The fascist virus: rolling back revolution

[Cain]

There is a specter haunting Europe, the specter of Communism.
Karl Marx

It will undoubtedly happen, that the enemy will make the attempt, today, tomorrow or the next day, at some time, to break into this fortress of Europe at one point or another. That will undoubtedly be the case.
Heinrich Himmler

There has always been a certain top-secret organization, known to the top authorities of the  state and operating in the domain of the secret services, involved in activities that have nothing to do with intelligence gathering... If you want details, I can not give them to you.
Vito Miceli, Acting-Director of SID, during his 1977 trial for conspiracy

Europe was always the major prize of the Cold War.  Whoever held Europe determined which Great Power, the Soviet Union or the USA, encircled the other.  If the USSR held Western Europe, then it could contest the Atlantic.  It would have access to its wealth, population and military strength, made all the more powerful for America not being able to call upon it.  Therefore, regardless of the arc of crisis that erupted in SE and Southern Asia through the Cold War, they were always of secondary importance to the Red Army's tanks rolling through the Fulda Gap, or one of the members of NATO turning to Communism, through election or subversion.

The military option was probably the least troublesome.  The USSR would only invade if it could be assured of victory, and so long as the Ohio class submarines continued to carry their nuclear payloads around the world in secret, that was never certain.  Politics was more troublesome, naturally.

Post WWII, Europe was in a mess.  And nowhere was this mess more evident than Italy.  As with most of eastern and southern Europe, the best organized, trained and armed partisans who fought the fascist government were the Communists and Socialists.  And in the event of free elections, war heros always tend to do well.  As a bulwark to Communism, the British and American occupying forces help set up the Christian Democratic Party, which was filled with monarchists, Nazi collaborators from the Salò Republic period and unreconstructed fascists.  A serious purge never took place in Italy, unlike in Germany.

But having the Christian Democrats (with the CIA as campaign managers) wasn't enough to stave off the worry of Communist victory.  The Italian Communist Party had its own sugar daddy, in the form of Moscow's Communist Party, and the socialists couldn't be trusted anyway.  So steps were taken to make sure that, in the event that the Soviet PR became better than US PR, someone would be there to make life hell for the newly elected Communist leaders.

Known as Operation Gladio, the scheme was originally conceived of as a "stay-behind unit", much like the British Auxiliaries and the partisans organized by SOE during the war.  In the event of a Communist victory, they would cut phone lines, blow up transportation links and assassinate as many political figures as possible, then to make preparations to aid an invading US force.  To this end, "politically reliable" individuals were plucked from the military, intelligence services and political scene.  And as you've no doubt noticed by now, fascism and anti-Communism have a certain amount of crossover.  In Italy, where there was never a real purge of fascist elements from the corridors of power in the first place...well, exactly.

During the 50s, as the Socialists were excluded from the Italian government on the insistence of the USA, Gladio lay dormant, secretly training its forces and sending regular updates to NATO and the CIA on their progress.  However, with the election of Kennedy in 1960 and his desire to allow democratic socialism to flourish, as an alternative and safe outlet for left wingers who might otherwise end up in the arms of the Communists, Socialist leaders were given posts in the Italian government.

But then, magically, Kennedy dropped dead of completely natural causes in Dallas, in 1963.  And a few months later, Italian right wingers led by General Giovanni De Lorenzo executed a coup d'etat code-named "Piano Solo", in conjunction with the CIA.  Gladio forces orchestrated the bombing of the Christian Democrat's offices and Rome's major daily newspapers, leaving evidence designed to implicate the Communists and Socialists.  But the government held firm, so Lorenzo gave orders that Gladio soldiers be ready to seize the seats of power in Rome, as well as all major media outlets.  Building on the pressure, NATO carried out military exercises designed to threaten the Italian government, while Lorenzo paraded tanks and armoured personnel carriers through the streets of Rome.  PM Aldo Moro met secretly with Lorenzo in the summer of 64.  Caving in to his pressure, the Socialists were quietly removed from government and the traces of Gladio's involvement was covered up.

However, a parallel army is nothing without a parallel government, and this is where an especially odious character comes into our story.  Lorenzo's successor, General Allavena, bought them into the fold, turning Gladio from an internationally controlled organization into one which ran Italy from within.  He did this by joining the secretive, anti-Communist Masonic Lodge called Propaganda Due, or P2 for short.

P2 is something that, if you didn't know it was real, you would insist was the product of the fevered imagination of a thriller writer, or conspiracy theorist.  To this day it is something that almost defies belief, a secret rarely talked about for the fear that it would uncover more dark secrets.  P2 was what the Masons call a Black Lodge, that is a Lodge without recognition from major Masonic organizations, meaning its Grand Master was the ultimate leader of the group.  In this case, the Grand Master of the Lodge was a man named Licio Gelli. 

Gelli was a Blackshirt, one of Mussolini's ideologically motivated thugs.  He also served in the Hermann Goering Division of the Waffen SS, only barely escaping capture at the hands of the US Army at the end of the war.  Instead, he was found by Frank Gigliotti, who was an Evangelical Church pastor who was working with the OSS.  Gigliotti instructed Gelli to set up his parallel government, with its Lodge structure, and personally arranged for the funds and contacts via Ted Shackley, the head of covert operations in Italy and one of the CIA's most notorious agents. 

Gelli surrounded himself with those unreconstructed fascist elements still present in the Italian government.  His cause, as he saw it, was the defeat of Communism. "We were an  association of believers - we did not admit non believers. We wanted to stop Communism in  its tracks, eliminate Communism, fight Communism.'  And with the marriage between P2 and Gladio, a shadow government had come into being in Italy.  A powerful force, supported by outside powers, completely beyond accountability.  And filled, to the brim, with fascists.

Using fronts, such as right wing think tanks devoted to "Counter Revolutionary Warfare", the Gladio/P2 complex came into contact with a new generation of violent fascists, aiming to bring the fight to communism.  And then, in 1970, with Richard Nixon in charge of the USA, and the Socialists and Communists apparently on the verge of another electoral breakthrough, the Italian shadow government let its new attack dogs off the leash.  The worst of these Stefano Delle Chiaie, a name that will come up again and again in the modern history of fascism.  As a membr of the fascist terrorist organization, Ordine Nuovo, and before that a member of the National Vanguard, a fascist street-fighting organization, he was prime recruitment material.  Paramilitary units, under Chiaie's command, prepared a second right-wing coup d'etat on the night of the 7th of December, 1970, but at the last minute a phone call was made to the coup's organizers and the mission was aborted.  According to the testimony of Mafia super grass Tommaso  Buscetta, were a lot of Soviet ships cruising in the Mediterranean, and the fear was any fascist coup, which head been prepared in secret and with only small numbers of secret Gladio forces, would be crushed by a Soviet invasion before they could seize full control of the capital and armed forces.

Rumour has it that the phone call made to Junio Borghese, the man who was coordinating the coup attempt (also a hardline fascist, and former Naval commander) came from none other than Nixon himself.  In case you were wondering why it shut down so quickly and completely.

Despite the failure of the coup, and the problems Nixon was facing from Watergate, the Italians were told by Kissinger in no uncertain terms to not let the Socialists and Communists into power.  Aldo Moro, on this occasion, decided to defy the USA.  With the crushing defeat of the Christian Democrats in 1976, he decided he upon and planned a "historic compromise" to allow the Communist Party into government.  As he was driving to Parliament with his bodyguards, with his plans to include the Communists in his briefcase, a white Fiat reversed into his car, bringing it to a stand still.  Two men emerged from the car, and another four on the streets drew their weapons, killing Moro's bodyguards in seconds.  Moro was captured alive, and held hostage somewhere in central Rome for 55 days.  His bullet ridden body was  found in the boot of an abandoned car in central Rome - symbolically parked halfway between the headquarters of the Christian Democrats and the headquarters of the Italian Communist Party.

The blame for the assassination was pinned on the Red Brigades, Communist terrorists.  When later researchers tried to find the files on his assassination, to examine the possibility of Gladio involvement in his death, the files were missing, presumed destroyed.

And the wave of terrorism, the "strategy of tension" whereby fascist inspired right wing attacks were blamed on left wing groups, was far more vast than this.  Police were bombed, journalists assassinated and even the Bologna massacre, where 85 people were killed and over 200 were injured, were organized through far-right terrorist organizations, trained and equiped by Gladio, pretending to be left wing ones.

Gladio was not just an Italian phenomenon.  Stay-behind units were organized in every single NATO power, as well as Switzerland.  In almost all of these cases, the stay-behind units recruited and were led by fascists from the WWII era, in collusion with state intelligence, military and political structures.  And behind it was the omnipresent CIA, providing the funds and expertise, and letting the pieces fall where they may.

Due to the extraordinary length of this very brief overview of the Italian network, which I didn't expect, next time I want a brief examination of Gladio units in other countries.  Two countries in particular had successful coups orchestrated by fascist inspired stay-behind units, and the events of those two countries make for very interesting reading, considering how close Italy came at times to suffering a coup d'etat at their hands.

[Template]

Even though I'd just re-skimmed your previous "Fascist Virus" article, it took me until the end of this one to remember that the CIA had F1 members in it.  Also, does "Gladio" translate to "Prick"?

Identifying the shamefully insane members of conservative groups as Discordian Saints now makes more sense to me, too.

Thanks, Cain.

[Roaring Biscuit!]

But then, magically, Kennedy dropped dead of completely natural causes in Dallas, in 1963.

I think you need to check your sources    

Also, what is the purpose of this series?  I don't mean to suggest that its pointless (its not, I really enjoy reading it), but is intended as a straight summary of your own acquired knowledge on the subject?  Or are you also trying to put forward your own personal conclusions?

x

edd

Also, typos!  in a helpful way, not a "your shit at writing" way:

As a member of the fascist terrorist organization

?

Caving in to this pressure

?

he decided he upon and planned

?

[Cain]

I'm mostly tired today, hence I'm not posting on anything with real content much.

yhnmzw:

Gladio comes from the Italian from sword.  If I recall correctly, the gladius was the Roman word for sword as well, which is a nice parallel, since the word Fascism came from a Roman word for a bundle of sticks with an axe, a symbol of authority and strength through unity.  As far as I know, only the Italian operation was ever referred to explicity by the name Gladio, but it is an informal name for the entire European network among people who have studied it.

RB:

Dying after being shot in the head is perfectly natural, I don't know what you are talking about.  Interestingly, Ted Shackley, one of the CIA operatives who worked with the Cuban dissidents who some have suggested were the killers of Kennedy, was also the head of all covert operations in Italy at one point in the late 50s and early 60s, if I recall right.  Of course though, a lot of people were gunning for Kennedy then for a lot of reasons, but its another thing to add to the "reasons why" pile.  Convergences of interest accomplish a lot.

The idea for this series is to illustrate how fascism didn't really die off after WWII, only went underground, and to establish some methods of operation and the particular niche of the political scene that fascism inhabits.  As I mentioned in the first one, fascism often gets welcomed into the halls of power at times when that power is being threatened - normally by leftwing populist groups and especially by Communists.  In an age where an economic crisis is making socialism and associated anti-capitalist ideologies more palatable again, this worries me.  Throw into the mix that the War on Terror has moved politics towards authoritarianism and quasi-racist warfare before the economic crisis, setting the groundwork for such a revival, and I am worried.

I thought there might be some errors, but when you have an idea and your fingers are itching, you write first and check later.  I might have to find and download the spelling checker for this particular word processor, just to keep on top of such things.  Thankfully though, they seem relatively minor, and I think at least one of them was caused by my crappy keyboard more than anything else.

[Rumckle]

Hmm, very interesting.

Two questions:

Do you have a date for that Marx quote?

The "politically reliable" military people picked for Gladio, were they mainly officers, or did lower ranked soldiers get picked?

[Cain]

The Marx quote was from The Communist Manifesto, published in 1848.  I believe Engels had his name to the document, but it was almost entirely Marx's work, so he gets the credit.

As far as I can tell, those chosen from the military and intelligence ranks were mostly officers.  However, and this is an important caveat, this is because the documents relating to Gladio, including trials, membership rolls and classified military and intelligence documents were usually handled by, refered to or otherwise more likely to indicate officers of a higher rank due to the nature of the communication itself.  I would hazard a bet that while officers were handpicked to oversee critical paramilitary functions in Gladio, there were also specially trained soldiers from lower ranks (probably those with special forces, counter-terrorist or urban warfare training) and also auxilaries in the form of the violent, far-right terrorists such as Stefano Delle Chiaie, that filled out the organization as a whole.

[Requia ☣]

Wouldn't the hand picked have been promoted as much as possible?

Though I can also see people picked not for ideology, but for a psych profile that says they'll follow orders from their immediate superior unquestioningly.  Then assigned to those who were picked out to be officers.

How I would set up a coup force anyway.

[Cain]

Excessive promotion might draw attention to them, however.  I'm pretty sure there were other benefits, not least skimming off funds allocated for Gladio operations, but I doubt rank was one of them, for NCO's and lower. 

And yes, that is the sort of profile which is not only useful, but also very close to the authoritarian mindset described by Altermeyer, so there would likely be an element of crossover there.