In 1926 Benito Mussolini seized power as the unchallenged dictator of Italy. He had a grand vision of creating a second Roman Empire. Throughout the late 1920s and into the ’30s Mussolini’s charisma and his promise to establish Italy as a world power led to his unprecedented popularity throughout the country. Secrets of War s1e62: Mussolini’s Henchmen
Mussolini’s rise to power had been secured through intimidation and deception. ibid.
His country’s resources almost completely drained by the Ethiopian and Spanish campaigns. ibid.
The war began to go poorly for Italy. ibid.
Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist dictator, was shot dead on 28th April 1945 … What really happened and who was behind the assassination? Jamie Theakston’s Forbidden History s4e6: Mussolini’s Death, Sky 2013
‘The Italians love conspiracy theories … There is no greater story than the death of Mussolini for attracting conspiracy theories.’ ibid. Guy Walters
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. Italy was too backward and too weak to engage in major wars. Charles Wheeler, The Road to War 4/8: Italy
Many lived in extreme poverty, and emigration offered the only hope of a decent life. ibid.
‘We supported Mussolini rather than the fascist party.’ ibid. Italian
Mussolini approved the use of poison gas. ibid.
This is the story of a disaster like no other. When Mount Vesuvius erupted it rained seven a half million tons of debris onto Pompeii. It sealed the fate of more than a thousand people. But it also sealed the city in. Preserved it. Protected it. Like nowhere else on Earth the rediscovered Pompeii gives us access to the ancient world. And now with new findings and new insights we can tell the story of the ordinary people caught up in this disaster. Rome Revealed s1e3: Doomsday Pompeii, National Geographic 2019
It’s the summer of 79 A.D. Several earth tremors have already rocked the town of Pompeii and the surrounding area ... At noon on August 24th a pillar of molten rock seventeen kilometres high rises into the sky. The Roman Empire: Grandeur and Decadence
At 9 p.m. Pompeii has almost been buried under four metres of ash. ibid.
Until the discovery of Pompeii no antique frescoes had been so well preserved. ibid.
Pompeiians would write anywhere. ibid.
In 79 A.D. this volcano exploded ... Pompeii: the eruption which wiped this ancient town off the Roman map is one of the world’s most famous disasters. Professor Mary Beard, Pompeii: Life and Death in a Roman Town, BBC 2012
Pompeii is the most important archaeological site in the Roman world. ibid.
In Pompeii alone there are thirty bakeries. ibid.
Herculaneum was buried under more than fifty feet of volcanic debris during the eruption of 79. ibid.
Fast food joints are one of the commonest features of the Pompeii street scene. ibid.
More than half the population of Herculaneum were descended from slaves. ibid.
A major new forensic study and at the centre are famous castes of human victims of volcanic eruption of A.D. 79. Mary Beard, Pompeii: New Secrets Revealed, BBC 2016
Pompeii’s amphitheatre is one of the best preserved in the whole Roman world. ibid.
Education was brutal, expensive and only for boys who could afford it. ibid.
Europe 2018: From the UK to Germany, Sweden to Greece, extreme right-wing politics are on the rise fuelled by xenophobia and a promise to fight for the rights of white Europeans. Dictators’ Rulebook s1e3: Benito Mussolini
Italy’s Benito Mussolini: has been dismissed as a buffoon, a small-time tyrant who ruled in the shadow of Hitler and Stalin. But he was no-one’s disciple … He called it fascism. ibid.
‘Again and again he keeps getting in trouble for knifing people.’ ibid. Matthew Feldman
He uses an essential tool of dictatorship: creating an enemy. ibid.
The fascist army is publicly unleashed on the communists. ibid.
Mussolini and a handful of fascists are elected to parliament. ibid.
1924: Fascist thugs are posted outside of polling stations throughout the country. ibid.
It is time to build an empire … Mussolini orders his generals to burn Ethiopian villages and to use poison gas on civilians. ibid.
End Game: With the Russians almost at Hitler’s door, staff in the bunker receive dramatic news from Italy: Hitler’s ally, dictator Benito Mussolini, and his mistress have been killed by communist partizans. Their mutilated bodies publicly strung up outside a petrol station near Milan. Rise of the Nazis: The Downfall s1e3
It was the beginning of a dark age of oppression for the Italian people ... Italy was far from being a strong military nation. WWII: Countdown to Victory e17: New Challenges, 2014
Milan: The massacres … where Italy lost its innocence … The start of what would become known as the Years of Lead. Years of Lead: An Italian Conspiracy, Youtube 52.11, 2022
Friday, December 12th 1969: At 4.37 p.m. a bomb devastated the central hall of the National Agrarian Bank, the Piazza Fontana. ibid.
Then within the hour four further bombs went off in Milan and Rome. ibid.
The result of a conspiracy and the template for the wave of terrorist attacks to come. ibid.
The ‘black lead’ was the one that led to the far right. ibid.
Gladio, the double-edge sword: one of the best kept secrets of the post-war period. The codename for the secret army intended to lead the resistance against any potential Soviet invasion. ibid.
July 1970: A bomb on a train in Calabria. 6 dead, 50 injured. ibid.
May 1973: A grenade outside the Milan Prefecture. 4 dead, 52 injured. ibid.
1974: A bomb on the Italicus train between Rome and Brennero. 12 dead, 44 injured. ibid.
Secret protection ensured the impunity of the true perpetrators of this terrorist plot: a small fascist group called Ordine Nuovo (New Order), a veritable nerve centre of black terrorism. ibid.
‘A hidden structure linked to the Italian and American secret services.’ ibid. convicted bomber
Bologna railway station, Saturday August 2nd 1980: 85 dead, more than 200 injured. ibid.
If the instigators of the massacre were never discovered, it is undoubtedly thanks to the manoeuvres of this man, Licio Gelli … the venerable master of a Masonic lodge known as Propaganda Due, or P2. ibid.
Gelli emerged from the shadows in 1981 during investigations into the collapse of a bank, implicating the Mafia, the Vatican’s banker and P2. ibid.
The Federal Criminal Police Office in Wiesbaden. The man who helped establish the agency has been its president for six years, Paul Dickpopf, a top official with an apparently clean record, suggests that he had been an opponent of the Nazis. Until 1971 and in the Brandt era he is West Germany’s top criminal investigator … In 1968 he becomes head of Interpol. Nazis in the CIA, Netflix 2012
They became willing helpers, spies, because the US Intelligence Services could use their past to blackmail them. ibid.
The American Intelligence services were fighting a new enemy, communism, with the help of Nazis who worked for them as spies. ibid.
‘They were used for covert operations and this type of thing.’ ibid. man in the know
The Americans search all over Germany for the former SS officer [mass murderer] Intelligence officer, Eugen Steimle. ibid.
German industry made arrangements to keep its capital safe. ibid.
It [CIA] recruits fascists in Italy during the Cold War. They are to fight communism on behalf of the Americans. Since the 1960s, Italy is shaken by a series of bomb attacks. Hundreds of people die. These acts are first blamed on leftists, but it has been shown that they were committed by the far right. Stefano Delle Chiaie became the leader of the new right. ibid.
In 1970 the fascists and their backers want to stage a coup in Italy and eliminate the left-wing parties. ibid.
The unit is named Gladio and it is under the control of the CIA. ibid.
Many Italians believe that Moro was killed because he wanted to pursue a third way that contradicted Yalta. ibid.
‘Andreotti was the puppet of the Americans.’ ibid. man in the know
Licio Gelli was master of the influential Propaganda Due Masonic Lodge. Gelli had been an American agent since the War. ibid.
After the War, Barbie was recruited by the American Intelligence Services. ibid.
The Americans hide Barbie and other war criminals first in Germany, then in South America. ibid.