25 years later

CRESPELLANO 02 AUGUST—It was 25 years ago today, at 10:25 a.m. on Aug. 2, 1980, that 40 pounds of high explosives left in a bathroom at the Bologna train station exploded. 85 people were killed and more than 200 wounded. The story of the "stragge" (masacre) in Bologna is a long and complicated one that involves politicians, judges, intelligence services, anarchists and gangsters to name just a few of the characters. It is a story that has so marked Bologna that on each anniversary of the attack when politicians from Rome come to make the requisite speeches, they are heckled by an irate crowd. Today was no different. Vicepresidente del Consiglio Giulio Tremonti, sent on behalf of premier Berlusconi, had to endure the indignant whistles and hoots from the crowd gathered in the Piazza delle Medaglie d'Oro. For you see, no one has ever been brought to justice for this crime.

The events that culminated in the bombing of the Bologna train station really go back more than 60 years, to the dawn of World War II and Italy's tenative, first steps as a republic.

Prior to the beginning of World War II, Benito Mussolini's fascists were in firm control of the Penninsula. Il Duce had practically done away with the Mafia, jailing many of its top leaders. Witnessing Hitler's agressive moves in the rest of Continental Europe, a rather shaky alliance was struck between the two leaders.

The United States entered the war on Dec. 7, 1941. War was declared on Italy and Germany shortly thereafter. In New York, one of the top bosses of the infamous "Murder Inc.," Charles 'Lucky' Luciano, had been languishing in jail since 1936 on prostitution and racketeering charges. However, with the burning in 1942 of the Normandie, an oceanliner that was being converted into a troop ship, the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) felt compelled to call on the man who still had a large influence in controlling the New York docks to help prevent further acts of sabotage. (The fire was later determined to have been caused by an accident.)

In 1943, as the Allies were preparing for the invasion of Sicily, Naval Intelligence again sought the help of Luciano. On condition of his release, 'Lucky' Luciano agreed to help Allied intelligence services desperate for information, to help convince the Sicilian Mafia to aid with the invasion of the island. This set the stage for continued U.S. involvement in Italian affairs after the war and started a chain reaction of forces that would culminate in the tragedy of the train station attack in 1980.

It was now 1947. The Nazis had been defeated. What remained of their criminal network was on the run or had melted back into society. The West had turned its attention to the growing threat of the global spread of communism. Italy would mark one of the key battlegrounds of the rivalry between the two new superpowers, the United States and Soviet Russia. The Truman administration was concerned about the elections in Italy scheduled for April 18, 1948. The Italian Communist Party (PCI) and the Socialist Party (PSI) had merged to form one party. These two parties had dominated interim constitutional elections and increased their total share of the electorate by approximately 10 percent since 1946. This further shift to the left had policy makers in Washington increasingly worried.

Former allies were now adversaries. The Itlaian communists had been the staunchest rivals of the Nazis and the fascists and had helped greatly in the liberation of Italy. Mussolini had persecuted them relentlessly. Now, like the Mob, they were on the wrong side again. The American government threw its weight behind defeating the rising fortunes of the left in the 1948 elections. Most notably by rejecting Italian premier Alcide de Gasperi's plea for economic aid for his starving country (He promptly returned to Italy and disolved his cabinet, kicking out any leftists and the U.S. promptly opened the spiggots, cancelling Italy's $1 billion debt and restoring crucial aid), the creation of the Office of Policy Coordination to overtly and covertly conduct military and political operations and the State Department's announcment that, "If the Communists win...there would be no further question of assistance from the United States." All of these actions, mostly overt and well-publicized, helped assure that the left was defeated in the elections.

The elections of 1948, in my opinion, were really the beginning of what would later be called the "strategy of tension" between opposing political forces in Italy. Leftists were seen as being anarachists and communists, taking their orders from Moscow, while the right wing-establishment was seen by many as being riddled with, among other things, fascists, monarchists and collaborators of the Nazis. Whatever the case, this is a tendency that is still strong in Italy today. Dozens of governments have been formed and fallen since the beginning of the First Republic due to various quarells between factions, corruption scandals and assassinations. Endemic mistrust is part of the fabric of civil life in Italy.

The "strategy of tension" itself refers specifically to the period from the Piazza Fontana bombing in Milan in 1969, in which 16 people were killed, to the Italicus train bombing in 1974, in which 12 people died. During that time that were at least 4 coup d'état attempts. The "strategy of tension" refers to the ongoing crusade of right wing-extremist groups to create tension and fear in order to destabilize the elected government. Remember that at this time, Italy was surrounded by dictatorships in Spain and Turkey. Although the Christian Democrats won the elections of 1948, which brought in the era of the "rinascimento" or renaissance in Italian industry and living standards, the left and its strong labor movement was never really defeated, neither was reform brought to many of Italy's institutions. The "strategy of tension" was part of an overall period known as "the years of lead" (Gli anni di piombo) which began with the Piazza Fontana bombing, included the assassinations of prime minister Aldo Moro in 1978 and senator Paolo Ruffilli in 1986.

In the specific case of the Bologna train station bombing of 1980, the Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari (NAR), a right-wing terrorist group, officially claimed responsibility. There have been two trials, one in Bologna and one in Milan as well as many blue-ribbon commissions on this and other incidents. The first trial produced convictions for a cover-up led by four Neo-Fascists and ex-military officers. The second trial produced life sentences for three Neo-Fascists which were later overturned on appeal. No one knows why the bombing was carried out in the first place— the years of the "strategy of tension" of the early Seventies when Italy's government was in a state of emergency were long over.

And that is why people whistle at politicians 25 years after the fact. It is symbolic of the fact that in Italy justice comes slowly or never at all. Politics is serious business here. An observer of Italian politics once said that just as politicians get serious about getting things done, the bombs always start to go off. Let's hope he's wrong and that those days are over.

Thanks to historian William Blum for some of the historical information contained in this post.

For an interesting interview with a CIA agent who participated in the campaign to influence the 1948 elections go to:
http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/03/interviews/wyatt/