US Intervention In Italy:1948 Elections

United States intervention continued with another dose of massive propaganda as the distribution of pamphlets and documentaries portrayed how good life was in America, demonstrating the life of the American worker and selling the democratic way of life. Feature films such as “Nikotchka” which satired the lives of Russians went a long way in winning the war against communism. This film was repeatedly shown in the working class regions of Italy and had a big effect on the Italian workers vote.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) also stepped up their efforts, as the elections grew nearer by cleverly campaigning to smear the lives of the PCI candidates. CIA sponsored pamphlets began circulation in Italy with forged documents, purportedly coming from PCI leaders, painting them as fascist and against the church. These pamphlets also contained damaging stories of PCI leaders sex and personal lives that further discredited them as the kinds of people fit to run a country. This “smear” campaign had but one goal, regardless of truth or not, and it achieved its goal by raising doubt in the minds of Italians, and by painting the PCI in a bad light.

When examining the outcome of the 1948 elections in Italy after the fact, it is easy to understand why the Christian Democrats were victorious. The enormous aid from the CIA, the NSC, Truman administration, and the United States government clearly swayed the citizens of Italy to vote against communism. The billions of dollars in aid and influence definitely won this election for the Christian Democrats. Were the tactics employed by the United States a win for Democracy and a loss for communism, or does it go deeper than that? Could the Christian Democrats have won the election without the help of the United States or could the Popular Front have squeezed out enough votes to gain total control of the Italian government? The answer these questions will always be debated as to the legitimacy of this election and to whether or not the United States played fairly. One thing for certain that is troublesome to ponder is that if the tables had been turned, it the Soviet Union and Moscow had the same resources allotted to them, would this world be different today? Would the western world have followed suit? That question is one that I am thankful does not need to be answered.

The “red flag” went up for the United States in 1946 when it appeared that Italy had a majority Communist and Socialist government in power. The Italian Communist Party (PCI) and the Socialist Party (PSI) had together garnered more seats in the Constituent Assembly than did the Christian Democrats, causing the United States to take notice. Unfortunately for the opposition, they had run separate candidates and were forced to accept ministerial positions under the Christian Democrat Premier in a coalition cabinet. Nonetheless, the results made the Truman administration take notice of such a potential “disaster”, and led them into the business of intervening; politically, covertly, and overtly to effectively diminish communist and socialist ideals prior to the 1948 elections.

A series of events began in the last month prior to the elections that played a prominent role in the Christian Democratic victory. President Harry Truman chose this time to release 29 merchant ships to the Italian government that had been seized during the war as a gesture of “friendship and confidence in a democratic Italy”(Miller). This event was followed four days later by the House Appropriations Committee’s approval of $18 million in additional “Interim aid” funds for Italy. The flow of United States dollars didn’t end there as an additional $4 million was transferred to Italy for the more than 60,000 former Italian war prisoners who voluntarily fought for the allied cause during the war. If Italians thought they had it made after these infusions of American money, they must have been ecstatic

Some topics in this essay:
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