Aldo Moro
Encyclopedia
Aldo Moro was an Italian politician and the 39th Prime Minister of Italy
, from 1963 to 1968, and then from 1974 to 1976. He was one of Italy's longest-serving post-war Prime Ministers, holding power for a combined total of more than six years.
A leader of Democrazia Cristiana
(Christian Democracy, DC), Moro was considered an intellectual and a patient mediator, especially in the internal life of his party. He was kidnapped
on March 16, 1978, by the left-wing Red Brigades
(BR), and killed after 55 days of captivity.
, in the province of Lecce
(Puglia), into a family from Ugento
. At 4, he moved with his family to Milan
, but they soon moved back to Puglia, where he gained a classical high school degree at Archita lyceum
in Taranto
. Till 1939 he studied Law at the University of Bari
, an institution where he was later to hold the post of ordinary professor of philosophy of Law and Colonial Policy (1941) and of Criminal Law (1942).
In 1935, he entered the Catholic university students' association (Federazione Universitaria Cattolica Italiana, FUCI) of Bari
. In 1939, under approval of Giovanni Battista Montini of whom he had befriended, Moro was chosen as president of the association; he kept the post till 1942, succeeded by Giulio Andreotti
. During his university years Italy was under the Fascist government
, and he took part in students competitions (Littoriali della cultura e dell'arte) organised by local fascist students' organisation (Gioventù Universitaria Fascista, GUF). He then founded the periodical La Rassegna, published in 1943–1945.
In 1945 he married Eleonora Chiavarelli (1915–2010), with whom he had four children: Maria Fida (born 1946), Agnese (1952), Anna and Giovanni (1958).
After teaching Law for twenty years in Bari, in 1963 Moro obtained the possibility to move to the Sapienza University of Rome, as professor of Criminal Law and Procedure.
, but then his Catholic faith moved him towards the newly constituted Democrazia Cristiana
(DC). In the DC, he took part in the work of the leftist trend, headed by Giuseppe Dossetti
. In 1945 he became director of the magazine Studium and president of the Graduated Movement of the Azione Cattolica
.
In 1946 he was nominated vice-president of the Democrazia Cristiana and elected
member of the Constitutional Assembly
, where he took part in the work to redact the Italian Constitution. In 1948 he was elected
to the Italian Parliament and nominated vice-minister of Foreign Affairs in the 5th De Gasperi cabinet (May 23, 1948 – January 27, 1950).
In 1953 Moro was re-elected
to the Italian Chamber of Deputies
, where he held the position of chairman of the DC parliamentary group. He was chosen as Minister of Grace and Justice
in the Antonio Segni
1st cabinet in 1955.
Minister of Education in the following Adone Zoli
and Amintore Fanfani
-II cabinets, he introduced civic education into the national curriculum. In 1959, at the 6th party's congress he gained the post of National Secretary of the DC.
In 1963 he was nominated Prime Minister of Italy
for the first time. His government was unevenly supported by the DC, but also by the Italian Socialist Party
, along with the minor Italian Republican Party
and Italian Democratic Socialist Party
. The centre-left coalition, a first for Italian post-was political panorama, stayed in power until the 1968 general elections
. His 3rd cabinet (1966–68) stayed in power for 833 days, a record for Italy's so-called "First Republic".
In the 1968 DC's congress, Moro yielded the Secretariat and passed to internal opposition, while serving as Foreign Minister
between 1969 and 1974. In 1974–1976 he re-gained the post of Prime Minister, and concluded the Osimo Treaty with Yugoslavia
, defining the official partition of the Free Territory of Trieste
. In 1976 he was elected President of the DC National Council.
At the beginning of the 1960s, Moro was one of the most convinced supporters of an alliance between the DC and the Italian Socialist Party
, in order to widen the majority and integrate the socialists in the government system. In the 1963 party congress in Naples
, he was able to convince the whole party directive of the strategy. The same happened in 1978, when he supported a "national solidarity" government with the backing of the Italian Communist Party
.
Moro's main aim was to widen the democratic base of the government: the cabinets should have been able to represent a bigger number of voters and parties. He thought of the DC as the fulcrum of a coalition system, on the principles of consociative democracy
.
Moro faced big challenges: especially, the necessity to conciliate the Christian and popular mission of the Democrazia Cristiana with the raising laicist and liberal values of the Italian society in the 1960s, and the necessity to integrate new important social groups (youth, women, workers) in the democratic system. DC's mission, in Moro's vision, was intended to recover the popular class that supported Fascism
and ferry them in the democratic system. The contraction of Moro's political stance was in trying to reconcile the extreme mobility of social transformations with the continuity of the institutions of representative democracy, and the integration the masses in the State, without falling into authocracy.
Following the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, the Italian Socialist Party
(PSI) had taken a definitive distance from the Italian Communist Party
(PCI), and Pietro Nenni
had collaborated with the DC in the early 1960s. After the rise of the PCI of Enrico Berlinguer
at the 1976 general elections
, when the Communists scored 34,4% of the votes, Moro conceived the idea of a "national solidarity" cabinet, whose parliamentary base should include the PCI as well. Moro's idea was openly criticised, as such an "Historic Compromise
" would have involved a PCI which was still under direct influence from Moscow. Anyway, Berlinguer openly defused the proposition.
In 1976–1977, Berlinguer's PCI broke up with Moscow, and convened with the Spanish and French parties to draw the lines of Eurocommunism
. Such a move made an eventual collaboration more acceptable for DC voters, and the two parties began an intense parliamentary debate, in a moment of deep social crises.
The early-1978 proposition by Moro of a DC-PSI cabinet supported also by the PCI was anyway strongly opposed by both super-powers: the USA (and its State Secretary Henry Kissinger
in particular) feared that the collaboration of an Italian government with the Communists might have allowed these latter to gain information on strategic NATO military plans and installations, and pass them to Soviet
agents. Moreover, the participation in government of the Communists in a Western country would have represented a cultural failure for the USA. USSR considered a participation of the PCI in a cabinet as a form of emancipation from Moscow and rapproachment to the Americans, therefore opposing it.
In 1977, Moro had been personally involved in international divergences. He strongly defended Mariano Rumor
during the parliamentary debate on the Lockheed scandal, and a part of the press reported that he might have been the same Antelope Cobbler, destinatary of the bribes. Such accusation, aimed at politically destroying Moro and avoiding the risk of a "Historic Compromise
" cabinet, failed with Moro's absolution on March 3, 1978, 13 days before his kidnapping.
blocked the two-car convoy transporting Moro and kidnapped him, executing in cold blood his five bodyguards. At the time, all of the founding members of the Red Brigades were in jail; the organisation led by Mario Moretti
that kidnapped Moro, therefore, is said to be the "Second Red Brigades."
On the day of his kidnapping, Moro was on his way to a session of the House of Representatives, where a discussion was to take place regarding a vote of confidence for a new government led by Giulio Andreotti
(DC) that would have, for the first time, the support of the Communist Party. It was to be the first implementation of Moro's strategic political vision as defined by the Compromesso storico
(historic compromise).
In the following days, trade unions called for a general strike
, while security forces made hundreds of raids in Rome, Milan, Turin and other cities searching for Moro's location. Held for two months, he was allowed to send letters to his family and politicians. The government refused to negotiate, despite demands by family, friends and Pope Paul VI. In fact, Paul VI "offered himself in exchange … for Aldo Moro …"
During the investigation of Moro's kidnapping, General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa
reportedly responded to a member of the security services who suggested torturing a suspected brigadisti, "Italy can survive the loss of Aldo Moro. It would not survive the introduction of torture." The Red Brigades initiated a secret trial where Moro was found guilty and sentenced to death. Then they sent demands to the Italian authorities, stating that unless 16 Red Guard prisoners were released, Moro would be executed. The Italian authorities responded with a large-scale manhunt.
Romano Prodi
, Mario Baldassarri
, and Alberto Clò, of the faculty of the University of Bologna
passed on a tip about a safe-house where the BR might have been holding Moro on April 2. Prodi claimed he had been given the tip by the founders of the Christian Democrats, from beyond the grave in a séance
and a Ouija board
, which gave the names of Viterbo
, Bolsena
and Gradoli
.
(who later personally officiated in Moro's Funeral Mass
). Those letters, at times very critical of Andreotti, were kept secret for more than a decade, and published only in the early 1990s. In his letters, Moro said that the state's primary objective should be saving lives, and that the government should comply with his kidnappers' demands. Most of the Christian Democrat leaders argued that the letters did not express Moro's genuine wishes, claiming they were written under duress, and thus refused all negotiation. This was in stark contrast to the requests of Moro's family. In his appeal to the terrorists, Pope Paul asked them to release Moro "without conditions".
It has been conjectured that Moro used these letters to send cryptic messages to his family and colleagues. Doubts have been advanced about the completeness of these letters; Carabinieri
General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa (later killed by the Mafia
) found copies of the letters in a house that terrorists used in Milan
, and for some reason this was not publicly known until many years later.
into him, killing him: according to the official reconstruction after a series of trials, the killer was Mario Moretti
. Moro's body was left in the trunk of a red Renault 4
in Via Michelangelo Caetani. Despite the common interpretation, the location was not midway between the national seats of DC and of the Italian Communist Party
(PCI) in Rome (in this case to symbolize the end of the Historic Compromise
, the alliance between DC and PCI sought by Moro), but towards the Tiber River, near the Ghetto
.
After the recovery of Moro's body, the Minister of the Interior
Francesco Cossiga
resigned, gaining trust from the Communist party, which would later make him the first President of the Italian Republic.
was arrested along with other leaders of Autonomia Operaia
(Oreste Scalzone
, E. Vesce, A. Del Re, L. Ferrari Bravo, Franco Piperno
and others). Pietro Calogero, an attorney close to the PCI, accused the Autonomia group of masterminding left-wing "terrorism" in Italy. Negri was charged with a number of offences including leadership of the Red Brigades, being behind Moro's kidnapping and murder and plotting to overthrow the government. A year later, he was found innocent of Moro's assassination.
In the New York Review of Books, Thomas Sheehan wrote at the time in Negri's defense, "Negri is a figure of some stature in Italy, and his arrest might be compared, imperfectly, to jailing Herbert Marcuse
a decade ago on suspicion of being the brains behind the Weathermen
."
In the same journal in 2003, Alexander Stille
accused Negri of bearing moral but not legal responsibility for the crimes, citing Negri's words from one year later:
and
", directed by NATO, has also been accused.
Historian Sergio Flamigni, member of the Communist Refoundation Party
, believes Moretti was used by Gladio in Italy
to take over the Red Brigades
and pursue a strategy of tension
.
In BR member Alberto Franceschini's book, Aldo Moro is described as one of Gladio's founders. Evidence has emerged to support this view of American involvement in the overarching the strategy of tension, and of known strong American foreign policies against the then looming historic (unprecedented in post war times) coalition that would have admitted the eurocommunist
PCI into a government of national unity, the fear on the US side being that Italy thereafter might withdraw from NATO and that the US would then lose access to vital Mediterranean ports.
Moro's widow later recounted Moro's meeting with U.S. President Nixon's advisor, Henry Kissinger
, and an unidentified American intelligence official, who warned him not to pursue the strategy of bringing the Communist Party into his cabinet, telling him "You must abandon your policy of bringing all the political forces in your country into direct collaboration...or you will pay dearly for it." Moro was allegedly so shaken by the comment that he became ill and threatened to quit politics.
But finally Aldo Moro did not quit politics; in the month following the Kissinger/Moro meeting, Aldo Moro was heading to the Italian Parliament for the crucial vote Moro had proposed when Moro was kidnapped and subsequently murdered.
". He painted the figure of General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa
as "general Amen", explaining in his review, the Osservatorio politico, in an article titled Vergogna, buffoni! (Shame on you, buffoons!), that it was Dalla Chiesa that, during Aldo Moro's kidnapping, had informed the then Interior Minister Francesco Cossiga
of the location of the cave where Moro was detained. But he would have been ordered not to act on his information because of the opposition of a "lodge of the Christ in Paradise", referring to Propaganda Due
masonic lodge. Pecorelli then wrote that Dalla Chiesa was also in danger and would be assassinated (Dalla Chiesa was murdered four years later). After Aldo Moro's assassination, Mino Pecorelli published some confidential documents, mainly Moro's letters to his family. In a cryptic article published in May 1978 Pecorelli drew a connection between Moro's death and Gladio, NATO's stay-behind anti-communist organisation whose existence was publicly acknowledged by Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti only in October 1990. During his interrogation, Aldo Moro had referred to "NATO's anti-guerrilla activities." Mino Pecorelli, who was on Licio Gelli
's list of P2 members discovered in 1980, was assassinated on March 20, 1979. The ammunitions used for Pecorelli's assassination, a very rare type, were the same as those discovered in the Banda della Magliana
's weapons stock hidden in the Health Minister's basement. Pecorelli's assassination has been thought to be directly related to Giulio Andreotti
, who was first condemned to 24 years of prison for homicide in 2002 and finally acquitted by the Supreme Court of Cassation
in 2003.
, Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal
stated from his cell in the prison at Poissy that there had been a deal to exchange Aldo Moro for several imprisoned members of the Red Brigades. Under the terms of the deal struck with "patriotic" members of the Italian military intelligence agency SISMI
(Carlos' words), several Italian servicemen and members of a Palestinian resistance group would escort the prisoners to an Arab country. The deal fell through while the plane sat on a runway in Beirut, perhaps because a PLO official's loose tongue alarmed a "pro-NATO" faction within SISMI. (Carlos maintains that NATO wanted Moro dead, while the Soviets wanted him alive.) The officials in charge of the operation were subsequently purged or forced to resign.
Carlos also claimed that the plotters originally planned to kidnap, along with Moro, the industrialist Gianni Agnelli
and a judge of the Italian Supreme Court. He expressed surprise to learn that the Catholic Church was ready to pay a huge ransom for Moro's release.
, a former member of the U.S. State Department sent by President Jimmy Carter
as a "psychological expert" to integrate the Interior Minister Francesco Cossiga
's "crisis committee", was interviewed by Emmanuel Amara in his 2006 documentary Les derniers jours d'Aldo Moro ("The Last Days of Aldo Moro"), in which he alleged that: "We had to sacrifice Aldo Moro to maintain the stability of Italy."
He alleged that the U.S. had to "instrumentalize the Red Brigades," and that the decision to have him killed was taken during the fourth week of Moro's detention, when he started revealing state secrets through his letters (allegedly the existence of Gladio). Francesco Cossiga
also said the "crisis committee" also leaked a false statement, attributed to the Red Brigades
, saying that Moro was dead.
Prime minister of Italy
The Prime Minister of Italy is the head of government of the Italian Republic...
, from 1963 to 1968, and then from 1974 to 1976. He was one of Italy's longest-serving post-war Prime Ministers, holding power for a combined total of more than six years.
A leader of Democrazia Cristiana
Christian Democracy (Italy)
Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic party in Italy. It was founded in 1943 as the ideological successor of the historical Italian People's Party, which had the same symbol, a crossed shield ....
(Christian Democracy, DC), Moro was considered an intellectual and a patient mediator, especially in the internal life of his party. He was kidnapped
Kidnapping of Aldo Moro
The kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro was a seminal event in Italian political history.On the morning of 16 March 1978, the day in which the new cabinet led by Giulio Andreotti would undergo the confidence vote at the Italian Parliament, the car of Aldo Moro, former prime minister and then...
on March 16, 1978, by the left-wing Red Brigades
Red Brigades
The Red Brigades was a Marxist-Leninist terrorist organisation, based in Italy, which was responsible for numerous violent incidents, assassinations, and robberies during the so-called "Years of Lead"...
(BR), and killed after 55 days of captivity.
Early career
Moro was born in MaglieMaglie
Maglie is a town and comune in the province of Lecce in the Apulia region of south-east Italy.-History:The Maglie area was settled as early as the Bronze Age and the early Iron Age, and before, as testified by the presence of archaic dolmens and menhirs, and by the Cattìe site, discovered in 1980,...
, in the province of Lecce
Province of Lecce
The Province of Lecce is a province in the Apulia region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Lecce. Totally included in the Salento peninsula, it is the second most populous province in Apulia and the twenty-first most populous in Italy....
(Puglia), into a family from Ugento
Ugento
Ugento is a town and comune in Italy. It has a small harbour, and is situated in the province of Lecce, in Apulia, on the Gulf of Taranto . It includes the frazioni of Gemini and Torre San Giovanni.-History:...
. At 4, he moved with his family to Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, but they soon moved back to Puglia, where he gained a classical high school degree at Archita lyceum
Lyceum
The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies between countries; usually it is a type of secondary school.-History:...
in Taranto
Taranto
Taranto is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto and is an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base....
. Till 1939 he studied Law at the University of Bari
University of Bari
The University of Bari is a university located in Bari, Italy. It was founded in 1925 and is organized in 12 Faculties.-Organization:These are the 13 faculties in which the university is divided into:* Faculty of Agricultural Science...
, an institution where he was later to hold the post of ordinary professor of philosophy of Law and Colonial Policy (1941) and of Criminal Law (1942).
In 1935, he entered the Catholic university students' association (Federazione Universitaria Cattolica Italiana, FUCI) of Bari
Bari
Bari is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas...
. In 1939, under approval of Giovanni Battista Montini of whom he had befriended, Moro was chosen as president of the association; he kept the post till 1942, succeeded by Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti is an Italian politician of the now dissolved centrist Christian Democracy party. He served as the 42nd Prime Minister of Italy from 1972 to 1973, from 1976 to 1979 and from 1989 to 1992. He also served as Minister of the Interior , Defense Minister and Foreign Minister and he...
. During his university years Italy was under the Fascist government
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
, and he took part in students competitions (Littoriali della cultura e dell'arte) organised by local fascist students' organisation (Gioventù Universitaria Fascista, GUF). He then founded the periodical La Rassegna, published in 1943–1945.
In 1945 he married Eleonora Chiavarelli (1915–2010), with whom he had four children: Maria Fida (born 1946), Agnese (1952), Anna and Giovanni (1958).
After teaching Law for twenty years in Bari, in 1963 Moro obtained the possibility to move to the Sapienza University of Rome, as professor of Criminal Law and Procedure.
Political activities
Moro developed his interest in politics between 1943 and 1945. Initially, he seemed to be very interested in the social-democratic component of the Italian Socialist PartyItalian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy founded in Genoa in 1892.Once the dominant leftist party in Italy, it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party following World War II...
, but then his Catholic faith moved him towards the newly constituted Democrazia Cristiana
Christian Democracy (Italy)
Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic party in Italy. It was founded in 1943 as the ideological successor of the historical Italian People's Party, which had the same symbol, a crossed shield ....
(DC). In the DC, he took part in the work of the leftist trend, headed by Giuseppe Dossetti
Giuseppe Dossetti
Giuseppe Dossetti was an Italian jurist, a politician and from 1958 onward a Catholic priest.- The antifascist and politician :Dossetti was born in Genoa....
. In 1945 he became director of the magazine Studium and president of the Graduated Movement of the Azione Cattolica
Azione Cattolica
The Azione Cattolica Italiana, or Azione Cattolica for short, is a widespread lay Roman Catholic association in Italy.-History:...
.
In 1946 he was nominated vice-president of the Democrazia Cristiana and elected
Italian general election, 1946
The Italian general election of 2 June 1946 was the first Italian election after World War II and elected 556 deputies to a Constituent Assembly...
member of the Constitutional Assembly
Constituent Assembly of Italy
The Italian Constituent Assembly was a parliamentary chamber which existed in Italy from 25 June 1946 until 31 January 1948...
, where he took part in the work to redact the Italian Constitution. In 1948 he was elected
Italian general election, 1948
The Italian elections of 1948 were the second democratic elections with universal suffrage ever held in Italy, taking place after the 1946 elections to the Constituent Assembly, responsible for drawing up a new Italian Constitution...
to the Italian Parliament and nominated vice-minister of Foreign Affairs in the 5th De Gasperi cabinet (May 23, 1948 – January 27, 1950).
In 1953 Moro was re-elected
Italian general election, 1953
The Italian elections of 1953 were held on June 7. They were a test for leading centrist coalition ruled by Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi. Italian electors chose the second Parliament of the Italian Republic.-The Scam Law:...
to the Italian Chamber of Deputies
Italian Chamber of Deputies
The Italian Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Parliament of Italy. It has 630 seats, a plurality of which is controlled presently by liberal-conservative party People of Freedom. Twelve deputies represent Italian citizens outside of Italy. Deputies meet in the Palazzo Montecitorio. A...
, where he held the position of chairman of the DC parliamentary group. He was chosen as Minister of Grace and Justice
Ministry of Justice (Italy)
The Ministry of Justice is a department of the government of Italy. Headquartered in Rome, it is headed by the Minister of Justice.-External links:* *...
in the Antonio Segni
Antonio Segni
Antonio Segni was an Italian politician who was the 35th Prime Minister of Italy , and the fourth President of the Italian Republic from 1962 to 1964...
1st cabinet in 1955.
Minister of Education in the following Adone Zoli
Adone Zoli
Adone Zoli was an Italian politician and member of the Christian Democratic Party. He served as the 36th Prime Minister of Italy from 1957-1958.-Biography:Zoli was born in Cesena, in the province of Forlì-Cesena....
and Amintore Fanfani
Amintore Fanfani
Amintore Fanfani was an Italian career politician and the 33rd man to serve the office of Prime Minister of the State. He was one of the well-known Italian politicians after the Second World War, and a historical figure of the Christian Democracy .Fanfani and Giovanni Giolitti are still actually...
-II cabinets, he introduced civic education into the national curriculum. In 1959, at the 6th party's congress he gained the post of National Secretary of the DC.
In 1963 he was nominated Prime Minister of Italy
Prime minister of Italy
The Prime Minister of Italy is the head of government of the Italian Republic...
for the first time. His government was unevenly supported by the DC, but also by the Italian Socialist Party
Italian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy founded in Genoa in 1892.Once the dominant leftist party in Italy, it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party following World War II...
, along with the minor Italian Republican Party
Italian Republican Party
The Italian Republican Party is a liberal political party in Italy.The PRI is party with old roots that originally took a left-wing position, claiming descent from the political position of Giuseppe Mazzini...
and Italian Democratic Socialist Party
Italian Democratic Socialist Party
The Italian Democratic Socialist Party is a minor social-democratic political party in Italy. Mimmo Magistro is the party leader. The PSDI, before the 1990s decline in votes and members, had been an important force in Italian politics, being the longest serving partner in government for Christian...
. The centre-left coalition, a first for Italian post-was political panorama, stayed in power until the 1968 general elections
Italian general election, 1968
The Italian elections of 1968 were held on May 19. The fifth Parliament of republican Italy was selected, while voters were 35,566,681 for the Chamber of Deputies and 33,003,249 for the Italian Senate, with an increment of some 3,000,000 in both elections from 1963.Democrazia Cristiana remained...
. His 3rd cabinet (1966–68) stayed in power for 833 days, a record for Italy's so-called "First Republic".
In the 1968 DC's congress, Moro yielded the Secretariat and passed to internal opposition, while serving as Foreign Minister
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Italy)
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the foreign ministry of the government of the Republic of Italy. It is also known as the Farnesina as a metonym from its headquarters, the Palazzo della Farnesina in Rome...
between 1969 and 1974. In 1974–1976 he re-gained the post of Prime Minister, and concluded the Osimo Treaty with Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, defining the official partition of the Free Territory of Trieste
Free Territory of Trieste
The Free Territory of Trieste was to be a city-state situated in Central Europe between northern Italy and Yugoslavia, created by the United Nations Security Council in the aftermath of World War II and provisionally administered by an appointed military governor commanding the peacekeeping United...
. In 1976 he was elected President of the DC National Council.
Historic Compromise
Moro was considered a very tenacious mediator, particularly skilled in coordinating the different internal trends of DC.At the beginning of the 1960s, Moro was one of the most convinced supporters of an alliance between the DC and the Italian Socialist Party
Italian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy founded in Genoa in 1892.Once the dominant leftist party in Italy, it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party following World War II...
, in order to widen the majority and integrate the socialists in the government system. In the 1963 party congress in Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
, he was able to convince the whole party directive of the strategy. The same happened in 1978, when he supported a "national solidarity" government with the backing of the Italian Communist Party
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party was a communist political party in Italy.The PCI was founded as Communist Party of Italy on 21 January 1921 in Livorno, by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party . Amadeo Bordiga and Antonio Gramsci led the split. Outlawed during the Fascist regime, the party played...
.
Moro's main aim was to widen the democratic base of the government: the cabinets should have been able to represent a bigger number of voters and parties. He thought of the DC as the fulcrum of a coalition system, on the principles of consociative democracy
Consociationalism
Consociationalism is a form of government involving guaranteed group representation, and is often suggested for managing conflict in deeply divided societies...
.
Moro faced big challenges: especially, the necessity to conciliate the Christian and popular mission of the Democrazia Cristiana with the raising laicist and liberal values of the Italian society in the 1960s, and the necessity to integrate new important social groups (youth, women, workers) in the democratic system. DC's mission, in Moro's vision, was intended to recover the popular class that supported Fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
and ferry them in the democratic system. The contraction of Moro's political stance was in trying to reconcile the extreme mobility of social transformations with the continuity of the institutions of representative democracy, and the integration the masses in the State, without falling into authocracy.
Following the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, the Italian Socialist Party
Italian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy founded in Genoa in 1892.Once the dominant leftist party in Italy, it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party following World War II...
(PSI) had taken a definitive distance from the Italian Communist Party
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party was a communist political party in Italy.The PCI was founded as Communist Party of Italy on 21 January 1921 in Livorno, by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party . Amadeo Bordiga and Antonio Gramsci led the split. Outlawed during the Fascist regime, the party played...
(PCI), and Pietro Nenni
Pietro Nenni
Pietro Sandro Nenni was an Italian socialist politician, the national secretary of the Italian Socialist Party and lifetime Senator since 1970. He was a recipient of the Stalin Peace Prize in 1951...
had collaborated with the DC in the early 1960s. After the rise of the PCI of Enrico Berlinguer
Enrico Berlinguer
Enrico Berlinguer was an Italian politician; he was national secretary of the Italian Communist Party from 1972 until his death.-Early career:...
at the 1976 general elections
Italian general election, 1976
The Italian elections of 1976 were held on June 20. The seventh Parliament of republican Italy was selected. These were the first elections where 18-year-old boys and girls were allowed to vote....
, when the Communists scored 34,4% of the votes, Moro conceived the idea of a "national solidarity" cabinet, whose parliamentary base should include the PCI as well. Moro's idea was openly criticised, as such an "Historic Compromise
Historic Compromise
In Italian history, the Historic Compromise was an accommodation between the Christian Democrats and the Italian Communist Party in the 1970s, after the latter embraced eurocommunism under Enrico Berlinguer. The 1978 assassination of DC leader Aldo Moro put an end to the Compromesso storico...
" would have involved a PCI which was still under direct influence from Moscow. Anyway, Berlinguer openly defused the proposition.
In 1976–1977, Berlinguer's PCI broke up with Moscow, and convened with the Spanish and French parties to draw the lines of Eurocommunism
Eurocommunism
Eurocommunism was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties to develop a theory and practice of social transformation that was more relevant in a Western European democracy and less aligned to the influence or control of the Communist Party of the Soviet...
. Such a move made an eventual collaboration more acceptable for DC voters, and the two parties began an intense parliamentary debate, in a moment of deep social crises.
The early-1978 proposition by Moro of a DC-PSI cabinet supported also by the PCI was anyway strongly opposed by both super-powers: the USA (and its State Secretary Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger
Heinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...
in particular) feared that the collaboration of an Italian government with the Communists might have allowed these latter to gain information on strategic NATO military plans and installations, and pass them to Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
agents. Moreover, the participation in government of the Communists in a Western country would have represented a cultural failure for the USA. USSR considered a participation of the PCI in a cabinet as a form of emancipation from Moscow and rapproachment to the Americans, therefore opposing it.
In 1977, Moro had been personally involved in international divergences. He strongly defended Mariano Rumor
Mariano Rumor
Mariano Rumor was an Italian politician, a member of the Democrazia Cristiana and the 40th Prime Minister of Italy.He was born in Vicenza, Veneto...
during the parliamentary debate on the Lockheed scandal, and a part of the press reported that he might have been the same Antelope Cobbler, destinatary of the bribes. Such accusation, aimed at politically destroying Moro and avoiding the risk of a "Historic Compromise
Historic Compromise
In Italian history, the Historic Compromise was an accommodation between the Christian Democrats and the Italian Communist Party in the 1970s, after the latter embraced eurocommunism under Enrico Berlinguer. The 1978 assassination of DC leader Aldo Moro put an end to the Compromesso storico...
" cabinet, failed with Moro's absolution on March 3, 1978, 13 days before his kidnapping.
Kidnapping and death
Kidnapping
On March 16, 1978, on Via Fani, a street in Rome, a unit of the militant communist organisation known as the Red BrigadesRed Brigades
The Red Brigades was a Marxist-Leninist terrorist organisation, based in Italy, which was responsible for numerous violent incidents, assassinations, and robberies during the so-called "Years of Lead"...
blocked the two-car convoy transporting Moro and kidnapped him, executing in cold blood his five bodyguards. At the time, all of the founding members of the Red Brigades were in jail; the organisation led by Mario Moretti
Mario Moretti
Mario Moretti is an Italian former terrorist. A leading member of the Red Brigades in the late 1970s, he was one of the kidnappers of Aldo Moro, president of Italy's largest party, Democrazia Cristiana, and several times premier, in 1978; he later confessed to have been the one who killed the...
that kidnapped Moro, therefore, is said to be the "Second Red Brigades."
On the day of his kidnapping, Moro was on his way to a session of the House of Representatives, where a discussion was to take place regarding a vote of confidence for a new government led by Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti is an Italian politician of the now dissolved centrist Christian Democracy party. He served as the 42nd Prime Minister of Italy from 1972 to 1973, from 1976 to 1979 and from 1989 to 1992. He also served as Minister of the Interior , Defense Minister and Foreign Minister and he...
(DC) that would have, for the first time, the support of the Communist Party. It was to be the first implementation of Moro's strategic political vision as defined by the Compromesso storico
Historic Compromise
In Italian history, the Historic Compromise was an accommodation between the Christian Democrats and the Italian Communist Party in the 1970s, after the latter embraced eurocommunism under Enrico Berlinguer. The 1978 assassination of DC leader Aldo Moro put an end to the Compromesso storico...
(historic compromise).
In the following days, trade unions called for a general strike
General strike
A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...
, while security forces made hundreds of raids in Rome, Milan, Turin and other cities searching for Moro's location. Held for two months, he was allowed to send letters to his family and politicians. The government refused to negotiate, despite demands by family, friends and Pope Paul VI. In fact, Paul VI "offered himself in exchange … for Aldo Moro …"
During the investigation of Moro's kidnapping, General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa
Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa
Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa was a general of the Italian carabinieri notable for campaigning against terrorism during the 1970s in Italy, and later assassinated by the Mafia in Palermo.-Biography:...
reportedly responded to a member of the security services who suggested torturing a suspected brigadisti, "Italy can survive the loss of Aldo Moro. It would not survive the introduction of torture." The Red Brigades initiated a secret trial where Moro was found guilty and sentenced to death. Then they sent demands to the Italian authorities, stating that unless 16 Red Guard prisoners were released, Moro would be executed. The Italian authorities responded with a large-scale manhunt.
Negotiations
The Red Brigades (BR) proposed to exchange Moro's life for the freedom of several imprisoned terrorists. During his detention, there has been speculation that many knew where he was (an apartment in Rome). When Moro was abducted, the government immediately took a hard line position: the "State must not bend" on terrorist demands. Some contrasted this with the kidnapping of Ciro Cirillo in 1981, a minor political figure for whom the government negotiated. However, Cirillo was released for a monetary ransom, rather than the release of imprisoned terrorists.Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi
Romano Prodi is an Italian politician and statesman. He served as the Prime Minister of Italy, from 17 May 1996 to 21 October 1998 and from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008...
, Mario Baldassarri
Mario Baldassarri
Mario Baldassarri is an Italian economist and politician, and a member of Alleanza Nazionale. He was elected as a senator during the 2006 general election....
, and Alberto Clò, of the faculty of the University of Bologna
University of Bologna
The Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna is the oldest continually operating university in the world, the word 'universitas' being first used by this institution at its foundation. The true date of its founding is uncertain, but believed by most accounts to have been 1088...
passed on a tip about a safe-house where the BR might have been holding Moro on April 2. Prodi claimed he had been given the tip by the founders of the Christian Democrats, from beyond the grave in a séance
Séance
A séance is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word "séance" comes from the French word for "seat," "session" or "sitting," from the Old French "seoir," "to sit." In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, speak of "une séance de cinéma"...
and a Ouija board
Ouija
The Ouija board also known as a spirit/fire key board or talking board, is a flat board marked with the letters of the alphabet, the numbers 0-9, the words "yes", "no", "hello" and "goodbye", and other symbols and words are sometimes also added to help personalize the board...
, which gave the names of Viterbo
Viterbo
See also Viterbo, Texas and Viterbo UniversityViterbo is an ancient city and comune in the Lazio region of central Italy, the capital of the province of Viterbo. It is approximately 80 driving / 80 walking kilometers north of GRA on the Via Cassia, and it is surrounded by the Monti Cimini and...
, Bolsena
Bolsena
Bolsena is a town and comune of Italy, in the province of Viterbo in northern Lazio on the eastern shore of Lake Bolsena. It is 10 km north-north west of Montefiascone and 36 km north-west of Viterbo...
and Gradoli
Gradoli
Gradoli is a comune in the Province of Viterbo in the Italian region Latium, located about 100 km northwest of Rome and about 35 km northwest of Viterbo....
.
Captivity letters
During this period, Moro wrote several letters to the leaders of the Christian Democrats and to Pope Paul VIPope Paul VI
Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...
(who later personally officiated in Moro's Funeral Mass
Mass (liturgy)
"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...
). Those letters, at times very critical of Andreotti, were kept secret for more than a decade, and published only in the early 1990s. In his letters, Moro said that the state's primary objective should be saving lives, and that the government should comply with his kidnappers' demands. Most of the Christian Democrat leaders argued that the letters did not express Moro's genuine wishes, claiming they were written under duress, and thus refused all negotiation. This was in stark contrast to the requests of Moro's family. In his appeal to the terrorists, Pope Paul asked them to release Moro "without conditions".
It has been conjectured that Moro used these letters to send cryptic messages to his family and colleagues. Doubts have been advanced about the completeness of these letters; Carabinieri
Carabinieri
The Carabinieri is the national gendarmerie of Italy, policing both military and civilian populations, and is a branch of the armed forces.-Early history:...
General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa (later killed by the Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
) found copies of the letters in a house that terrorists used in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, and for some reason this was not publicly known until many years later.
Murder
When the Red Brigades decided to kill Moro, they placed him in a car and told him to cover himself with a blanket, that they were going to transport him to another location. After Moro was covered, they shot ten roundsCartridge (firearms)
A cartridge, also called a round, packages the bullet, gunpowder and primer into a single metallic case precisely made to fit the firing chamber of a firearm. The primer is a small charge of impact-sensitive chemical that may be located at the center of the case head or at its rim . Electrically...
into him, killing him: according to the official reconstruction after a series of trials, the killer was Mario Moretti
Mario Moretti
Mario Moretti is an Italian former terrorist. A leading member of the Red Brigades in the late 1970s, he was one of the kidnappers of Aldo Moro, president of Italy's largest party, Democrazia Cristiana, and several times premier, in 1978; he later confessed to have been the one who killed the...
. Moro's body was left in the trunk of a red Renault 4
Renault 4
The Renault 4, also known as the 4L , is a hatchback economy car produced by the French automaker Renault between 1961 and 1992. It was the first front-wheel drive family car produced by Renault....
in Via Michelangelo Caetani. Despite the common interpretation, the location was not midway between the national seats of DC and of the Italian Communist Party
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party was a communist political party in Italy.The PCI was founded as Communist Party of Italy on 21 January 1921 in Livorno, by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party . Amadeo Bordiga and Antonio Gramsci led the split. Outlawed during the Fascist regime, the party played...
(PCI) in Rome (in this case to symbolize the end of the Historic Compromise
Historic Compromise
In Italian history, the Historic Compromise was an accommodation between the Christian Democrats and the Italian Communist Party in the 1970s, after the latter embraced eurocommunism under Enrico Berlinguer. The 1978 assassination of DC leader Aldo Moro put an end to the Compromesso storico...
, the alliance between DC and PCI sought by Moro), but towards the Tiber River, near the Ghetto
Roman Ghetto
The Roman Ghetto was a ghetto located in the rione Sant'Angelo, in Rome, Italy, in the area surrounded by today's Via del Portico d'Ottavia, Lungotevere dei Cenci, Via del Progresso and Via di Santa Maria del Pianto close to the Tiber and the Theater of Marcellus...
.
After the recovery of Moro's body, the Minister of the Interior
Italian Minister of the Interior
This is a list of Italian Ministers of the Interior since 1861.-Kingdom of Italy:-Italian Republic:...
Francesco Cossiga
Francesco Cossiga
Francesco Cossiga was an Italian politician, the 43rd Prime Minister and the eighth President of the Italian Republic. He was also a professor of constitutional law at the University of Sassari....
resigned, gaining trust from the Communist party, which would later make him the first President of the Italian Republic.
Antonio Negri's 1979 arrest and release
On April 7, 1979, Marxist philosopher Antonio NegriAntonio Negri
Antonio Negri is an Italian Marxist sociologist and political philosopher.Negri is best-known for his co-authorship of Empire, and secondarily for his work on Spinoza. Born in Padua, he became a political philosophy professor in his hometown university...
was arrested along with other leaders of Autonomia Operaia
Autonomia Operaia
Autonomia Operaia was an Italian extra-parliamentary leftist movement particularly active from 1976 to 1978. It emerged in 1972 not as a party but rather as a place of encounter among various extra-parliamentary and revolutionary left-wing tendencies opposed to reformism...
(Oreste Scalzone
Oreste Scalzone
Oreste Scalzone is an Italian Marxist intellectual and one of the founders of the communist organization Potere Operaio....
, E. Vesce, A. Del Re, L. Ferrari Bravo, Franco Piperno
Franco Piperno
Franco Piperno is an Italian former communist militant. He is currently an associated professor of Condensed Matter Physics in the University of Calabria..-Biography:Piperno was born at Catanzaro....
and others). Pietro Calogero, an attorney close to the PCI, accused the Autonomia group of masterminding left-wing "terrorism" in Italy. Negri was charged with a number of offences including leadership of the Red Brigades, being behind Moro's kidnapping and murder and plotting to overthrow the government. A year later, he was found innocent of Moro's assassination.
In the New York Review of Books, Thomas Sheehan wrote at the time in Negri's defense, "Negri is a figure of some stature in Italy, and his arrest might be compared, imperfectly, to jailing Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse was a German Jewish philosopher, sociologist and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory...
a decade ago on suspicion of being the brains behind the Weathermen
Weatherman (organization)
Weatherman, known colloquially as the Weathermen and later the Weather Underground Organization , was an American radical left organization. It originated in 1969 as a faction of Students for a Democratic Society composed for the most part of the national office leadership of SDS and their...
."
In the same journal in 2003, Alexander Stille
Alexander Stille
Alexander Stille is an American author and journalist. He is the son of Ugo Stille, a well-known Italian journalist and a former editor of Italy's Milan-based Corriere della Sera newspaper. Alexander Stille graduated from Yale and later the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism...
accused Negri of bearing moral but not legal responsibility for the crimes, citing Negri's words from one year later:
and
Alternative points of view about Moro's death
Many other points of views have been advanced about Moro's death. The "Gladio networkOperation Gladio
Operation Gladio is the codename for a clandestine NATO "stay-behind" operation in Italy after World War II. Its purpose was to continue anti-communist actions in the event of a shift to a Communist party led government...
", directed by NATO, has also been accused.
Historian Sergio Flamigni, member of the Communist Refoundation Party
Communist Refoundation Party
The Communist Refoundation Party is a communist Italian political party. Its current secretary is Paolo Ferrero....
, believes Moretti was used by Gladio in Italy
Gladio in Italy
While "stay-behind" anti-communist networks existed in all NATO countries, the Italian branch of Operation Gladio was the first one to be discovered. It was set up under Minister of Defense Paolo Taviani's supervision...
to take over the Red Brigades
Red Brigades
The Red Brigades was a Marxist-Leninist terrorist organisation, based in Italy, which was responsible for numerous violent incidents, assassinations, and robberies during the so-called "Years of Lead"...
and pursue a strategy of tension
Strategy of tension
The strategy of tension is a theory that describes how to divide, manipulate, and control public opinion using fear, propaganda, disinformation, psychological warfare, agents provocateurs, and false flag terrorist actions....
.
In BR member Alberto Franceschini's book, Aldo Moro is described as one of Gladio's founders. Evidence has emerged to support this view of American involvement in the overarching the strategy of tension, and of known strong American foreign policies against the then looming historic (unprecedented in post war times) coalition that would have admitted the eurocommunist
Eurocommunism
Eurocommunism was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties to develop a theory and practice of social transformation that was more relevant in a Western European democracy and less aligned to the influence or control of the Communist Party of the Soviet...
PCI into a government of national unity, the fear on the US side being that Italy thereafter might withdraw from NATO and that the US would then lose access to vital Mediterranean ports.
Moro's widow later recounted Moro's meeting with U.S. President Nixon's advisor, Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger
Heinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...
, and an unidentified American intelligence official, who warned him not to pursue the strategy of bringing the Communist Party into his cabinet, telling him "You must abandon your policy of bringing all the political forces in your country into direct collaboration...or you will pay dearly for it." Moro was allegedly so shaken by the comment that he became ill and threatened to quit politics.
But finally Aldo Moro did not quit politics; in the month following the Kissinger/Moro meeting, Aldo Moro was heading to the Italian Parliament for the crucial vote Moro had proposed when Moro was kidnapped and subsequently murdered.
Mino Pecorelli's May 1978 article
Investigative journalist Mino Pecorelli thought that Aldo Moro's kidnapping had been organised by a "lucid superpower" and was inspired by the "logic of YaltaYalta Conference
The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, held February 4–11, 1945, was the wartime meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, represented by President Franklin D...
". He painted the figure of General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa
Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa
Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa was a general of the Italian carabinieri notable for campaigning against terrorism during the 1970s in Italy, and later assassinated by the Mafia in Palermo.-Biography:...
as "general Amen", explaining in his review, the Osservatorio politico, in an article titled Vergogna, buffoni! (Shame on you, buffoons!), that it was Dalla Chiesa that, during Aldo Moro's kidnapping, had informed the then Interior Minister Francesco Cossiga
Francesco Cossiga
Francesco Cossiga was an Italian politician, the 43rd Prime Minister and the eighth President of the Italian Republic. He was also a professor of constitutional law at the University of Sassari....
of the location of the cave where Moro was detained. But he would have been ordered not to act on his information because of the opposition of a "lodge of the Christ in Paradise", referring to Propaganda Due
Propaganda Due
Propaganda Due , or P2, was a Masonic lodge operating under the jurisdiction of the Grand Orient of Italy from 1945 to 1976 , and a pseudo-Masonic or "black" or "covert" lodge operating illegally from 1976 to...
masonic lodge. Pecorelli then wrote that Dalla Chiesa was also in danger and would be assassinated (Dalla Chiesa was murdered four years later). After Aldo Moro's assassination, Mino Pecorelli published some confidential documents, mainly Moro's letters to his family. In a cryptic article published in May 1978 Pecorelli drew a connection between Moro's death and Gladio, NATO's stay-behind anti-communist organisation whose existence was publicly acknowledged by Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti only in October 1990. During his interrogation, Aldo Moro had referred to "NATO's anti-guerrilla activities." Mino Pecorelli, who was on Licio Gelli
Licio Gelli
Licio Gelli is an Italian financier, chiefly known for his role in the Banco Ambrosiano scandal. He was revealed in 1981 as being the Venerable Master of the clandestine Masonic lodge Propaganda Due...
's list of P2 members discovered in 1980, was assassinated on March 20, 1979. The ammunitions used for Pecorelli's assassination, a very rare type, were the same as those discovered in the Banda della Magliana
Banda della Magliana
The Banda della Magliana was an Italian criminal organization based in Rome, particularly active throughout the late 1970s until the early 1990s. Given by the media, the name refers to the original neighborhood, the Magliana, of most of its members....
's weapons stock hidden in the Health Minister's basement. Pecorelli's assassination has been thought to be directly related to Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti is an Italian politician of the now dissolved centrist Christian Democracy party. He served as the 42nd Prime Minister of Italy from 1972 to 1973, from 1976 to 1979 and from 1989 to 1992. He also served as Minister of the Interior , Defense Minister and Foreign Minister and he...
, who was first condemned to 24 years of prison for homicide in 2002 and finally acquitted by the Supreme Court of Cassation
Court of Cassation (Italy)
The Supreme Court of Cassation is the major court of last resort in Italy. It has its seat in the Rome Hall of Justice.The Court of Cassation exists also to “ensure the observation and the correct interpretation of law” by ensuring the same application of law in the inferior and appeal courts...
in 2003.
Carlos "the Jackal"'s declarations
In a 2008 interview with the Italian news network ANSA (news agency)ANSA (news agency)
ANSA , is the leading wire service in Italy, and one of the leaders among world news agencies. ANSA is a not-for-profit cooperative, whose members and owners are 36 leading news organizations in Italy. Its mission is the distribution of fair and objective news reporting.-History:ANSA was founded on...
, Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal
Carlos the Jackal
Ilich Ramírez Sánchez , better known as Carlos the Jackal, is a Venezuelan pro-Palestinian currently serving a life sentence in France for shooting to death two French secret agents and a Lebanese informer in 1975....
stated from his cell in the prison at Poissy that there had been a deal to exchange Aldo Moro for several imprisoned members of the Red Brigades. Under the terms of the deal struck with "patriotic" members of the Italian military intelligence agency SISMI
SISMI
Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare was the military intelligence agency of Italy from 1977-2007....
(Carlos' words), several Italian servicemen and members of a Palestinian resistance group would escort the prisoners to an Arab country. The deal fell through while the plane sat on a runway in Beirut, perhaps because a PLO official's loose tongue alarmed a "pro-NATO" faction within SISMI. (Carlos maintains that NATO wanted Moro dead, while the Soviets wanted him alive.) The officials in charge of the operation were subsequently purged or forced to resign.
Carlos also claimed that the plotters originally planned to kidnap, along with Moro, the industrialist Gianni Agnelli
Gianni Agnelli
Giovanni Agnelli , better known as Gianni Agnelli , was an Italian industrialist and principal shareholder of Fiat. As the head of Fiat, he controlled 4.4% of Italy's GDP, 3.1% of its industrial workforce, and 16.5% of its industrial investment in research...
and a judge of the Italian Supreme Court. He expressed surprise to learn that the Catholic Church was ready to pay a huge ransom for Moro's release.
"Sacrifice Aldo Moro to maintain the stability of Italy"
Steve PieczenikSteve Pieczenik
Steve Pieczenik, MD, PhD is an American psychiatrist, former State Department official, author and publisher.-Early Life and Education:...
, a former member of the U.S. State Department sent by President Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
as a "psychological expert" to integrate the Interior Minister Francesco Cossiga
Francesco Cossiga
Francesco Cossiga was an Italian politician, the 43rd Prime Minister and the eighth President of the Italian Republic. He was also a professor of constitutional law at the University of Sassari....
's "crisis committee", was interviewed by Emmanuel Amara in his 2006 documentary Les derniers jours d'Aldo Moro ("The Last Days of Aldo Moro"), in which he alleged that: "We had to sacrifice Aldo Moro to maintain the stability of Italy."
He alleged that the U.S. had to "instrumentalize the Red Brigades," and that the decision to have him killed was taken during the fourth week of Moro's detention, when he started revealing state secrets through his letters (allegedly the existence of Gladio). Francesco Cossiga
Francesco Cossiga
Francesco Cossiga was an Italian politician, the 43rd Prime Minister and the eighth President of the Italian Republic. He was also a professor of constitutional law at the University of Sassari....
also said the "crisis committee" also leaked a false statement, attributed to the Red Brigades
Black propaganda
Black propaganda is false information and material that purports to be from a source on one side of a conflict, but is actually from the opposing side. It is typically used to vilify, embarrass or misrepresent the enemy...
, saying that Moro was dead.
Cinematic adaptations
A number of films have portrayed the events of Moro's kidnapping and murder, with varying degrees of fictionalization:- Todo modo (1975), directed by Elio Petri, in which the character of the president is evidently inspired by Aldo Moro. The film is based on a novel by Leonardo SciasciaLeonardo SciasciaLeonardo Sciascia was an Italian writer, novelist, essayist, playwright and politician. Some of his works have been made into films, including Open Doors and Il giorno della civetta .- Biography :Sciascia was born in Racalmuto, Sicily...
. - Il caso MoroThe Moro AffairThe Moro Affair is a 1987 Italian crime film directed by Giuseppe Ferrara about the kidnapping of Aldo Moro. It was entered into the 37th Berlin International Film Festival, where Gian Maria Volonté won the Silver Bear for Best Actor.-Cast:...
(1986), directed by Giuseppe FerraraGiuseppe FerraraGiuseppe Ferrara is an Italian film director and screenwriter. His 1987 film The Moro Affair was entered into the 37th Berlin International Film Festival, where Gian Maria Volonté won the Silver Bear for Best Actor....
and starring Gian Maria VolontéGian Maria VolontèGian Maria Volonté was an Italian actor. He is perhaps most famous outside of Italy for his roles as the main villain in Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More.-Early life:Volonté was born in Milan, and graduated in Rome in 1957...
as Moro. - Year of the GunYear of the Gun (film)Year of the Gun is a 1991 thriller film directed by John Frankenheimer and starred Andrew McCarthy, Sharon Stone and Valeria Golino.-Plot:...
(1991), directed by John FrankenheimerJohn FrankenheimerJohn Michael Frankenheimer was an American film and television director known for social dramas and action/suspense films...
. - Broken Dreams (Sogni infranti, 1995), a documentary directed by Marco Bellocchio.
- Five Moons Plaza (Piazza Delle Cinque Lune, 2003), directed by Renzo Martinelli and starring Donald SutherlandDonald SutherlandDonald McNichol Sutherland, OC is a Canadian actor with a film career spanning nearly 50 years. Some of Sutherland's more notable movie roles included offbeat warriors in such war movies as The Dirty Dozen, , MASH , and Kelly's Heroes , as well as in such popular films as Klute, Invasion of the...
. - Good Morning, NightGood Morning, NightBuongiorno, notte is an Italian film released in 2003 and directed by Marco Bellocchio. The title of the feature film, Good Morning, Night, is taken from a poem by Emily Dickinson.- Plot :...
(Buongiorno, notte, 2003), directed by Marco Bellocchio, portrays the kidnapping largely from the perspective of one of the kidnappers. - Romanzo CriminaleRomanzo CriminaleRomanzo Criminale is an Italian-language film released in 2005, directed by Michele Placido, a criminal drama, it was highly acclaimed and won 15 awards. It is based on Giancarlo De Cataldo's 2002 novel, which is in turn inspired by the Banda della Magliana true story...
(2005), directed by Michele PlacidoMichele PlacidoMichele Placido is an internationally known Italian actor and director. He is best known for the role of Corrado Cattani in the TV series La Piovra.-Life and career:...
, portrays the authorities finding Moro's body. - Emmanuel Amara, Les derniers jours d'Aldo Moro (The Last Days of Aldo Moro), 2006
- Il DivoIl Divo (film)Il Divo is a 2008 Italian biographical drama film directed by Paolo Sorrentino. It is based on the figure of former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti. It competed at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008, where it was awarded the Jury Prize...
: La Straordinaria vita di Giulio Andreotti, directed by Paolo SorrentinoPaolo SorrentinoPaolo Sorrentino is an Italian film director and screenwriter. He was born in Naples.Sorrentino's first film as screenwriter, Polvere di Napoli, was released in 1998. He began directing several short movies, like L'amore non ha confini, in 1998, and La notte lunga, in 2001...
, 2008, highlighting the responsibility of Giulio AndreottiGiulio AndreottiGiulio Andreotti is an Italian politician of the now dissolved centrist Christian Democracy party. He served as the 42nd Prime Minister of Italy from 1972 to 1973, from 1976 to 1979 and from 1989 to 1992. He also served as Minister of the Interior , Defense Minister and Foreign Minister and he...
.
Sources
- Interview with Giovanni Moro, Aldo Moro's son by La RepubblicaLa Repubblicala Repubblica is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. Founded in 1976 in Rome by the journalist Eugenio Scalfari, as of 2008 is the second largest circulation newspaper, behind the Corriere della Sera.-Foundation:...
, March 16, 1998. - Giovanni Fasanella, Secret of State. The truth from Gladio to the Moro case (with G. PellegrinoGiovanni PellegrinoGiovanni Pellegrino is an Italian politician.Born in Lecce and a lawyer by profession, he was a Senator of the Republic from 1990 with the Italian Communist Party and the Democrats of the Left to 2001...
, Einaudi, 2000) - Giovanni Fasanella and Giuseppe Roca, The Mysterious Intermediary. Igor MarkevitchIgor MarkevitchIgor Markevitch was a Ukrainian, Italian, and French composer and conductor.- Origin :Igor Markevich was born in Kiev, to an old family of Ukrainian Cossack starshyna ennobled in the 18th century...
and the Moro case (EinaudiGiulio EinaudiGiulio Einaudi was one of the most important publishers in Italian history.-Biography:Giulio Einaudi was born in Dogliani in 1912, the son of Luigi Einaudi, future president of the Italian Republic, and his wife Ida.He attended the Massimo d'Azeglio liceo classico, and became a student of noted...
, 2003) - Gianfranco SanguinettiGianfranco SanguinettiGianfranco Sanguinetti was a writer and member of the Situationist International , a political art movement.Sanguinetti was deported from France in 1971 and settled in Italy....
, On Terrorism and the State - Emmanuel Amara, Nous avons tué Aldo Moro, Paris: Patrick Robin, 2006, ISBN 2352280125.
Further reading
- "ROME: GANGSTER ENTOMBED IN A PAPAL CRYPT. The Vatican, the Central Intelligence Agency, Emanuela Orlandi and the Entombment of Enrico De Pedis" by B.W. Spear, at Lulu.com.
External links
- Banca dati della memoria: Moro's letters and +
- Memorial Moro on strategy of tensionStrategy of tensionThe strategy of tension is a theory that describes how to divide, manipulate, and control public opinion using fear, propaganda, disinformation, psychological warfare, agents provocateurs, and false flag terrorist actions....
- Buongiorno, notte, 2003 film about the kidnapping
- Piazza Delle Cinque Lune, 2003 film about the kidnapping
- Italian document March 2, 1987
