MUSSOLINI A Study in Power MUSSOLINI A STUDY IN POWER By Ivone Kirkpatrick HAWTHORN BOOKS, INC. Publishers • n e w y o r k Copyright © 1964 by Ivone Kirkpatrick. Copyright under Interna­ tional and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. All rights re­ served, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review. All inquiries should be addressed to Hawthorn Books, Inc., 70 Fifth Avenue, New York City 10011. This book was manu­ factured in the United States of America and published simultane­ ously in Canada by Prentice-Hall of Canada, Ltd., 520 Ellesmere Road, Scarborough, Ontario. Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 64-13278. Suggested decimal classification: 923.145. First Edition, April, 1964 H-6011 CONTENTS Introduction 9 BOOK X THE ROAD TO POWER Childhood 1883-1901 15 The Vagabond 1901 -1912 28 The Editor 1912-1917 52 The Party Leader 1917 -1922 75 The Parliamentarian 1921-1922 103 The March on Rome 1922 128 BOOK II POWER The Duce 155 The Prime Minister 1922 - 1924 196 The Murder of Matteotti 1924 214 The Dictator 1925 -1929 242 The Conciliation 1929 256 The Halcyon Years 1929-1935 273 The Abyssinian War 1935 -1936 304 5 6 CONTENTS BOOK III DECLINE FOURTEEN The Spanish War and German Entanglement 1936-1939 339 FIFTEEN Prelude to War 1939 390 SIXTEEN The Bitterness of Neutrality 1939 -1940 436 SEVENTEEN War 1940 465 EIGHTEEN The Thorny Path 1941 488 NINETEEN Defeat 1942-1943 506 BOOK IV FALL TWENTY The Palace Revolution 1943 545 TWENTY-ONE Imprisonment and Rescue 1943 568 TWENTY-TWO Vengeance 1943 -1944 589 TWENTY-THREE The Salò Republic 1944 -1945 621 TWENTY-FOUR The End 1945 650 Notes 673 Biographical and Explanatory Notes 689 Bibliography 697 Acknowledgment 708 Index 709 The Author and His Book 727 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS The following group of illustrations appears between pages 288 and 289. The March on Rome. Mussolini arrives to take office. King Victor Immanuel III. Mussolini as Premier. Mussolini and his son Vittorio. A family picnic. At the Rome Horse Show. Jumping a horse. Reviewing Blackshirts. The Fascist Directorate. At the Lateran Palace with Cardinal Gaspard. Signing the Lateran Pact. Alcide de Gasperi. Gabriele D’Annunzio. The Duce as pilot. Roberto Farinacci. The Duce’s office in Palazzo Venezia. Reviewing a parade. Hitler and Mussolini meet for the first time. The two dictators—Germany, 1937. Hitler and Mussolini in Venice, 1937. On an inspection tour of Libya. Reviewing young Fascists. Haranguing Fascist followers from Palazzo Venezia. The following group of illustrations appears between pages 544 and 545. Mussolini on famous balcony. Carlo Sforza. 7 8 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Dino Grandi. Addressing a crowd. Skiing at Terminillo. The Munich Conference. Ciano reviews German honor guard. Ciano and Ribbentrop in Berlin. Marshal Rodolfo Graziani. Mussolini and bodyguard give Fascist salute. Bruno Mussolini. Italo Balbo. Mussolini, Hitler, and Ciano at Brenner Pass. Hitler greeting Mussolini. Ettore Muti, Mussolini, and Marshal Pietro Badoglio. Otto Skorzeny. The Duce, after his rescue, in a German airplane. Donna Rachele Mussolini. Angelica Balabanoff. Clara Petacci. Edda Mussolini. The end. CHART AND MAPS Mussolini’s ancestry. 17 Northern Italy. 24 The March on Rome. 135 The Italian Empire in 1939. 401 Lake Garda. 652 Lake Como. 652 Introduction EARLY in 1930 I was informed that I was to be appointed Head of the Chancery at the embassy in Rome. I had never been in Italy before. I arrived in Rome for the first time on a glorious April morn­ ing, and, as I left the station, I saw the fountains in the Piazza dell’ Esedra sparkling in the sunshine. From that moment I became a captive of Rome. It is the only foreign city to which I return with a feeling of breathless joy. During my term of service I met Mussolini from time to time, but I was, of course, too junior to have official dealings with him. Moreover, until 1932, Grandi was in charge of the Ministry of For­ eign Affairs, and my role was to keep in touch with him through his exceedingly competent chef de cabinet, Pellegrino Ghigi, a man whom Grandi subsequently described to me as being “as close to me as a brother.” My ambassador, Sir Ronald Graham, probably knew Mussolini better than any foreigner. He had witnessed the March on Rome and accompanied Mussolini at every stage in his subsequent de­ velopment. He was a shrewd Scot, who entertained no illusions and who from his long experience in Rome was an excellent judge of Italian affairs. From him and from the records of his many con­ versations with Mussolini I was able to form a vivid picture of the Duce. I have incorporated much of this information in the book. In the autumn of 1933 I was transferred to Berlin. There I con­ tinued to follow with a professional interest Mussolini’s fortunes, and particularly his relations with Germany. Hans Thomsen, who accompanied Hitler on his first visit to Italy, gave me a vivid account of that unfortunate expedition, and I was on friendly terms with 9 10 INTRODUCTION the Italian ambassador, Bernardo Attolico, who was a reliable and useful source of information. In 1937 I witnessed Mussolini’s tri­ umphal entry into Berlin, and I met him again at the Munich Con­ ference in October, 1938. Six years had elapsed since I had seen him in Rome, and he seemed to me to have deteriorated physically and morally. In 1939 I became head of the Central Department of the Foreign Office. From this point of vantage I was concerned with the Prime Minister’s visit to Rome and with the many diplomatic transactions which led to the war. In June, 1940, I heard on the radio the familiar, raucous voice proclaiming from the balcony of the Palazzo Venezia Italy’s declaration of war. In 1941 I became Controller of the European Services of the B.B.C., and one of my tasks was to follow developments in Italy. It was consequently no surprise when we heard the Italian radio an­ nounce the fall of Mussolini. From 1943 to 1945 our task was to seize upon every possible item of Italian news to discredit the Salò Republic. Thus for fifteen years I was, if from a distance, in touch with Mussolini and his affairs. Accordingly, when my publishers invited me to write a life of Mussolini, which might serve as a companion volume to Alan Bullock’s biography of Hitler, I accepted with alacrity. The difficulty, and indeed the impertinence, of an attempt to match Bullock’s outstanding work should have deterred me. But I was beguiled by the prospect of travels in Italy. I was also at­ tracted by the challenge. I knew Hitler fairly well, but there is no doubt that of the two dictators Mussolini was by far the more com­ plex and interesting person. Both friend and foe have spoken of his power to attract men. It was, however, only after I had started work that I began fully to realize how difficult it is to describe the contradictions of Musso­ lini’s character. Nothing can be said of him which is completely true or which cannot be immediately disproved from some reliable source, or even from his own mouth. Nevertheless I have attempted in Chapter VII to offer an assessment of the man which, I fear, will not please those who see in him a simple incarnation of evil, or those who have urged me to illuminate the services which he rendered to Italy.