The Road to War (1989) s01e02 Episode Script
Part 2
Benito Mussolini was a born actor, He had remarkable powers of leadership and the capacity to inspire, but his dream of creating by conquest a second Roman Empire was fated to collapse, ltaly was too backward and too weak to engage in major wars, Mussolini's eldest son, Vittorio, now aged 73, visits his father's tomb in Predappio in Northern ltaly, Mussolini had been shot by ltalian communist partisans at the end of the war, Vittorio remembers the ambitions of his father My father, Benito Mussolini, had a big dream He wanted a strong and fierce ltaly, respected for its law and order and highest form of social justice He wanted a new ltalian character, worthy of its Roman heritage and the brilliance of the Renaissance Such a race could have been amongst the future leaders of the world To recapture the power and glory of ancient Rome had been the dream of ltalian nationalists since unification in 1870 They believed that to make the nation great must be the first objective of government For many ltalians, reality was far from glorious Many lived in extreme poverty and emigration offered the only hope of a decent life ln the First World War, thousands of young men had fought for a better future, ltaly had joined the Allies in 1915 in return for a promise of colonies When the promise was broken, ltalians felt cheated Half a million men were killed in a war that crippled the economy and spawned social tensions which made ltaly all but ungovernable At the end of the First World War, ltaly was in a state of total chaos, and on the brink of a communist revolution Rioting, anarchy, endless strikes Aggression and violence of every shape and form When we, the ltalian soldiers, came back from the trenches after three hard years of living and breathing the air of all the dead men around us, instead of being welcomed back by the ltalian flag, we were met by the red communist one, as well as stones and insults, As political groups fought for power in the streets, many ex-servicemen joined a new, ardently nationalist movement, the Fasci di Combattimento, the Fascist Party lts uniform was the black shirt, lts objective; to destroy communism and liberalism and build a powerful, authoritarian ltaly, Their leader was Benito Mussolini, a revolutionary socialist of peasant stock who became a nationalist and fought in the war He was a talented popularjournalist and a gifted speaker who attracted mass support by telling ltalians that he would make them great that fascism would sweep away corrupt and inefficient government, revise the peace settlements in ltaly's favour and create a new empire based on Rome, the cradle of Western civilisation, Ugo Peretti was a founder member of the Fascist Party in Milan and a veteran of many street fights There used to be some extremely violent battles with deaths on both sides When we managed to catch our attackers, we'd take them back to the centre and give them a beating We'd also give them a nice glass of castor oil, which turned out to be a very effective weapon l must say that they used to be more afraid of the castor oil than the truncheon ln October 1922, Mussolini felt strong enough to make a bid for power and his private army of fascist action squads staged a march on Rome The leader himself remained in Milan ln fascist folklore it became the overture to Mussolini's revolution To prevent a fascist coup, the government had asked the king to call out the army But the king, fearful of civil war, refused He asked Mussolini to form a government At first Mussolini shared power with other parties, but within three years he had created a single-party state Mussolini found ltaly in a state of chaos, civil war, almost There's no doubt that he turned ltaly into a country that enjoyed law and order, that had no strikes and where the trains ran on time You didn't have the street fights between fascist squads and Marxists which were so common before fascism However, as far as we, the anti-fascists, were concerned, he secured law and order at the expense of freedom lt's very easy to describe the repression There was no freedom of the press, you could not publish a newspaper, nor could you write for an existing newspaper and say things against fascism You couldn't hold public meetings and say what you thought Parliament was wiped out You could not vote for the MP of your choice Workers had to behave and get on with their work without being a nuisance And trade unions were practically instruments of fascism That was the nature of fascist oppression Mussolini's staunchest opponents were the communists ln the early years, the party's newspapers were burned in the streets Many anti-fascists emigrated Of those who remained, some 6,000 were imprisoned or exiled Mario Vigna was a member of the Communist Party in Ravenna ln 1930 l was arrested and taken to the police headquarters where l was badly beaten up, Because l wouldn't tell them the names of my comrades, they tested my resistance by sticking a red-hot iron into my chest But l said nothing, not a word After that terrible experience l was sent to Rome, tried and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment Fascism was, of course, a totalitarian state ln fact, this word, adopted by every totalitarian state since, can be traced back to that famous phrase of Mussolini's, written on every wall in the country; ''Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, ''nothing against the state,'' But as people in ltaly often said jokingly then, it was a totalitarian state, revised and diluted by the almost total lack of respect for its laws This was due to the nature of the ltalians, who didn't pay much attention to the severity of fascist laws and their penalties There were two other moderating influences, the monarchy and the Roman Catholic Church Unable to dominate either institution, Mussolini took pains to gain the support of both The status of the Vatican was raised to that of a sovereign state and the Church restored to its position of authority in ltalian society There were positive achievements too, all much magnified by fascist propaganda Mussolini launched badly needed public works, Productivity rose - on the farms, in the factories and in the mines Grateful foreign tourists noticed that the trains ran on time And by taxing bachelors and rewarding mothers Mussolini reversed the decline in the birth rate, 93 women produced 1 ,300 children between them The battle for births, as it was called, produced a new generation of ltalians, As regards the ltalians, he wished above all to change their character He thought this was necessary because centuries of subjugation and disease had turned the ltalians into rather weak and servile people He wanted to improve their morale through education and their physical prowess through sport and special military gymnastic programmes Also there was an education, which we could call warlike, that was meant to teach the ltalians, who are on the whole a peace-loving people and not at all aggressive, how to fight a war should the necessity arise, The regime's prestige abroad was boosted by spectacular feats of daring, ln 1933 the Air Minister, General Balbo, led 24 flying boats across the Atlantic They broke all records, an achievement that earned them a hero's welcome in New York New York gave General Balbo and his flyers a roaring welcome as they paraded up Broadway in traditional style amid a hail of paper As the airmen passed along the Grand Canyon of skyscrapers, the scene resembled a heavy snowfall Hundreds of thousands lined both sides of the street, from the Battery to City Hall, and cheered the smiling general We were proud, We used to talk about martyrs and heroes lt was important for us to be able to do that No one ever talked like that before the First World War Now we'd talk about sacrifices and the dead Not only that, but past glories, Roman glories et cetera We were all glad to feel we belonged to a strong, noble country that was renowned We liked this situation, Mussolini was the''dux'' or''duce'', the leader lt has been said of him that he was more popular in ltaly than anyone had ever been and probably ever will be Mussolini saw himself as the national role model, the personification of the masculine virtues, No, the people followed Mussolini rather than fascism People were carried away, fascinated by him He had a special kind of magnetism which enchanted the people We supported Mussolini rather than the Fascist Party ln public Mussolini was a great actor He knew how to charm the people and make everyone feel involved Mussolini was a powerful figure A glance, a gesture was enough to send the crowd into raptures People used to become oblivious of everything but their idol and shout with tremendous enthusiasm, There and then they had faith because the Duce wanted them to have faith in fascism That fascist faith for which the applause would go on and on and on Fascism was supported mainly by the lower middle classes and the middle classes Agricultural workers in certain areas were also attracted to fascism, but they did so primarily because it was in their tradition to respect the authority of the state The situation was a bit different where the workers were concerned lnitially they were anti, but as the old ones died and the new generation grew up, they too supported fascism To start with, a lot of people belonged because they believed in it Some belonged for other reasons ln fact, there were those who joined the party because they needed work To become a state employee it was necessary to produce the party membership card, which was also known mockingly as the meal ticket An essential characteristic of the regime was the cultivation of militarism, Mussolini was determined to change the nature of ltalians and make them dynamic and instinctively aggressive, Like Hitler in Germany, Mussolini declared that war alone could make a people truly noble Only blood could turn the blood-stained wheels of history To remain healthy, he said, a nation should make war every 25 years Much of Mussolini's overblown rhetoric was part of the show He talked about 8 million bayonets and an air force large enough to blot out the sun But it was a show with a purpose Only an aggressive, self-confident ltaly, prepared to make war when the right moment came, could earn the respect of the world From the age of eight, all children were made to march with guns ''Better one day as a lion,'' said Mussolini,''than 100 years as a sheep,'' The main objective was internal lt was meant to create a fighting spirit, and to give the impression that the country was a very important one and that fascism was going to achieve historic goals, which it would have to do sooner or later through conflict This sort of boasting was also meant to impress countries abroad But where that was concerned, he was more cautious He would play the role of the warrior and the peacemaker according to the occasion ln the role of European statesman, Mussolini was an opportunist He was anxious that ltaly be accepted alongside Britain and France as one of the arbiters of Europe His moderation earned him powerful friends abroad, including Austen Chamberlain, then Britain's Foreign Secretary ''l trust his word when given ''and l think that we might easily go far before finding an ltalian ''with whom it would be as easy for the British government to work,'' ln 1933 Hitler became leader of a resurgent Germany lt was an event that was bound to change the European balance of power Mussolini was wary of Hitler's declared designs on Austria An Anschluss, or union, would bring Germany to ltaly's northern frontier An independent Austria was vital for ltaly The state funeral of the Austrian Chancellor Dolfuss in 1934 confirmed Mussolini's fears, for he had been murdered by the Nazis in an attempted coup Mussolini held Hitler responsible Dolfuss had been a close friend He sent ltalian troops to the border with Austria The coup fizzled out Once in Rome, we went immediately to Villa Torlonia and met Mussolini, who was extremely angry and told us that his friend Dolfuss, whose wife was, at the time, the guest of Donna Rachele in Riccione, had been brutally and barbarically killed in Vienna under Hitler's orders Adding, as is well known, that the German dictator was a barbarian, a criminal and a pederast ltaly had a powerful fleet, but her second-class status in the Mediterranean, dominated by Britain and France, was a running sore, an affront to ltalian self-esteem and a barrier to dreams of overseas expansion Although Mussolini hadn't travelled much abroad, he never discouraged the young ones from seeing the world for themselves l remember him saying to us after a cruise, ''Did you notice, when you came through Gibraltar, ''nobody crosses it without Britain's go-ahead?'' ltaly was shut in and this bothered him, and he meant to put an end to it By comparison with the British and French, ltaly's empire was insignificant There was Libya, but oil had not yet been discovered, ltaly controlled Eritrea and Somalia and adjacent to both was Ethiopia, for many years an object of ltalian ambition People said ltaly shouldn't conquer Ethiopia, Why not? Hadn't England done the same? lt had conquered lndia, the Middle East, half the world, We said,''Why them and not us?'' We were not agree to that point.
We were all convinced that ltaly too deserved its fair share of all that land around the world which had been shared out between England and France Ethiopia, ruled by the Emperor Haile Selassie, was poor, backward and black And it practised slavery ln fascist eyes, therefore, Ethiopia was ripe for a white man's war of liberation There were also economic arguments for conquest Mussolini needed more than just raw materials, which ltaly totally lacked Mineral water is the only thing ltaly has a lot of He needed mines, he needed raw materials He also needed land for ltaly's increasing population ln the '30s we were increasing in number quite a lot We needed to find a place for millions of ltalians across the waters, and that is why we went to Ethiopia Before beginning his expansion into Ethiopia, Mussolini asked Britain and France for their permission The French gave their consent through Laval in January 1935 The English, on the other hand, remained ambiguous for months A year earlier, Mussolini's daughter Edda had visited London He had asked her how the British would react to an ltalian invasion Before l left, my father said, ''Tell everybody that we're going to Ethiopia, ''Tell everyone from the porter at the station to the taxi driver,'' l did tell everybody, As regards the ordinary people, they didn't even know where Ethiopia was, basically they didn't care Then l met MacDonald, who was the prime minister at the time l insisted on knowing if the English would go to war against ltaly He said no, ''Well, l said, ''that was my main concern,'' ''Fine,'' he said, Then l added, ''But will you take any action?'' ''Yes, of course, but we won't make war,'' ''That's settled,'' l replied, l don't know if we shook hands across the table, l can't remember Then he said,''Let's go and have a cup of tea on the terrace,'' Throughout the summer and autumn of 1935, an armada of ltalian troop ships sailed for ltaly's colonial bases in Africa The build-up began with three divisions To be on the safe side, Mussolini raised it to ten lt was a war for ltaly and ltaly was involved The young ones like myself thought it was our duty to take part Our grandfathers and fathers had brought about the unification of ltaly and we thought the moment had come when it was our duty to make ltaly great On 3rd October 1935, ltalian troops invaded Ethiopia lt was the biggest and best-equipped army ever to have fought in Africa ln all, one and a half million men, Mussolini expected a walkover But Ethiopia's lightly armed and barefooted soldiers resisted valiantly Within weeks the ltalian advance bogged down But rifles and spears were no match for modern weapons and certainly no match for ltaly's bombers They had the sky to themselves ln a secret order, Mussolini approved the use of poison gas ln a convention ratified seven years earlier ltaly had renounced chemical warfare as uncivilised and its use in Ethiopia was kept from the public in ltaly until after the war When the news caused an outcry abroad, ltaly issued denials Photographs of victims of gas attacks were described by the ltalian embassy in London as cases of leprosy But the evidence could not be refuted and ltaly was condemned across the world, ln the League of Nations Britain led a futile attempt to restrain Mussolini by imposing limited sanctions Action must now be taken.
lt is for the members of the League of Nations collectively to determine what that action should be.
All but four member nations voted for sanctions Nobody wanted collective military action to force ltaly to withdraw The sanctions were painful, but all the League accomplished was to consolidate ltalian support for the war The ltalians were deeply hurt and considered the sanctions a clear injustice and an obstacle in their rebuilding programme, Mussolini had warned England and France of his plans in Ethiopia and had not been opposed lnstead they later imposed sanctions The party launched a battle to beat sanctions Following the example of the Queen, a quarter of a million Roman matrons handed in their golden wedding rings to swell the national reserves of bullion Their husbands donated bedsteads to the cause Anything of metal, anything to feed the Duce's war machine What ltalians did not know was that the war and the collapse of ltaly's foreign trade was wrecking the economic revival of the '20s With victory in April 1936, there was blind rejoicing, from the King and the Pope to the people Alone against the world, ltalians had proved themselves as a nation of warriors Rome was again the capital of an empire and its creator, Mussolini, was admired and applauded as never before, Mussolini had brought fascism to its peak lt would be several years before the ltalians began to count the cost of his ambitions With Ethiopia, ltaly had lost valued friends and from now on fascism was to go into gradual decline Mussolini's addiction to war now drove ltalians into a second expensive adventure, the intervention of 50,000 troops in the civil war in Spain ln battle his army did not distinguish itself and at home the official newsreels failed completely to arouse enthusiasm Mussolini later admitted that two wars had bled ltaly white The diplomatic consequences were even greater The Ethiopian war had taken ltaly out of the Western camp and Spain was drawing her closer to Nazi Germany What drew the two dictators together was only partly ideology Each needed the other Hitler had taken advantage of the commotion over Ethiopia to reoccupy the Rhineland Mussolini, impressed by this show of force, saw Hitler as an ally he could influence, l think thatit was the fact that Germany, for him, meanta young country in a position of ascension, if you can say that.
And because of that, he had better be with them than to be with the countries that he was considering somewhat decadent.
That is the reason why, l think, he forced himself to ally himself with the Germans.
Fundamentally l think that Mussolini was not a lover of Germany or a lover of Germans.
But he felt that he could not avoid being allied with the Germans because of the power which was coming out of the German people ln November 1936, Hitler and Mussolini formed what they called the Rome-Berlin Axis lt was a turning point in ltalian history, Mussolini would lose control of his own foreign policy and ltaly would become a German satellite The fascists now began to imitate the Nazis, Mussolini ordered his army to adopt the German goose-step He called it the''passo romano'' The soldiers did their best to conform But what shocked even hardened fascists was the Duce's imposition of anti-Semitism in a set of laws discriminating against the Jews, l've always thought they were a mistake, Mussolini introduced the anti-Semitic laws because he was obliged to by his alliance with Hitler Our people, however, have never been racist, l was born in the ltalian city of Ferrara, where the burgomaster has always been a Jew, Renzo Ravenna A lot of the founders of the Fasci di Combattimento between 1919 and 1921 , in many ltalian cities, were Jewish, Hatred was never felt nor displayed against the Jews ln ltaly they were never persecuted as they were in Germany The new relationship was put to the test when Germany invaded Austria in 1938 Only four years earlier, Mussolini had blocked this ambition of Hitler by sending troops into the Brenner Pass, But Germany was now a major military power, Mussolini earned Hitler's undying gratitude by condoning the invasion in advance After the Anschluss, Hitler was perfectly placed to threaten his next objective, Czechoslovakia ln the autumn of 1938, Europe was on the brink of war The Munich Conference of September 1938 gave Mussolini a final opportunity to play a role on the European stage By relaying to Hitler the British request for a last-minute meeting and by presenting as his own a settlement drafted by the Germans, he was able to pose as a saviour of world peace ln reality he was an extra, the decisions at Munich were made by Chamberlain and Hitler Later Mussolini would recall with pride how Chamberlain had licked his boots, Mussolini returned to ltaly to frenzied shouts of ''Duce'' For the first time, Mussolini was acclaimed as a peacemaker ln January 1939, the hope that Mussolini would side with Britain and France brought the British prime minister on a mission to Rome Mussolini had first proposed a general settlement to the British on 5th October 1935 This general settlement guaranteed ltaly's cooperation in Europe against Germany ln return, Britain was to give ltaly equal rights in the Mediterranean and a share in the sphere of influence in North Africa and the Middle East Mussolini continued to put forward this proposal to the British right up to the outbreak of war in Europe and even during ltaly's period of neutrality Chamberlain wanted to detach Mussolini from Hitler, but Mussolini's price was too high Four months later, Mussolini's foreign minister, Count Ciano, arrived in Berlin to sign a full-scale military alliance with Hitler The German occupation of Prague two months earlier had caught Mussolini unawares Briefly he had considered switching to the side of Britain and France But it made more sense to stay with the stronger side During the discussions, Ciano had stressed that ltaly would not be ready for war until 1943 The Germans were evasive and Mussolini ordered Ciano not to press the point The agreement was signed A week later Mussolini wrote to Hitler reminding him of ltaly's need for a breathing space of three years, Hitler did not reply ln August Ciano discovered that Germany was about to attack Poland, ''l returned to Rome completely disgusted with the Germans, ''with their leader, with their way of doing things, ''They have betrayed us and lied to us, ''Now they are dragging us into an adventure which we do not want, ''which may compromise the regime and the country as a whole,'' Mussolini had walked into a trap He had repeatedly promised Hitler that the two fascist nations would march together, but his armed forces were in no state to fight a major war ln propaganda films, ltaly's army was portrayed as among the most formidable in Europe, but Mussolini had neglected the military preparations his ambitions required His soldiers carried rifles introduced in 1891 By the end of the Second World War they had still not been replaced His three armoured divisions existed only on paper The army had no proper tanks Military vehicles required for important parades were sometimes borrowed from the police, ltalian artillery dated back to World War l ln the Fascist Grand Council Mussolini berated his generals for the army's deficiencies, but the fault was his, ltaly's limited resources had been thrown away in four years of war in Ethiopia and Spain, As evidence of ltaly's unreadiness, he now sent Hitler a shopping list that deliberately exaggerated ltaly's needs, To fight alongside Germany, ltaly would need 1 7 million tons of supplies, Hitler, bowing to the inevitable, released Mussolini from his military obligations, Most ltalians were unaware of these high-level exchanges, Fascist propaganda had not prepared them for Hitler's invasion of Poland in September 1939 ln ltaly we lived a normal, carefree life, blissfully unaware of what was happening outside our borders So we worked, we sang and we marched The distant noise of war wasn't heard Or perhaps we didn't want to hear it l was on holiday and the hotel l was staying in had given a big party A lot of happy and cheerful people had been there The following day, through my hotel window, l saw a crowd of people, all extremely upset and shouting and running in the direction of the station Cars, old carts and lorries were everywhere Barefooted people, people on bikes Everybody looked exceedingly worried This was, of course, the outcome of the news they'd heard that morning, that is to say, the outbreak of war, Life continued as usual ltaly remained neutral, or non-belligerent, as Mussolini preferred to call it He vacillated, ashamed to be neutral, unwilling to join Hitler until a German victory seemed certain and, in spite of his alliance, still tempted to try to bargain with the Allies During the period of non-belligerence, Mussolini continued to put forward his proposals to Britain On several occasions he let them know that he was prepared to break the pact of steel if Britain and France were ready to make concessions in the Mediterranean and give ltaly the guarantee that she would be given protection against Germany, Mussolini's proposals were ignored ln May 1940, Mussolini's doubts were swept away by Hitler's successful offensive on the Western Front, ''ltaly,'' he announced,''cannot remain absent when the fate of Europe is at stake,'' On 10th May, German armies invaded Holland and Belgium, Mussolini waited Ten days later his generals said that the end of the war was in sight lf he waited much longer, he might miss a place at the peace table and a share of the spoils Not until 10th June, a fortnight after the British retreat from Dunkirk, did Mussolini take his long-suffering country into yet another war The German victory was complete The Germans had been betrayed by ltaly in 1914 and looked like being betrayed by them again in 1939 Well, what was the fate going to be of an ally that could not be trusted? Everything at this point persuaded him to enter the war Hitler's military success, aided by Mussolini's propaganda machine, pointed to a quick and easy victory, The people cheered as they had done for 1 7 years But as the crowd left the square, there was a change of mood Looking out of the window from Palazzo Chigi, where l was at the time, we didn't see any youths excited about the prospect of a war We saw instead rather thoughtful people who were going home with folded flags, asking themselves those questions they hadn't thought of in the square On 22nd June, a full week after the Germans occupied Paris, Mussolini decided that ltalian prestige required an Alpine offensive against the fatally weakened French, The attack was a farce, ltaly's greatly superior force suffered heavy losses and was saved only by the collapse of France, ln the years that followed, defeat in battle became the norm, Mussolini's addiction to minor wars of conquest had led him to throw his country into a war of major powers for which he had left ltaly unprepared and hopelessly ill-equipped His grand design of turning easy-going ltalians into a nation of cold-blooded warriors was always an illusion, Mussolini united and modernised ltaly He influenced Europe, But he misused his enormous personal power and misled his people Years later, a fellow countryman looked back on Mussolini's hold on the ltalians He wrote;''They saw in him only the tenor for whom they raved, ''as they had raved years before for Caruso, ''As one does with tenors, they enjoyed his long notes and the melody ''without paying attention to the words, ''lf they had listened more carefully, ''they would not have been surprised by the catastrophe later, ''for Mussolini had announced it,''
We were all convinced that ltaly too deserved its fair share of all that land around the world which had been shared out between England and France Ethiopia, ruled by the Emperor Haile Selassie, was poor, backward and black And it practised slavery ln fascist eyes, therefore, Ethiopia was ripe for a white man's war of liberation There were also economic arguments for conquest Mussolini needed more than just raw materials, which ltaly totally lacked Mineral water is the only thing ltaly has a lot of He needed mines, he needed raw materials He also needed land for ltaly's increasing population ln the '30s we were increasing in number quite a lot We needed to find a place for millions of ltalians across the waters, and that is why we went to Ethiopia Before beginning his expansion into Ethiopia, Mussolini asked Britain and France for their permission The French gave their consent through Laval in January 1935 The English, on the other hand, remained ambiguous for months A year earlier, Mussolini's daughter Edda had visited London He had asked her how the British would react to an ltalian invasion Before l left, my father said, ''Tell everybody that we're going to Ethiopia, ''Tell everyone from the porter at the station to the taxi driver,'' l did tell everybody, As regards the ordinary people, they didn't even know where Ethiopia was, basically they didn't care Then l met MacDonald, who was the prime minister at the time l insisted on knowing if the English would go to war against ltaly He said no, ''Well, l said, ''that was my main concern,'' ''Fine,'' he said, Then l added, ''But will you take any action?'' ''Yes, of course, but we won't make war,'' ''That's settled,'' l replied, l don't know if we shook hands across the table, l can't remember Then he said,''Let's go and have a cup of tea on the terrace,'' Throughout the summer and autumn of 1935, an armada of ltalian troop ships sailed for ltaly's colonial bases in Africa The build-up began with three divisions To be on the safe side, Mussolini raised it to ten lt was a war for ltaly and ltaly was involved The young ones like myself thought it was our duty to take part Our grandfathers and fathers had brought about the unification of ltaly and we thought the moment had come when it was our duty to make ltaly great On 3rd October 1935, ltalian troops invaded Ethiopia lt was the biggest and best-equipped army ever to have fought in Africa ln all, one and a half million men, Mussolini expected a walkover But Ethiopia's lightly armed and barefooted soldiers resisted valiantly Within weeks the ltalian advance bogged down But rifles and spears were no match for modern weapons and certainly no match for ltaly's bombers They had the sky to themselves ln a secret order, Mussolini approved the use of poison gas ln a convention ratified seven years earlier ltaly had renounced chemical warfare as uncivilised and its use in Ethiopia was kept from the public in ltaly until after the war When the news caused an outcry abroad, ltaly issued denials Photographs of victims of gas attacks were described by the ltalian embassy in London as cases of leprosy But the evidence could not be refuted and ltaly was condemned across the world, ln the League of Nations Britain led a futile attempt to restrain Mussolini by imposing limited sanctions Action must now be taken.
lt is for the members of the League of Nations collectively to determine what that action should be.
All but four member nations voted for sanctions Nobody wanted collective military action to force ltaly to withdraw The sanctions were painful, but all the League accomplished was to consolidate ltalian support for the war The ltalians were deeply hurt and considered the sanctions a clear injustice and an obstacle in their rebuilding programme, Mussolini had warned England and France of his plans in Ethiopia and had not been opposed lnstead they later imposed sanctions The party launched a battle to beat sanctions Following the example of the Queen, a quarter of a million Roman matrons handed in their golden wedding rings to swell the national reserves of bullion Their husbands donated bedsteads to the cause Anything of metal, anything to feed the Duce's war machine What ltalians did not know was that the war and the collapse of ltaly's foreign trade was wrecking the economic revival of the '20s With victory in April 1936, there was blind rejoicing, from the King and the Pope to the people Alone against the world, ltalians had proved themselves as a nation of warriors Rome was again the capital of an empire and its creator, Mussolini, was admired and applauded as never before, Mussolini had brought fascism to its peak lt would be several years before the ltalians began to count the cost of his ambitions With Ethiopia, ltaly had lost valued friends and from now on fascism was to go into gradual decline Mussolini's addiction to war now drove ltalians into a second expensive adventure, the intervention of 50,000 troops in the civil war in Spain ln battle his army did not distinguish itself and at home the official newsreels failed completely to arouse enthusiasm Mussolini later admitted that two wars had bled ltaly white The diplomatic consequences were even greater The Ethiopian war had taken ltaly out of the Western camp and Spain was drawing her closer to Nazi Germany What drew the two dictators together was only partly ideology Each needed the other Hitler had taken advantage of the commotion over Ethiopia to reoccupy the Rhineland Mussolini, impressed by this show of force, saw Hitler as an ally he could influence, l think thatit was the fact that Germany, for him, meanta young country in a position of ascension, if you can say that.
And because of that, he had better be with them than to be with the countries that he was considering somewhat decadent.
That is the reason why, l think, he forced himself to ally himself with the Germans.
Fundamentally l think that Mussolini was not a lover of Germany or a lover of Germans.
But he felt that he could not avoid being allied with the Germans because of the power which was coming out of the German people ln November 1936, Hitler and Mussolini formed what they called the Rome-Berlin Axis lt was a turning point in ltalian history, Mussolini would lose control of his own foreign policy and ltaly would become a German satellite The fascists now began to imitate the Nazis, Mussolini ordered his army to adopt the German goose-step He called it the''passo romano'' The soldiers did their best to conform But what shocked even hardened fascists was the Duce's imposition of anti-Semitism in a set of laws discriminating against the Jews, l've always thought they were a mistake, Mussolini introduced the anti-Semitic laws because he was obliged to by his alliance with Hitler Our people, however, have never been racist, l was born in the ltalian city of Ferrara, where the burgomaster has always been a Jew, Renzo Ravenna A lot of the founders of the Fasci di Combattimento between 1919 and 1921 , in many ltalian cities, were Jewish, Hatred was never felt nor displayed against the Jews ln ltaly they were never persecuted as they were in Germany The new relationship was put to the test when Germany invaded Austria in 1938 Only four years earlier, Mussolini had blocked this ambition of Hitler by sending troops into the Brenner Pass, But Germany was now a major military power, Mussolini earned Hitler's undying gratitude by condoning the invasion in advance After the Anschluss, Hitler was perfectly placed to threaten his next objective, Czechoslovakia ln the autumn of 1938, Europe was on the brink of war The Munich Conference of September 1938 gave Mussolini a final opportunity to play a role on the European stage By relaying to Hitler the British request for a last-minute meeting and by presenting as his own a settlement drafted by the Germans, he was able to pose as a saviour of world peace ln reality he was an extra, the decisions at Munich were made by Chamberlain and Hitler Later Mussolini would recall with pride how Chamberlain had licked his boots, Mussolini returned to ltaly to frenzied shouts of ''Duce'' For the first time, Mussolini was acclaimed as a peacemaker ln January 1939, the hope that Mussolini would side with Britain and France brought the British prime minister on a mission to Rome Mussolini had first proposed a general settlement to the British on 5th October 1935 This general settlement guaranteed ltaly's cooperation in Europe against Germany ln return, Britain was to give ltaly equal rights in the Mediterranean and a share in the sphere of influence in North Africa and the Middle East Mussolini continued to put forward this proposal to the British right up to the outbreak of war in Europe and even during ltaly's period of neutrality Chamberlain wanted to detach Mussolini from Hitler, but Mussolini's price was too high Four months later, Mussolini's foreign minister, Count Ciano, arrived in Berlin to sign a full-scale military alliance with Hitler The German occupation of Prague two months earlier had caught Mussolini unawares Briefly he had considered switching to the side of Britain and France But it made more sense to stay with the stronger side During the discussions, Ciano had stressed that ltaly would not be ready for war until 1943 The Germans were evasive and Mussolini ordered Ciano not to press the point The agreement was signed A week later Mussolini wrote to Hitler reminding him of ltaly's need for a breathing space of three years, Hitler did not reply ln August Ciano discovered that Germany was about to attack Poland, ''l returned to Rome completely disgusted with the Germans, ''with their leader, with their way of doing things, ''They have betrayed us and lied to us, ''Now they are dragging us into an adventure which we do not want, ''which may compromise the regime and the country as a whole,'' Mussolini had walked into a trap He had repeatedly promised Hitler that the two fascist nations would march together, but his armed forces were in no state to fight a major war ln propaganda films, ltaly's army was portrayed as among the most formidable in Europe, but Mussolini had neglected the military preparations his ambitions required His soldiers carried rifles introduced in 1891 By the end of the Second World War they had still not been replaced His three armoured divisions existed only on paper The army had no proper tanks Military vehicles required for important parades were sometimes borrowed from the police, ltalian artillery dated back to World War l ln the Fascist Grand Council Mussolini berated his generals for the army's deficiencies, but the fault was his, ltaly's limited resources had been thrown away in four years of war in Ethiopia and Spain, As evidence of ltaly's unreadiness, he now sent Hitler a shopping list that deliberately exaggerated ltaly's needs, To fight alongside Germany, ltaly would need 1 7 million tons of supplies, Hitler, bowing to the inevitable, released Mussolini from his military obligations, Most ltalians were unaware of these high-level exchanges, Fascist propaganda had not prepared them for Hitler's invasion of Poland in September 1939 ln ltaly we lived a normal, carefree life, blissfully unaware of what was happening outside our borders So we worked, we sang and we marched The distant noise of war wasn't heard Or perhaps we didn't want to hear it l was on holiday and the hotel l was staying in had given a big party A lot of happy and cheerful people had been there The following day, through my hotel window, l saw a crowd of people, all extremely upset and shouting and running in the direction of the station Cars, old carts and lorries were everywhere Barefooted people, people on bikes Everybody looked exceedingly worried This was, of course, the outcome of the news they'd heard that morning, that is to say, the outbreak of war, Life continued as usual ltaly remained neutral, or non-belligerent, as Mussolini preferred to call it He vacillated, ashamed to be neutral, unwilling to join Hitler until a German victory seemed certain and, in spite of his alliance, still tempted to try to bargain with the Allies During the period of non-belligerence, Mussolini continued to put forward his proposals to Britain On several occasions he let them know that he was prepared to break the pact of steel if Britain and France were ready to make concessions in the Mediterranean and give ltaly the guarantee that she would be given protection against Germany, Mussolini's proposals were ignored ln May 1940, Mussolini's doubts were swept away by Hitler's successful offensive on the Western Front, ''ltaly,'' he announced,''cannot remain absent when the fate of Europe is at stake,'' On 10th May, German armies invaded Holland and Belgium, Mussolini waited Ten days later his generals said that the end of the war was in sight lf he waited much longer, he might miss a place at the peace table and a share of the spoils Not until 10th June, a fortnight after the British retreat from Dunkirk, did Mussolini take his long-suffering country into yet another war The German victory was complete The Germans had been betrayed by ltaly in 1914 and looked like being betrayed by them again in 1939 Well, what was the fate going to be of an ally that could not be trusted? Everything at this point persuaded him to enter the war Hitler's military success, aided by Mussolini's propaganda machine, pointed to a quick and easy victory, The people cheered as they had done for 1 7 years But as the crowd left the square, there was a change of mood Looking out of the window from Palazzo Chigi, where l was at the time, we didn't see any youths excited about the prospect of a war We saw instead rather thoughtful people who were going home with folded flags, asking themselves those questions they hadn't thought of in the square On 22nd June, a full week after the Germans occupied Paris, Mussolini decided that ltalian prestige required an Alpine offensive against the fatally weakened French, The attack was a farce, ltaly's greatly superior force suffered heavy losses and was saved only by the collapse of France, ln the years that followed, defeat in battle became the norm, Mussolini's addiction to minor wars of conquest had led him to throw his country into a war of major powers for which he had left ltaly unprepared and hopelessly ill-equipped His grand design of turning easy-going ltalians into a nation of cold-blooded warriors was always an illusion, Mussolini united and modernised ltaly He influenced Europe, But he misused his enormous personal power and misled his people Years later, a fellow countryman looked back on Mussolini's hold on the ltalians He wrote;''They saw in him only the tenor for whom they raved, ''as they had raved years before for Caruso, ''As one does with tenors, they enjoyed his long notes and the melody ''without paying attention to the words, ''lf they had listened more carefully, ''they would not have been surprised by the catastrophe later, ''for Mussolini had announced it,''