Top Secret. That million dollars of the CIA to the DC in 1963 to stop the communists

The story is not done with the « if », but it would be interesting to know how it would go to Italy if in the White House, in the middle of the Cold War, there had been Donald Trump. In particular, if the current President of the United States had submitted to his cuts in allocations for foreign countries, even funds on the existence of which one is confirmed thanks to one of his executive orders.
Among the 77,857 pages of the archive material on the assassination of John Kennedy downgraded in March by the Trump disposal, a document reports of CIA funding to Christian democracy. Dollars for the relative majority strength in our country and in all the governments of the so -called first republic and training that since 1947, except between 1976 and 1979, the PCI, the largest Communist Party of the West, found itself in the opposition. Another of the documents made consulted hints at « support » for French and Italian « anti -communist unions ». Another still « selective support » for « autonomist » managers of the socialist party of Pietro Nenni. Among the thousands of files, on Italy they may not be the only ones.

The document

The feedback on the money that Central Intelligence Agency made to the DC is in a memorandum of six car folders, no longer « top secret ». On the first, the « The White House » header. Date, September 10, 1963. Subject: « Management Committee on secret action operations ». Among summary of CIA missions abroad, from the supply of rifles to Haitian exiles to support for « infiltrations » in Northern Vietnam (« Not a great success. High losses of teams »), a chapter has the title « Italy ». Before details useful to understand it better, here it is.

“With the approval of the special group NSC 5412/2, the Christian Democracy Party was supported by the CIA with a million dollars in the countryside which led to the June elections (in addition to 600 thousand dollars to other political components in Italy) « , is the beginning. To follow, although indicating the month of June, the document reports an analysis that appears credible to connect to the receipt suffered by the symbol of the crusader shield in the polls of April 28, 1963 for Parliament: » The explanation of the CIA for the loss of strength of the DC in the elections is that (1) was a loss of voting. Among the workers of the South, who received the communist treatment when they moved to the north cities; (2) Fanfani, and (3) The papal hearing granted to the son -in -law of Krusciov « . Of the latter, granted by John XXIII, it is stated that » it had an effect on the anti -communist religious Italians, including the wives of the workers who had previously managed to convince the husbands to vote against the communist candidates « . The final stripes: « In the meantime, the special group has authorized the CIA to spend 125 thousand dollars to support DC in the current developments that look towards the formation of a center-left government coalition ».

Washington helped the DC since the post -war period. The PCI was financed by the Soviet Union. The « Italian way to socialism » of its secretary Palmiro Togliatti, albeit original, did not foresee tears with Moscow. Without overturning the meaning of the already known story, the now published document brings out less clear aspects.
The « Special Group NSC 5412/2 » mentioned was a committee linked to the national security council. Its function, the political examination of American undercover activities. In 1948 a directive configured them as follows: operations « against states or hostile foreign groups or supports of foreign states or groups friends, but to plan and perform in such a way that, for them, any responsibility of the US government is not evident to unauthorized people ». All activities « which, if discovered, the government can plausibly decline all responsibility », such as « Propaganda », « Economic War », « Suparers », « Assistance to clandestine movements », « Sabotage », other.
The landing of Cuban exiles in the porci bay was to serve in 1961 to overthrow the communist regime of Havana. Prepared by the previous administration, it was attempted during the Kennedy presidency. He failed. On the CIA covered operations, Kennedy wanted to accentuate political control. The « Special Group » was headed by President, State Department, Pentagon. In dealing with the DC, the document made to declassify from Trump specifies that from that group the green light to the funding paid by the CIA came. Name of Fanfani and figure of the Pope had emerged on September 6, 1963 in a meeting of the « Board Panel on Covert Operations », a small committee, of which the Memorandum is a report.
On the one hand, to meet, three councilors from Kennedy on intelligence for foreign countries and two assistants. On the other, with a manager on Cuba of the agency and two collaborators, Richard Helms, the deputy director of Central Intelligence with delegation « on the plans ». A future head of the CIA that at 23 years old, as a journalist, had followed the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. With Adolf Hitler he would also spoke. During the world war, Helms had to monitor German submarines from New York. Then he was trained in espionage by the office of strategic services. In 1945 he organized networks of agents beyond the enemy lines in Germany. Further on he wrote to his son a letter of condemnation of Nazism on Hitler’s headed paper, still a trophy for the CIA.

Surprise

It was Helms the main speaker in the meeting with Kennedy’s collaborators. In 1963, about fifty days before the elections of April 28, Pope John had made a surprise choice: to receive the son -in -law of the Soviet Communist Communist Party in the Vatican Nikita Krusciov, Aleksei Adjubii, and his wife Rada Krusciova. It was March 7th. While anti -communists feared that one day the Cossacks could unintegrate their horses in San Pietro, the two had handed over to the pontiff a letter from the head of the Kremlin. An « appreciation for his efforts for peace » summarized his daughter.
While remaining 38.28% of the total, in 1963 the votes of the DC for the room dropped by over 4% compared to 1958. The PCI obtained 25.26%, almost 3% more than before. Italy was already veering towards the center-left. For the first time since 1947, in December the socialists would return to a government. Pope Giovanni had died on June 3.
Among the various paradoxical implications of the history of the Cold War, one can detect one: even in Moscow, not only in Washington, the hearing in the Vatican aimed at promoting « derives » does not like everyone. In the USSR not to the more Stalinist, insidious for Krusciov. « At the plenum of the Central Committee of 1964 gathered to send my father, so to speak … retired, some intervened to make him a reproach: having used daughter and son -in -law as personal envoys instead of passing through diplomatic channels », said eleven years ago Rada Krusciova at the edition of Bergamo del Corriere della Sera.

Three interviews

Another aspect of the declassified document is that the cause of the Christian Democrats before was identified by the CIA in Fanfani, president of the Council from 1960 to 1963, on good relations with the United States. Also with the secret service. As a secretary of the DC, in 1956, he had reached America by ship. In Washington on August 9 he had a « dinner in the evening with long conversation in Allen Dulles’ house », as Fanfani pinned in his diaries. Of the CIA Allen Welsh Dulles was the director. Between the two, from the same diaries, there are further meetings in Rome on August 26, 1957 and 22 September 1958. A third, in June 1961, during a visit to the United States which allowed the Christian Democrats three interviews with Kennedy of which one of 45 minutes without witnesses except the interpreter.
Unlikely that Trump has read 77,587 declassified pages. It is likely that, for better or for worse, it would find things to learn.