The relationship between the United States and the Italian right-wing during the Nixon Administration (1969-1974)

Cardillo, D. (2025) The relationship between the United States and the Italian right-wing during the Nixon Administration (1969-1974). PhD thesis, University of Reading. doi: 10.48683/1926.00127768

Abstract/Summary

This thesis examines the relationship between the United States and the Italian right-wing during the Nixon Administration. The focus of this study is the alleged US role in the terrorist attacks and coup plots in Italy in the years between 1969 and 1974. This thesis will make three original contributions to the Cold War history, the US-Italian relations and the history of terrorism through the use of primary sources found in the Italian and American archives. It provides an interpretation of the Cold War as an imperialistic, rather than an ideological clash, in line with the post-revisionist school of thought. It contributes to the literature on terrorism by explaining how manipulating terrorist groups is a means that states can use to achieve more effective results than with orthodox methods. Finally, it shows how the cooperation between the Italian and American governments have evolved in face of the Communist challenge. This research analyses the political goals that the Nixon Administration meant to pursue in Italy, and how it perceived the Italian right-wing as a useful tool in this regard. It investigates how the relations between the two sides evolved over the years starting from the end of World War II and how they affected the course of history in Italy. Through the use of archival evidence, the research proves that there had been interactions between US Government representatives and various neo-Fascist groups to undermine the Italian Communist Party’s ever-growing popularity. The results of this study illustrate that there was an internal rift between the various US state branches regarding support for the Italian right-wing and also within the CIA. It is plausible that such rift prevented the relationship between the United States and the Italian right-wing to become closer, and that they contributed to the failure of the coup plots and the exhaustion of the neo-Fascist terrorist strategy.

Item Type	Thesis (PhD)
URI	https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/id/eprint/127768
Identification Number/DOI	10.48683/1926.00127768
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Humanities > History
Download/View statistics	View download statistics for this item