History - Italy - page 1782

The Grey and Red Years
In the aftermath of war, the left-wing Resistance was disarmed and Italy's political forces
scrambled to regroup. The USA, through the economic largesse of the Marshall Plan, wiel-
ded considerable political influence and used this to keep the left in check.
Immediately after the war, three coalition governments succeeded one another. The third,
which came to power in December 1945, was dominated by the newly formed right-wing
Democrazia Cristiana (DC; Christian Democrats), led by Alcide De Gasperi, who remained
prime minister until 1953. Italy became a republic in 1946 and De Gasperi's DC won the
first elections under the new constitution in 1948.
Until the 1980s, the Partito Comunista Italiano (PCI; Communist Party), at first under
Palmiro Togliatti and later the charismatic Enrico Berlinguer, played a crucial role in Italy's
social and political development, in spite of being systematically kept out of government.
The very popularity of the party led to a grey period in the country's history, the anni di
piombo (years of lead) in the 1970s. Just as the Italian economy was booming, Europe-
wide paranoia about the power of the Communists in Italy fuelled a secretive reaction that,
it is said, was largely directed by the CIA and NATO. Even today, little is known about
Operation Gladio, an underground paramilitary organisation supposedly behind various un-
explained terror attacks in the country, apparently designed to create an atmosphere or fear
in which, should the Communists come close to power, a right-wing coup could be quickly
carried out.
America was named after Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine navigator who, from 1497 to 1504,
made several voyages of discovery in what would one day be known as South America.
The 1970s were thus dominated by the spectre of terrorism and considerable social un-
rest, especially in the universities. Neo-Fascist terrorists struck with a bomb blast in Milan
in 1969. In 1978, the Brigate Rosse (Red Brigades, a group of young left-wing militants re-
sponsible for several bomb blasts and assassinations), claimed their most important victim
- former DC prime minister Aldo Moro. His kidnap and murder some 54 days later (the
subject of the 2003 film Buongiorno, notte ) shook the country.
Despite the disquiet, the 1970s was also a time of positive change. In 1970, regional gov-
ernments with limited powers were formed in 15 of the country's 20 regions (the other five,
Sicily, Sardinia, Valle d'Aosta, Trentino -Alto Adige and Friuli Venezia Giulia, already had