Golpe Borghese
Encyclopedia
The Golpe Borghese was a failed Italian
coup d'état
allegedly planned for the night of 7 or 8 December 1970. It was named after Junio Valerio Borghese
, an Italian World War II commander of the notorious Xª MAS unit
, the "Black Prince", convicted of war crimes, but still a hero in the eyes of many post-War Italian fascists. The coup attempt became publicly known when the left-wing journal "Paese Sera" ran the headline on the evening of March 18, 1971 : Subversive plan against the Republic: far-right plot discovered.
The secret operation was code-named 'Operation Tora Tora
' after the Japanese attack on the US ships in Pearl Harbor
which had led the United States to enter the Second World War on December 7, 1941. The plan of the coup in its final phase envisaged the involvement of US and NATO warships which were on alert in the Mediterranean.
. The plan included the kidnapping of the Italian President Giuseppe Saragat
, the murder of the head of the police Angelo Vicari, and the occupation of the Quirinale, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Defense and Italian public television broadcaster RAI
. Certain Army dissidents also planned to occupy Sesto San Giovanni
, at that time a workers' town and a stronghold of the Italian Communist Party
.
Apparently some militants briefly entered the Ministry of the Interior, but Borghese suspended the coup few hours before its final phase.
According to Borghese, the neo-fascists were actually gathering for a protest demonstration against the upcoming visit of President Josip Broz Tito
of Yugoslavia
, which was later postponed. This protest was supposedly called off because of heavy rain.
Participants at the semi-clandestine rallies seem to have believed that they would take part in the arrest of politicians and the occupation of key installations by sympathetic army units. When Borghese called off the coup late that night, the presumed plotters, reportedly unarmed, improvised a late spaghetti dinner before returning home. Several members of the National Front (Fronte Nazionale) were arrested and a warrant was served for Borghese. Borghese himself fled to Spain
and died there in 1974.
The first arrests concerning the coup attempt were made on the same day. The first people arrested on March 18 and 19 were Mario Rose, a retired army major and National Front secretary, Remo Orlandini, also a former army major, a real-estate proprietor and close associate of Borghese, and Sandro Saccucci, a young paratrooper
. An arrest warrant for Borghese was also served, but he could not be found. Later arrestees included businessman Giovanni De Rosa and a retired Air Force colonel, Giuseppe Lo Vecchio.
The investigation into the coup attempt was resurrected after Giulio Andreotti
became defense minister again. Andreotti handed over a report by the secret service in September 1974 to the Rome public prosecutor, and shortly thereafter General Vito Miceli
, a former head of SID, was brought for questioning before the investigating judge. Miceli's interrogation led to his arrest two days later. Miceli was then sacked, and the Italian intelligence agencies
were reorganized by a 1977 law.
was acquitted of trying to cover up a coup attempt, Saccucci, Orlandini, Rosa, and others were convicted of political conspiracy, which also included Stefano Delle Chiaie
, whose specific role is unclear. According to a 1987 UPI
news cable, he had already fled Italy to Spain
on July 25, 1970 However, according to other sources, including René Monzat (1992), he led the commando which occupied the premises of the Interior Minister. At the appeal trial in November 1984 all 46 defendants were acquitted because the "fact did not happen" ("il fatto non sussiste) and only existed in "a private meeting between four or five sixty-years-olds". The Supreme Court confirmed the appeal judgment in March 1986.
The final trial connected with the Golpe Borghese began in 1991, after it was discovered that evidence involving prominent persons (Licio Gelli
, admiral Giovanni Torrisi...) had been destroyed by the Italian armed forces secret service before the first trial. Giulio Andreotti
, minister of defense at the time the evidence was destroyed, declared in 1997 that names had been deleted so that the charges would be easier to understand. This last trial ended without convictions because the period of prescription for destruction of evidence had passed.
According to the journalist René Monzat, investigations lasted seven years, during which it was alleged that the Golpe Borghese had benefitted from military accomplices, as well as from political support not only from Borghese's National Front or from MSI deputy Sandro Saccucci, but also from other political personalities belonging to the Christian Democracy
(DC) and to the PSDI (Italian Social-Democrat Party). According to Monzat, investigations also discovered that the military attaché
at the US embassy was tightly connected with the coup organizers and that one of the main accused declared to the magistrate that US President Richard Nixon
had followed the preparations for the coup, of which he was personally informed by two CIA officers. These facts were confirmed through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica
in December 2004. However, only a few marginalized sectors of the CIA were in favour of the coup, while the main response was not to allow major changes in the geo-political balance in the Mediterranean.
") such as Tommaso Buscetta
, Borghese asked the Sicilian
Mafia
to support the neofascist coup. In 1970, when the Sicilian Mafia Commission
was reconstituted, one of the first issues that had to be discussed was an offer by Borghese, who asked for support in return for pardons of convicted mafiosi like Vincenzo Rimi and Luciano Leggio
. The mafiosi Giuseppe Calderone
and Giuseppe Di Cristina
visited Borghese in Rome. However, other mafiosi such as Gaetano Badalamenti
opposed the plan, and the Mafia decided not to participate.
According to Mafia boss Luciano Leggio
, testifying at the Maxi Trial
against the Mafia in the mid 1980s, Tommaso Buscetta
and Salvatore Greco "Ciaschiteddu" were in favour of helping Borghese. The plan was for the Mafia to carry out a series of terrorist bombings and assassinations to provide the justification for a right-wing coup. Although Leggio's version differed from Buscetta's, the testimony confirmed that Borghese had requested assistance by the Mafia.
According to the pentito
Francesco Di Carlo
, the journalist Mauro De Mauro
was killed in September 1970 because he had learned that Borghese – one of De Mauro's childhood friends – was planning the coup.
Relazione della Commissione Stragi su "Il terrorismo, le stragi ed il contesto storico-politico": cap. VI, "Il c.d. golpe Borghese"
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
allegedly planned for the night of 7 or 8 December 1970. It was named after Junio Valerio Borghese
Junio Valerio Borghese
Prince Junio Valerio Scipione Borghese was an Italian Navy commander during the regime of Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party and was a prominent hard-line fascist politician in post-war Italy.-Early career:Junio Valerio Borghese was born in Artena, Province of Rome, Kingdom of Italy...
, an Italian World War II commander of the notorious Xª MAS unit
Decima Flottiglia MAS
The Decima Flottiglia MAS was an Italian commando frogman unit of the Regia Marina created during the Fascist regime.The acronym MAS also refers to various light torpedo boats used by the Regia Marina during World...
, the "Black Prince", convicted of war crimes, but still a hero in the eyes of many post-War Italian fascists. The coup attempt became publicly known when the left-wing journal "Paese Sera" ran the headline on the evening of March 18, 1971 : Subversive plan against the Republic: far-right plot discovered.
The secret operation was code-named 'Operation Tora Tora
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
' after the Japanese attack on the US ships in Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
which had led the United States to enter the Second World War on December 7, 1941. The plan of the coup in its final phase envisaged the involvement of US and NATO warships which were on alert in the Mediterranean.
The alleged coup
This involved hundreds of neo-fascist militants, helped by 187 members of the Corpo Forestale dello StatoCorpo Forestale dello Stato
The State Forestry Corps is a national police agency in Italy.It was established on 15 October 1822 by Charles Felix of Sardinia as "Amministrazione forestale per la custodia e la vigilanza dei boschi".An agency under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, the CFS acts...
. The plan included the kidnapping of the Italian President Giuseppe Saragat
Giuseppe Saragat
Giuseppe Saragat was an Italian politician who was the fifth President of the Italian Republic from 1964 to 1971.Saragat was born in Turin, from Sardinian parents....
, the murder of the head of the police Angelo Vicari, and the occupation of the Quirinale, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Defense and Italian public television broadcaster RAI
RAI
RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...
. Certain Army dissidents also planned to occupy Sesto San Giovanni
Sesto San Giovanni
Sesto San Giovanni is a comune in the Milan metropolitan area, located in the province of Milan and region of Lombardy in Italy. Its railway station is the northernmost stop on the Milan Metro M1 line. The city is informally referred to as "Sesto"...
, at that time a workers' town and a stronghold 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...
.
Apparently some militants briefly entered the Ministry of the Interior, but Borghese suspended the coup few hours before its final phase.
According to Borghese, the neo-fascists were actually gathering for a protest demonstration against the upcoming visit of President Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz Tito
Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation...
of Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, which was later postponed. This protest was supposedly called off because of heavy rain.
Participants at the semi-clandestine rallies seem to have believed that they would take part in the arrest of politicians and the occupation of key installations by sympathetic army units. When Borghese called off the coup late that night, the presumed plotters, reportedly unarmed, improvised a late spaghetti dinner before returning home. Several members of the National Front (Fronte Nazionale) were arrested and a warrant was served for Borghese. Borghese himself fled to Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and died there in 1974.
Inquiry
On March 18, 1971, the leftist journal Paese Sera was published with the headline: Subversive plan against the Republic: far-right plot discovered.The first arrests concerning the coup attempt were made on the same day. The first people arrested on March 18 and 19 were Mario Rose, a retired army major and National Front secretary, Remo Orlandini, also a former army major, a real-estate proprietor and close associate of Borghese, and Sandro Saccucci, a young paratrooper
Paratrooper
Paratroopers are soldiers trained in parachuting and generally operate as part of an airborne force.Paratroopers are used for tactical advantage as they can be inserted into the battlefield from the air, thereby allowing them to be positioned in areas not accessible by land...
. An arrest warrant for Borghese was also served, but he could not be found. Later arrestees included businessman Giovanni De Rosa and a retired Air Force colonel, Giuseppe Lo Vecchio.
The investigation into the coup attempt was resurrected after 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...
became defense minister again. Andreotti handed over a report by the secret service in September 1974 to the Rome public prosecutor, and shortly thereafter General Vito Miceli
Vito Miceli
Vito Miceli was an Italian general and politician. He was chief of the SIOS , Italian Army Intelligence's Service from 1969 and SID's head from October 18, 1970 to 1974...
, a former head of SID, was brought for questioning before the investigating judge. Miceli's interrogation led to his arrest two days later. Miceli was then sacked, and the Italian intelligence agencies
Italian intelligence agencies
Italian intelligence agencies have been reorganized many times since the 1946 birth of the Italian Republic in an attempt to increase their effectiveness and bring them more fully under civilian control.- 1970s-2007 :...
were reorganized by a 1977 law.
Trials
Three trials were started for conspiracy against the Italian state. In 1978, Vito MiceliVito Miceli
Vito Miceli was an Italian general and politician. He was chief of the SIOS , Italian Army Intelligence's Service from 1969 and SID's head from October 18, 1970 to 1974...
was acquitted of trying to cover up a coup attempt, Saccucci, Orlandini, Rosa, and others were convicted of political conspiracy, which also included Stefano Delle Chiaie
Stefano Delle Chiaie
Stefano Delle Chiaie is a neofascist Italian activist . He went on to become a wanted man worldwide, suspect to be involved in Italy's strategy of tension, but was acquitted. He was a friend of Licio Gelli, grandmaster of P2 masonic lodge...
, whose specific role is unclear. According to a 1987 UPI
United Press International
United Press International is a once-major international news agency, whose newswires, photo, news film and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines and radio and television stations for most of the twentieth century...
news cable, he had already fled Italy to Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
on July 25, 1970 However, according to other sources, including René Monzat (1992), he led the commando which occupied the premises of the Interior Minister. At the appeal trial in November 1984 all 46 defendants were acquitted because the "fact did not happen" ("il fatto non sussiste) and only existed in "a private meeting between four or five sixty-years-olds". The Supreme Court confirmed the appeal judgment in March 1986.
The final trial connected with the Golpe Borghese began in 1991, after it was discovered that evidence involving prominent persons (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...
, admiral Giovanni Torrisi...) had been destroyed by the Italian armed forces secret service before the first trial. 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...
, minister of defense at the time the evidence was destroyed, declared in 1997 that names had been deleted so that the charges would be easier to understand. This last trial ended without convictions because the period of prescription for destruction of evidence had passed.
According to the journalist René Monzat, investigations lasted seven years, during which it was alleged that the Golpe Borghese had benefitted from military accomplices, as well as from political support not only from Borghese's National Front or from MSI deputy Sandro Saccucci, but also from other political personalities belonging to the Christian Democracy
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) and to the PSDI (Italian Social-Democrat Party). According to Monzat, investigations also discovered that the military attaché
Military attaché
A military attaché is a military expert who is attached to a diplomatic mission . This post is normally filled by a high-ranking military officer who retains the commission while serving in an embassy...
at the US embassy was tightly connected with the coup organizers and that one of the main accused declared to the magistrate that US President Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
had followed the preparations for the coup, of which he was personally informed by two CIA officers. These facts were confirmed through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica
La Repubblica
la 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:...
in December 2004. However, only a few marginalized sectors of the CIA were in favour of the coup, while the main response was not to allow major changes in the geo-political balance in the Mediterranean.
Involvement of the Mafia
According to several ex-Mafia state witnesses ("pentitiPentito
Pentito designates people in Italy who, formerly part of criminal or terrorist organizations, following their arrests decide to "repent" and collaborate with the judicial system to help investigations...
") such as Tommaso Buscetta
Tommaso Buscetta
Tommaso Buscetta was a Sicilian mafioso. Although he was not the first pentito in the Italian witness protection program, he is widely recognized as the first important one breaking omertà...
, Borghese asked the Sicilian
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
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...
to support the neofascist coup. In 1970, when the Sicilian Mafia Commission
Sicilian Mafia Commission
The Sicilian Mafia Commission, known as Commissione or Cupola, is a body of leading Mafia members to decide on important questions concerning the actions of, and settling disputes within the Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra...
was reconstituted, one of the first issues that had to be discussed was an offer by Borghese, who asked for support in return for pardons of convicted mafiosi like Vincenzo Rimi and Luciano Leggio
Luciano Leggio
Luciano Leggio was an Italian criminal and leading figure of the Sicilian Mafia. He was the head of the Corleonesi, the Mafia faction that originated in the town of Corleone...
. The mafiosi Giuseppe Calderone
Giuseppe Calderone
Giuseppe “Pippo” Calderone was an influential Sicilian mafioso from Catania. He became the ‘secretary’ of the interprovincial Sicilian Mafia Commission, formed around 1975 on his instigation. Its purpose was to coordinate the provincial Mafia commissions and avoid conflicts over public contracts...
and Giuseppe Di Cristina
Giuseppe Di Cristina
Giuseppe Di Cristina was a powerful mafioso from Riesi in the province of Caltanissetta, Sicily, southern Italy...
visited Borghese in Rome. However, other mafiosi such as Gaetano Badalamenti
Gaetano Badalamenti
Gaetano Badalamenti was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. Don Tano Badalamenti was the capofamiglia of his hometown Cinisi, Sicily, and headed the Sicilian Mafia Commission in the 1970s...
opposed the plan, and the Mafia decided not to participate.
According to Mafia boss Luciano Leggio
Luciano Leggio
Luciano Leggio was an Italian criminal and leading figure of the Sicilian Mafia. He was the head of the Corleonesi, the Mafia faction that originated in the town of Corleone...
, testifying at the Maxi Trial
Maxi Trial
The Maxi Trial was a criminal trial that took place in Sicily during the mid-1980s that saw hundreds of defendants on trial convicted for a multitude of crimes relating to Mafia activities, based primarily on testimony given in as evidence from a former boss turned informant...
against the Mafia in the mid 1980s, Tommaso Buscetta
Tommaso Buscetta
Tommaso Buscetta was a Sicilian mafioso. Although he was not the first pentito in the Italian witness protection program, he is widely recognized as the first important one breaking omertà...
and Salvatore Greco "Ciaschiteddu" were in favour of helping Borghese. The plan was for the Mafia to carry out a series of terrorist bombings and assassinations to provide the justification for a right-wing coup. Although Leggio's version differed from Buscetta's, the testimony confirmed that Borghese had requested assistance by the Mafia.
According to the pentito
Pentito
Pentito designates people in Italy who, formerly part of criminal or terrorist organizations, following their arrests decide to "repent" and collaborate with the judicial system to help investigations...
Francesco Di Carlo
Francesco Di Carlo
Francesco Di Carlo is a member of the Mafia who turned state witness in 1996...
, the journalist Mauro De Mauro
Mauro De Mauro
Mauro De Mauro was an Italian journalist. He disappeared in September 1970 and his body has not yet been found. His disappearance and probable death remains one of the unsolved mysteries in Italian history.Several explanations for his disappearance are current...
was killed in September 1970 because he had learned that Borghese – one of De Mauro's childhood friends – was planning the coup.
Sources
- Stille, AlexanderAlexander StilleAlexander 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...
(1995). Excellent Cadavers. The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic, New York: Vintage ISBN 0-09-959491-9
Relazione della Commissione Stragi su "Il terrorismo, le stragi ed il contesto storico-politico": cap. VI, "Il c.d. golpe Borghese"