Frank Sinatra, the CIA & a coup in post-war Italy
Reminder: You are ALWAYS being lied to
“I believe it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way.” — President Harry Truman spoke these words on March 12, 1947, as part of his “Truman Doctrine” speech.
Normies: “Russia has attacked a sovereign nation.”
Me: “The Ukrainian regime was put into place by a CIA coup in 2014.”
Normies: “That can’t be true! We ‘assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way’!”
Spoiler alert: The Land of the Free™ is not even remotely interested in spreading democracy. There is an abundance of evidence to back up this assertion. For now, I’ll offer the example of post-World War II Italy. Mussolini was gone but the U.S. elites had no intention of letting Italy slip through their greedy fingers.
When the war-weary Italian people went to the polls in 1946, the Italian Communist Party and the Socialist Party combined to gain more votes and more seats in the Constituent Assembly election than the U.S.-favored Christian Democrats. This was not surprising, considering that a worker- and peasant-based movement fought off six German divisions during the liberation of northern Italy… with aid from the Communist party.
As a 1948 election loomed on the horizon, however, the U.S. realized that certain perceptions of reality needed to be seriously altered. "It was at this point that the U.S. began to train its big economic and political guns upon the Italian people," historian William Blum explained in his essential book, Killing Hope. "All the good ol' Yankee know-how, all the Madison Avenue savvy in the art of swaying public opinion, all the Hollywood razzmatazz would be brought to bear on the 'target market'."
Downplaying the quite impressive anti-fascist credentials of the communists and the collaboration with Mussolini displayed by the Christian Democrats, the U.S. cleverly framed the battle around, what Blum calls "the question of 'democracy' vs. 'communism' (the idea of 'capitalism' remaining discreetly to one side)," and the most powerful election issue was that of U.S. aid.
The influential (and CIA-controlled) American media obediently did their part with the January 21, 1947 edition of the New York Times proclaiming, "Some observers here feel that a further Leftward swing in Italy would retard aid." By March 22, 1948, Time magazine was labeling a potential leftist victory in Italy to be nothing short of "the brink of catastrophe." As the election neared, the CIA pulled out all the stops. A few representative examples should offer an idea of the propaganda's scope and depth:
A letter-writing campaign from Italian-Americans to their friends and families in Italy was guided by "sample letters" provided by the U.S., that included such passages as: "A communist victory would ruin Italy. The United States would withdraw aid and a world war would probably result."
Short-wave broadcasts to Italy warned that "under a communist dictatorship in Italy," many of the "nation's industrial plants would be dismantled and shipped to Russia, and millions of Italy's workers would be deported to Russia for forced labor.”
To counter Communist charges in Italy that blacks in the United States were denied opportunities, the Voice of America (VOA) broadcast the story of a black couple who had made a fortune in the junk business and built a hospital for their people in Oklahoma City.
The stars of Hollywood, like Gary Cooper and Frank Sinatra, were called upon to make VOA radio broadcasts and/or engage in fundraisers for causes like "the orphans of Italian pilots who died in the war."
As for more direct aid, the CIA admitted to giving $1 million to Italian "center parties," although that figure was more like $10 million. In case all the funny stuff failed, the CIA also took the precaution of organizing Operation Gladio, a secret paramilitary group in Italy, "with hidden stockpiles of weapons and explosives dotting the map," says author Mark Zepezauer. While the rationale for such intervention was the always-handy "threat of Soviet invasion," Zepezauer reveals the actual purpose of Operation Gladio, e.g. its "15,000 troops were trained to overthrow the Italian government should it stray from the straight and narrow."
They needn't have bothered because, after the circus left town, the Christian Democrats stood as the clear winner with 48 percent of the vote. The future course of Italy had effectively been charted and this story was promptly shoved down the memory hole.
In order to believe the hype of whatever the latest “war” is today, you must actively choose to ignore history.
Mickey Z. is the founder of Helping Homeless Women - NYC, offering direct relief to women on New York City streets. To help him grow this project, CLICK HERE and donate right now. And please spread the word!