Willan, Philip. Puppetmasters: The Political Use of Terrorism in Italy. London: Constable and Company, 1991. 375 pages.

Italian politics since Mussolini consists of intrigues piled on top of intrigues, mixed together with Freemasonry, the Vatican, the Italian secret services plotting coups with right-wing generals, the Mafia, arms caches planted by NATO's Operation Gladio, and bribery and corruption so massive that occasionally it threatens the collapse of their banking system. And this is only what you read in the papers.

In this book Philip Willan peels back another layer of the onion and looks at the "strategy of tension." This technique -- used by Licio Gelli's secret P2 lodge in collaboration with right-wing spooks and generals -- sponsored ostensible left-wing terrorism in an effort to undercut the electoral position of the Italian Communist Party, or perhaps to pave the way for a coup. Willan looks closely at the Red Brigades, best known for the kidnap and murder of Prime Minister Aldo Moro. Here and elsewhere the author finds significant U.S. connections, because Italy was a linchpin in NATO's cold war strategy and a Communist electoral victory would have been unacceptable to the CIA and State Department. In 1948, for example, the CIA bought the Italian election in their first big covert action, and in 1970-1972, according to the Pike Committee, the U.S. was still pumping in money ($10 million) to influence Italian politics.
ISBN 0-09-470590-9

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