into Italy. After the war, as
foreign minister, Sforza was a leading spokesman for Italian participation in
the Marshall Plan, European Union, and Atlantic Alliance. With the signing of
the treaty, Sforza had an American commitment to defend Italy against foreign
attack. Meanwhile, Marshall Plan aid flowed into his nation to shore up its
economy and defeat the threat of internal assaults on Italian democracy. Italy
and the United States were linked in a partnership that has lasted ever since.
Not all of Sforza's countrymen shared his enthusiasm for the new partner­
ship. The Italian government's decision to join the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization provoked one of the most heated debates of the postwar era. The
major opposition parties of the left, Communist and Socialist, many members
of the ruling Christian Democratic majority, together with thoughtful leaders

Ix