Re-thinking American intervention in the 1948 Italian election: beyond a success–failure dichotomy

Abstract

American intervention in the 1948 Italian national election campaign has long been a source of contention. Most scholarship has assessed the Truman administration's activities in binary terms that revolve on simplistic notions of ‘success’; the idea that American efforts did or did not affect the outcome. The subsequent tendency has been to celebrate or critique US intervention. This article traces the difficulties experienced by the American government in post-war Italy, which laid the platform for an improvised effort in support of non-communist forces. The mobilisation was neither unified nor coherent and, moreover, was influenced by Italians. The final result nevertheless masked problems with the campaign. Rather than a normative critique of American efforts, this article argues that the outcome fostered a ‘perception of success’ that reframed US conceptualisation of the post-war Italian case and considers the wider ramifications of this mind-frame for future US–Italian relations and broader American approaches in the Cold War.

Keywords:

• United States
• Italy
• 18 April 1948
• Cold War
• intervention
• success

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Mario Del Pero, Scott Lucas and Bevan Sewell for comments and the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences for its invaluable financial assistance.

Notes

Notes

1. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), College Park, MD, USA. 865.00/4-1348. Dunn to Marshall, April 13, 1948, RG59.

2. This article will focus on the American role and not that of the Soviet Union. For more on this complex issue, Pons (1999). On the effort by friendlier nations: Pedaliu (2003, 64–85); Young (1990, 186–87); Varsori (1982); Keogh (1991).

3. L’Unità, ‘Otto millioni di cittadini italiani potente barriera contro la reazione e la guerra’, April 22, 1948.

4. New York Times, In the nation; a fine job of roughhouse ‘diplomacy’, April 23, 1948.

5. For a visual history of the legacy of 1948 on subsequent elections, Novelli (2008).

6. The Socialist movement split in early 1947 led to the formation of the Partito Socialista Italiano di Unità Proletaria (PSIUP) and the anti-communist Partito Socialista dei Lavoratori Italiani (PSLI).

7. Documenti Diplomatici Italiani (DDI), Decima Serie, vol. IV: 1943–1948. Rome: Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, 1994. Tarchiani to De Gasperi, August 1, 1946: 98–99; and DDI [IV], Meeting Tarchiani and Dunn, August 8, 1946: 144–45.

8. Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), ‘Western Europe’, Vol. III. Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1974. Dunn to Secretary of State, ‘Current Economic and Financial Policies of the Italian Government’, May 7, 1947: 895–901.

9. FRUS, Clayton, ‘Summary of Discussion on Problems of Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of Europe’, May 29, 1947: 230–36.

10. NARA, Matthews to Marshall, ‘US Support for a non-Communist Government in Italy’, May 8, 1947. Box 10, Lot File 58D357, RG59.

11. DDI II. Tarchiani to De Gasperi, March 29, 1945: 144–49; DDI II. De Gasperi to Parri, July 27, 1945: 491–92.

12. FRUS. Dunn to Marshall, September 17, 1947: 973–75.

13. FRUS. Dunn to Marshall, December 5, 1947: 736–37; Marshall to Lovett, December 12, 1947: 748–49.

14. Minutes of DC Meeting, December 3–5, 1947. Reproduced in Bernardi (2006b, 127–65).

15. FRUS. Royall to Marshall, March 1, 1948: 773–74; Dunn to Marshall, March 12, 1948: 784.

16. FRUS. Hickerson & Dowling to Dunn, March 12, 1948: 784–85.

17. The issue of covert CIA funding and competing myths, including considerations of Gladio, is explored fully in Mistry (2011).

18. The ‘invitation’ thesis was first suggested in Lundestad (1986).

19. FRUS. Dunn to Marshall, March 22, 1948: 858–60. NARA. 865.00/4–1348. Dunn to Marshall, April 13, 1948, RG59; NARA. Dunn to Marshall, ‘The Italian National Election of 1948’, May 6, 1948. 800: Italy-Elections, Box 29, Confidential File, RG84.

20. See in particular: Neustadt and May (1986); MacMillan (2008).

21. NARA. Dunn to Marshall, ‘The Italian National Election of 1948’, May 6, 1948. 800: Italy-Elections, Box 29, Confidential File, RG84; 865.00/5–2448. Dunn to Marshall, May 24, 1948, RG59. FRUS. Memcon Hickerson., 27 April 1948, 793–96.

22. NARA. PPS, ‘The Inauguration of Organized Political Warfare’, April 30, 1948. Box 11A, Lot File 64D563, RG59.

23. NARA. PPS, ‘The Inauguration of Organized Political Warfare’, April 30, 1948. Box 11A, Lot File 64D563, RG59.

24. See contributions in Tocci (2000).