Table Of ContentMUSSOLINI
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.
