Cold War history in Italy

Abstract

The article aims at reviewing the historical production on the Cold War in Italy (both research and teaching activities). Some preliminary remarks deal with the Italian university system and the role some historical disciplines, especially the history of international relations, play in such a context. In Italy, historical studies on the Cold War had their origins in the 1970s mainly as a consequence of both the availability of US records and of the interpretations developed by US revisionist historians. In an early stage, Italian historians' attention focused on Italy's involvement in the Cold War and US policy towards Italy; some interpretations were influenced by the domestic political debate that characterized the 1970s. During the 1980s, owing to the development of Cold War studies in other western European nations and of growing contacts between Italian scholars and foreign historians, Italian historians' attention focused, not only on the Italian case, but also on various aspects of the Cold War history that led to the analyses of wider topics and to extensive research in foreign archives. After the end of the Cold War, there have been relevant changes in the approaches to the study of the Cold War developed by Italian scholars. Some historians went on focusing their attention on wider Cold War themes following the opening of archives; others shifted their attention to topics related to other historical areas, such as the history of the European integration or the history of the international organizations, although the Cold War was regarded as a useful background. The most interesting and innovative results have been offered through more sophisticated and complex analyses and interpretations of Italy's role in the Cold War, that, however, mainly for linguistic reasons, have scant impact on Cold War historiography. Inspite of that, historical production on the Cold War seems to experience a positive season that is characterized by new research projects, some interesting contributions and a lively debate that involves historians from different backgrounds.

Notes

Antonio Varsori is full Professor of History of International Relations and Jean Monnet Professor of History of European Integration at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Padua. He has published extensively on Italy's foreign policy, the Cold War, the European integration process and Britain's post-war foreign policy. He is completing a volume on Italy's European policy and he is pursuing research on the West and Greece from the colonels' régime to the restorarion of democracy. Moreover he is heading a national research project on Europe in the international system during the 1970s.

 [1] The two most important institutes in Italy that deal with international relations are the Istituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale (ISPI), located in Milan and founded during the Fascist period and the Istituto Affari Internazionali, located in Rome and founded in the 1960s by the federalist leader Altiero Spinelli. The activities of both institutes mainly deal with ‘current affairs’. The Società Italiana per l'Organizzazione Internazionale (SIOI) is mainly interested in International Law. There are very few autonomous historical institutes, such as the Istituto storico italiano per l'età moderna e contemporanea (Rome) but their interest mainly focuses on modern and contemporary Italian history and most of them have experienced serious financial and organizational problems.

 [2] Those grants (PRIN or research projects of national interest) are usually given by the ministry to research units composed of scholars from different universities. Only in the 1980s was the university system detached from the Ministry for Public Education, whose activities ranged from the prep school to the University. Another source of public finance was the National Research Council (CNR), which, however, during the last few years has been negatively influenced by organizational difficulties and lack of financial resources.

 [3] In the immediate post-war period the faculties of political science were perceived as a ‘creation’ of the Fascist regime, as it was the Fascist government's intention that those faculties would aim at creating both a Fascist ruling elite and top civil servants, especially diplomats and colonial administrators, loyal to the regime. On the origins and development of the faculties of political sciences to the reform of their structure in the late 1960s see for example Lotti and Pasquino, Guida alla Facoltà di Scienze Politiche. The structure of the faculties of political science did not change till the recent implementation of the Bologna process in whose context degree courses have become more relevant. In the Italian university system faculties are in charge of teaching, departments deal with research.

 [4] Mario Toscano is regarded as the founder of Italy's diplomatic history, he played an influential role at the Italian Foreign Ministry in the post-war period and his memoranda may be found in the Foreign Ministry archives. He was the author of several important works on Italy's foreign policy; some of them, although of a scholarly character, were obviously tied to his role as an adviser of the ministry, see for example Toscano, Storia diplomatica della questione d'Alto Adige.

 [5] Ettore Anchieri was professor at the University of Pavia and at the University of Padua, Federico Curato at the University of Pavia, Giuseppe Vedovato at the University of Rome, Rodolfo Mosca at the University of Florence – most of these retired in the 1960s/70s; Gian Lucà André completed his career as professor at the University of Rome, Pietro Pastorelli at the University of Rome, Fulvio D'Amoja at the University of Perugia, Ennio Di Nolfo at University of Florence – most of these have just retired. It must be remembered that all those academics could retire at 75.

 [6] Every Italian academic belongs to a definite study area (‘settore scientifico disciplinare’), that is defined on a national level. The main areas dealing with historical disciplines which are relevant to Cold War studies are: history of international relations; history of the Americas; history of eastern Europe; and contemporary history. To the ‘history of international relations’ group belong 66 scholars, divided into lecturers (‘ricercatori’), associate professors and full professors (528 scholars are recorded for ‘contemporary history’, 42 for ‘history of eastern Europe’, 37 for ‘history of the Americas’). Most historians of international relations are members of faculties of political science; see the official website: http://www.MIUR.it. Nowadays on the basis of the so-called Bologna process ‘History of International Relations’ is a compulsory discipline in the context of both the first level degree course (‘laurea’) of ‘Political Sciences and International Relations’ and the second level Master course (‘laurea magistrale’) of ‘International Studies’. Those courses, although their names may differ, are usually implemented by the faculties of political science. Especially at the first level the courses of ‘History of International Relations’ deal with diplomatic history from the Versailles Treaty to the end of the Cold War. During the 1970s and the 1980s the most widespread textbook was the Italian translation of a French textbook by J.-B. Duroselle. Later on volumes by E. Di Nolfo were largely utilized, although there are also other textbooks, such as the Italian translation of Kissinger, Diplomacy, a volume by G. Formigoni, the Italian translation of a volume by W. Keylor, etc.

 [7] The Italian Foreign Ministry, like other Foreign Ministries, is the editor of a huge and well-known collection of diplomatic documents, I Documenti Diplomatici Italiani. This collection is of much relevance for any study dealing with the period from the Risorgimento to the Second World War. Only very recently have some volumes begun to deal with the post-war period and the most recent volume covers the period from mid-1948 to mid-1949.

 [8] See for example Di Nolfo, Mussolini; Rumi, Alle origini; Carocci, La politica estera dell'Italia fascista dal 1925 al 1928.

 [9] See De Felice, Mussolini il duce, vol. 1.

[10] The situation had been different as far as the social sciences (i.e. sociology and political science) were concerned. It is of some relevance that among the early contributions on Italy's international position in the Cold War years there was the study by a US scholar, Kogan, The Politics; the volume was translated into Italian in 1965.

[11] See Alperowitz, Un asso nella manica and Kolko and Kolko, I limiti della potenza americana. It is of some interest to notice that both volumes were published by the Einaudi publishing house, which at that time was very near to the Italian Communist Party.

[12] Besides the US and British archival records the publication of the volumes in the Foreign Relations of the United States series, as well as the publication of the official history of British foreign policy in the Second World War by Llewellyn Woodward stimulated a strong interest among Italian historians.

[13] David Ellwood is currently associate professor of History of International Relations at the University of Bologna and John Harper teaches at the Bologna Center of the Johns Hopkins University.

[14] From 1974 Italia contemporanea, previously Rivista di Storia del Movimento di Liberazione in Italia (1949–74) was edited by the Istituto Italiano per la Storia del Movimento di Liberazione in Italia (Milan) and was very near to the left-wing parties, while the editor of Storia contemporanea was Renzo De Felice and the journal was published by the well-known publishing house il Mulino.

[15] Faenza and Fini, Gli americani in Italia. As a consequence of the 1976 general elections the PCI seemed to be destined to become part of a coalition government. Such a possibility was perceived as a real threat by most western leaders and led to official warnings by the Ford administration. The US statements were at the origins of a thorny political debate in Italy that lasted till the late 1970s also owing to further statements by the Carter administration, see for example Gardner, Mission: Italy.

[16] Gambino, Storia del dopoguerra. Gambino's work was of some interest and had a partially scholarly character. In the early 1970s Gambino had published a short history of Europe in the Cold War; see Gambino, Le conseguenze della seconda guerra mondiale.

[17] See in particular Di Nolfo, Vaticano e Stati Uniti 1939–1952 (Di Nolfo's volume was reprinted a few years ago with a CD containing 400 documents from the Myron Taylor papers, see Di Nolfo, Dear Pope); Aga Rossi, ‘La politica degli Alleati’; Aga Rossi, Operation Sunrise; Ellwood, L'alleato nemico; Varsori, Gli Alleati e l'emigrazione democratica antifascista; Arcidiacono, Le ‘précedent italien’ et les origins de la guerre froide; Mercuri, 1943–1945. Gli Alleati e l'Italia; Aga Rossi, Il Piano Marshall e l'Europa; Varsori, ‘La Gran Bretagna e le elezioni politiche italiane’; Miller, ‘Taking Off the Gloves’.

[18] See for example Di Nolfo, Italia e Stati Uniti; Galante, La politica del PCI e il Patto Atlantico, Ardia, Il Partito Socialista e il Patto Atlantico. There was some interest also in cultural aspects, see in particular , Hollywood-Washington and La lista nera a Hollywood.

[19] Until the mid-1980s in the Italian university system a ‘doctorate’ was awarded at the end of a four to five year university curriculum and the final dissertation could be in some cases a work not too far from a Ph.D. dissertation. When they started, the Ph.D. (‘dottorato di ricerca’) courses could be based at a single university and the teaching staff could belong to that university or could be based at a single university but other universities or academics from other universities could join. The number of Ph.D. posts was – and is – very limited – no more than three or four posts every year – as doctoral students are awarded a grant. Candidates for a Ph.D. have to pass written exams and an interview and they have to complete their work in three years. A postponement of only one year without grant is envisaged. The Ph.D. is awarded on the basis of the discussion of the dissertation. The nature of the Ph.D. courses is now changing with an attempt at creating synergies among different universities or among various disciplines.

[20] For some examples of the Rome ‘school's’ historical production see Scarano, Mussolini; Riccardi, Alleati; Monzali, L'Etiopia.

[21] The issue of decline was of fundamental relevance in one of the most important works by Duroselle, La décadence.

[22] Becker and Knipping, Power in Europe?; Di Nolfo, Power in Europe, vol. 2. Actually a fourth conference was held in London, see Dockrill, Europe Within the Global System 1938–1960.

[23] et al., L'Italia e la politica di potenza in Europa (1938–40); Di Nolfo et al., L'Italia e la politica di potenza in Europa (1945–50); Di Nolfo et al., L'Italia e la politica di potenza in Europa (1950–60).

[24] See Girault, Etre historien des relations internationales.

[25] See ibid., 333–353.

[26] In the 1990s René Girault launched a new international research project on the ‘European identy’; see the international proceedings: Girault, Identité et conscience européenne. Later on similar initiatives have been launched by Robert Frank and Gérard Bossuat; see Frank, Les identités européennes au XX siècle.

[27] On some evaluation of the role of the European Commission as a boost to the development of the history of the European integration in the EU university system see for example Varsori, ‘La storiografia’.

[28] For example some Italian historians who had taken part in the ‘perception of power politics’ project joined Girault's project on the ‘European identity’; they set up some research units and edited some volumes; see Petricioli and Varsori, The Seas as Europe's External Borders; Tosi, Europe, Its Borders and the Others; Benzoni and Vigezzi, Storia e storici d'Europa.

[29] The two most obvious references are: Milward, The Reconstruction of Western Europe; Milward, the European Rescue of the Nation State. In the early 1990s Milward came back to the LSE, but a few years later he returned to the post at the EUI where he stayed until his retirement. For a few years both Romero and Ranieri had research grants at the LSE.

[30] See for example the contributions by R. Ranieri and F. Romero in Milward et al., The frontier of National Sovereignty; Romero, Gli Stati Uniti e il sindacalismo.

[31] Nuti, L'esercito italiano; Sebesta, L'Europa indifesa; Poggiolini, Diplomazia della transizione.

[32] See in particular Miller, The United States and Italy; Harper, America and the Reconstruction of Italy.

[33] See Varsori, Il Patto di Bruxelles (1948).

[34] Di Nolfo, The Atlantic Pact Forty Years Later.

[35] Vigezzi, La dimensione atlantica; Bariè, L'alleanza occidentale. See also Breccia, L'Italia e la difesa dell'Europa; Varsori, ‘La scelta occidentale’.

[36] De Leonardis, La Gran Bretagna e la resistenza. De Leonardis published also some well-documented articles on British policy towards the Italian monarchy between 1943 and 1946. Some studies were the outcome of the activities of the French-Italian Historical Committee chaired by E. Serra and J.-B. Duroselle, see for example Duroselle and Serra, Italia e Francia.

[37] Aga Rossi, Una nazione allo sbando. In her volume Elena Aga Rossi was very critical of the alleged short-sighted policy pursued by the western allies towards Italy. See also Aga Rossi, L'Italia nella sconfitta; in this volume the author collected together some essays she had previously published elsewhere.

[38] See for example Formigoni, La scelta occidentale; A. Canavero's contributions to the ‘power politics’ research project and Giovagnoli, Le premesse della ricostruzione.

[39] Morozzo della Rocca, La politica estera italiana.

[40] See for example Margiocco, Stati Uniti e PCI; Ledeen, Lo Zio Sam. Among the few scholarly contributions it would be possible to cite , La fine di un compromesso storico and Alla ricerca della potenza perduta.

[41] Aga Rossi, Gli Stati Uniti e la guerra fredda. Most essays were critical of the ‘revisionist’ school; Aga Rossi had always been critical of this approach to the history of the Cold War.

[42] An example of those links and influence was the work by Brogi, L'Italia e l'egemonia. It is of some interest that the latest volumes by Gaddis have been translated into Italian and published by Italian publishing houses.

[43] Di Nolfo, Le paure e le speranze. This topic was dealt with in a further volume by Di Nolfo, La repubblica delle speranze e degli inganni.

[44] Bagnato, Vincoli europei echi mediterranei; Calandri, Il Mediterraneo.

[45] See the special issues of Storia delle relazioni internazionali, VIII, no. 1–2 (1992), edited by A. Varsori and XIII, no. 1 (1998), edited by L. Nuti.

[46] Varsori, Europe 1945–1990s.

[47] See the website http://www.machiavellicenter.net

[48] Gala, Il paradosso nucleare; Cricco, Il petrolio dei Senussi; Lorenzini, Due Germanie in Africa; Rognoni, Scacchiera congolese; Tonini, Un'equazione; Varsori, Controguerriglia e diplomazia; Meyr, La crisi petrolifera; Donno, Ombre di guerra fredda; De Luca, Fuochi sul Canale; De Luca, La difficile amicizia; Valdevit, Gli Stati Uniti; Valdevit, I volti della potenza.

[49] For a recent review article on the Marshall Plan see Varsori, ‘Il Piano Marshall’.

[50] A stimulating example of this debate was a volume which dealt also with the social and cultural aspects of the Americanization process: D'Attorre, Nemici per la pelle. In this connection see also Ellwood and Kroes, Hollywood in Europe.

[51] Ellwood, Rebuilding Europe.

[52] See for example the contributions in Segreto and Romero, L'Italia, Europa, America.

[53] Del Pero, Henry Kissinger ; Del Pero and Romero, Le crisi transatlantiche. See also Mammarella, Europa-Stati Uniti. G. Mammarella has been the author of several volumes on US foreign policy, the Cold War, the European integration process for a wider public.

[54] See Varsori and Calandri, The Failure. See also Dockrill et al., L'Europe de l'Est et de l'Ouest; Loth, Europe, Cold War and Coexistence. Two further volumes are to be published.

[55] See some of the volumes edited by the Liaison Committee of Historians of Contemporary Europe at the European Commission and some issues of the Journal of European Integration History.

[56] De Felice, ‘Doppia lealtà e doppio stato’.

[57] Spagnolo, La stabilizzazione incompiuta. A recent contribution that further develops Spagnolo's analisi is Villani, Il prezo della stabilità. Another recent interesting contribution on the economic and social consequences of the Marshall Plan is Bernardi, La riforma agraria.

[58] Del Pero, L'alleato scomodo; Guasconi, L'altra faccia della nedaglia. See also Quartararo, Italia e Stati Uniti.

[59] Brogi, A Question of Self-Esteem.

[60] See in particular Romero, Gli stati Uniti e l'Italia.

[61] Gentiloni Silveri, L'Italia e la Nuova Frontiera; Nuti, Gli Stati Uniti e l'apertura a sinistra Nuti has just published a thouroughly researched volume on Italy's strategic role in the Cold War, see Nuti, La sfida nucleare.

[62] On the unions see some of the contributions in Antonioli et al., Le scissioni sindacali. See also some studies by M. E. Guasconi. As far as the journalistic contributions are concerned see Caretto and Marolo, Made in USA; Mastrolilli and Molinari, L'Italia vista dalla CIA.

[63] De Siervo et al., La prima legislatura repubblicana; Ballini et al., Le istituzioni repubblicane.

[64] Giovagnoli and Pons, Tra guerra fredda e distensione; Di Nolfo, La politica estera italiana.

[65] See the websites: http://www:sturzo.it and http://www:fondazionegramsci.org

[66] See for example the miscellaneous volumes given in notes 63 and 64; and Formigoni, La Democrazia Cristiana; Giovagnoli, Il partito italiano.

[67] See for example Riccardi, Il Vaticano e Mosca.

[68] Gori and Pons, Dagli archivi di Mosca; Pons, L'impossibile egemonia; Pons and Romano, Russia in the Age; Gori and Pons, The Soviet Union and Europe. S. Pons has been also the editor of the Dimitrov's Diaries, is involved in the Cambridge Cold War History and is editing, with Robert Service, an international history of Communism. On the issue of Soviet foreign policy see also Bettanin, Stalin e l'Europa.

[69] Pons, Berlinguer. For a different interpretation see Barbagallo, Enrico Berlinguer.

[70] Gualtieri, L'Italia dal 1943 al 1992 and Togliatti e la politica estera; see also Galeazzi, Togliatti e Tito. Both authors have worked under the aegis of the Gramsci Foundation. On Togliatti see also the recent contribution by Spagnolo, Sul memoriale.

[71] Aga Rossi and Zaslavsky, Togliatti e Stalin; see also Aga Rossi and Quagliariello, L'altra faccia della luna; Zaslavsky, Lo stalinismo e la sinistra italiana. On the PCI's cultural and propaganda policy see the interesting and well-documented contribution by Guiso, La colomba e la spada.

[72] Craveri, De Gasperi. For a different interpretation, that stressed the federalist inspiration of De Gasperi's foreign policy see Preda, Alcide De Gasperi.

[73] See for example: Mechi, L'Europa di Ugo La Malfa; Petrini, Il liberismo a una dimensione; Ballini and Varsori, L'Italia e l'Europa (1947–1979); the later volumes offer a collection of about 200 documents from various Italian and foreign archives that deal not only with the European choice, but also with Italy's western choice. See also Varsori, La politica estera; Neri Gualdesi, Il cuore.

[74] Maugeri, L'arma del petrolio; Bagnato, Petrolio e politica.

[75] De Leonardis, Il Mediterraneo nella politica estera.

[76] Caviglia and Cricco, La diplomazia italiana.

[77] Pizzigallo, L'Italia e il Mediterraneo Orientale; Pizzigallo, Amicizie mediterranee.

[78] Riccardi, Il ‘problema Israele’.

[79] See for example the work by Donno, La Gladio rossa and the journalistic contribution by Riva, Oro da Mosca.

[80] Bagnato, Prove di Ostpolitik. In this connection it was possible to overcome the unavailability of the Foreign Ministry records owing to the opening of some private archives.

[81] Craveri and Quagliariello, Atlantismo ed europeismo; Colarizi et al., Gli anni Ottanta; Craveri and Quagliariello, L'antiamericanismo. See also the website: http://www.transitionstudies.it

[82] De Leonardis, La ‘diplomazia atlantica’; de Leonardis, Europa-Stati Uniti; see also de Leonardis, La nuova NATO.

[83] Romero and Varsori, Nazione, interdipendenza, integrazione.

[84] NATO was not neglected, see Giovagnoli and Tosi, Un ponte sull'Atlantico.

[85] See Tosi, L'Italia e le organizzazioni internazionali. See also the recent contribution by Villani, L'Italia e l'ONU.

[86] Meneguzzi Rostagni, The Helsinki Process. See also a previous contribution by Meneguzzi Rostagni, L'organizzazione internazionale. See Romano, ‘Alleanza atlantica e CSCE’, 2006.

[87] Tosi and Tosone, Gli aiuti allo sviluppo. The volume collects the contributions to a conference organized by the University of Perugia, where Tosi is pursuing a wide-ranging research project on this issue. Another conference on this topic was held in Rome in 2006; for the proceedings see Caviglia and Varsori, Dollari, petrolio e aiuti allo sviluppo.

[88] Westad, The Global Cold War.

[89] Calandri, ‘Italy's Foreign Assistance Policy’. See also Rossi, La Freedom Doctrine; Migani, ‘La Communauté’; Garavini, ‘The Battle’.

[90] Guderzo, Interesse nazionale e responsabilità globale.

[91] Caviglia, De Gaulle.

[92] Guasconi, L'Europa.

[93] Basosi, Il governo del dollaro.

[94] Poggiolini, Alle origini dell'Europa allargata.

[95] Varsori, Alle origini del presente.

[96] The coordinator of the Ph.D. course at the University of Milan is Professor P. Brundu Olla. The coordinator of the Ph.D. course at the University of Lecce is Professor A. Donno; numerous scholars of this discipline from various universities (Udine, Milan Catholic University, Perugia, Florence, Cassino, Bari, Padua, LUSPIO-Rome) have joined the teaching staff of this Ph.D.; the coordinator of the Naples Ph.D. is Professor P. Craveri; for Ph.D. courses at the School of International Studies (Trento) and the IMT (Lucca) see the following websites: http://www.unimi.it; http://www.unile.it, http://www.sumitalia.it, http://www.imtlucca.it, http://www.sis.unitn.it. Of some interest is the website http://www.sissco.it The SISSCO is the ‘Società italiana per lo studio della Storia contemporanea’, that is the association of the historians of Contemporary history. Such organization is very active and almost every year it organizes national seminars on various topics.

[97] See however the recent volume on the cultural relations between Italy and East Germany: Martini, La cultura all'ombra del muro.

[98] See however Romero and Pons, Reinterpreting the End of the Cold War.

[99] See for example Ventunesimo Secolo, No. 10 (July 2006) on Gorbachev, No. 12 (February 2007) on the year 1947 and No. 13 (June 2007) on the Marshall Plan. The journal is edited by G. Quagliariello and V. Zaslavsky. See the website http://www.ventunesimosecolo.it

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Antonio Varsori

Antonio Varsori is full Professor of History of International Relations and Jean Monnet Professor of History of European Integration at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Padua. He has published extensively on Italy's foreign policy, the Cold War, the European integration process and Britain's post-war foreign policy. He is completing a volume on Italy's European policy and he is pursuing research on the West and Greece from the colonels' régime to the restorarion of democracy. Moreover he is heading a national research project on Europe in the international system during the 1970s.