THERE IS STILL TIME TO SAVE ITALY
Vacirca, Vencenzo
There Is Still Time to Save ITALY By Vincenzo Vacirca Special Sew Leader Correspondent in italy -t~\ OWfr-Wl has W«aeirUd.*o subIV M KmU to • peace which Is both ¦*- Vjjsgast, $md siupfd....
...In America there were millions of Italian workers who had contributed to the creation of thst wealth which ia the foundation of American power...
...There are so many individual and collective tragedies in this tormented age, that one more or less...
...But even this argument has become obsolete and ineffective...
...And the Italian people obeyed...
...Nothing which America asked was ever refused...
...It is true that the United State* have not demanded anything for themselves, neither territory, nor money, nor goods...
...But this is not very convincing to a hungry nation...
...Never did any people throw themselves with more naivs faith in the arm* of another nation...
...If it were merely a matter of the intimate tragedy of the Italian people, the world—and America included—could ignore it...
...If we are faced with a useless crime our intelligence and sense of balance make us protest more violently than if faced by a crime which no matter how horrible can be explained by a useful motive which may be egoistical and atitlsfVftl, The conduct -of the United States is considered by the Italians as being uselessly criminal...
...With their own hands at the risk of their lives, young Italians laid the mines which were to open deep wounds in the economic body of Italy...
...Na reasonable man can call a treaty—which implies negotiation—a document compiled by one side alone and imposed on the other...
...America would help later, America was rich and generous...
...We fully understand your plight And take your point of view...
...The truly democratic forces which art still in the majority find themselves on the defensive...
...The writer does not think so...
...But unfortunately we live in an indivisible world in which no people can afford the luxury of not caring about what happens to another people...
...Aside from the substance of the diktat, what has offended most is the manner in which an entire nation has been treated...
...Neo-Fascist nationalists and Communists have both thrown themselves as packs of hungry wolves on the diktat to extract from it nourishment for their foul ends...
...fROM the time the landings in Sicily took place this fact has become constantly more evident...
...And so you fellows have been viewing Some films from Holly wood That are, despite the hall'.hooing...
...SEEING IS BELIEVING According to Hed Star, the Soviet Army newspaper, Russian officers in Austria are seeing bad American movies...
...the Government of the Italian Republic ha* signed what the entire Italian press rails the rliktat...
...It is superfluous to repeat the pathetic story of The Atlantic Charter, of the promise made by Radio London and Radio New York to the Italian patriots who risked their lives to listen at night to the friendly voices which invited them to revolt and promised a peace without vengeance and without indemnity, of the precise declarations made by Roosevelt and Churchill...
...They try to defend the value of democracy and liberty...
...The latter attack with growing vehemence the western democracies—the "demo* plutocracy"—which want a subjected Italy to be used as a base in the future War against Russia...
...The blind faith of the Italian people in the American big brother—strong, generous and loyal— was truly touching...
...Rut just because the United States have asked nothing for themselves, the Italian peofail to understand why they have permitted others Russia in particular and Kngland to a small degree—to demolish those principles so solemnly proclaimed by American statesmen, Stupidity is more revolting than viciousness...
...But this resource is not inexhaustible and anything ran happen in a situation such as is being faced...
...totaritch, you are right, For we have Heen them too...
...Is the situation desperate...
...The situation is grave but it is not beyond help...
...They have to limit themselves to criticism of Fascism as the fundamental cause for the Italian rri-is...
...What did this destruction matter...
...but they have not »ccomplished one decisive deed to raise their hopes...
...The United State* have been prodigious with good words and noteworthy assistance for ths Italian people...
...Distinctly not mo good...
...In the particular case of Italy, this imposed peace by virtue of which pieces of living flesh have been torn from her and she has been placed in the position of an inferior nation, which has denied her any recognition for her contribution to the anti-Nazi war, for her democratic revolt against Fascism and the Monarchy, is becoming the fartile soil for all the malignant weeds which infest the political garden...
...The only one who never promised nor offered anything was Stalin...
...If he has been the most exacting and the most vehement in wanting to humiliate and ultimately impoverish Italy, he can, however, boast that he has been the only one who has not' failed to keep his word...
...They have been the only nation to demand a just peace for Italy which would respect its territorial integrity and would absolve her from any indemnity in consideration for having been the first nation to free itself from Fascism and to take up arms against Nazism...
...If it is true, as nationalists of every kind pompously affirm, that nations have honor, it would be difficult to find in history more shameful instances of dishonor than that with which the Allied Nations ave covered themselves in respect to Italy...
...America stated, "Destroy your bridges, mine your tunnels, destroy sectors of your towns, cut your forests, because it is necessary to win the war against Fascism...
...The remedy is in the hands of America...
...They cannot honestly defend the western democracies, because the peace treaty is the terrible reality which would make any defense sound ridiculous...
...Richard Armour...
...In fact they have given—generously...
...The former appeal to the Italian people to remember the days of Fascist glory pointing out the antiFascists as those who gave their traitorous collaboration to the Allies and are therefore responsible for the defeat...
...Ibis time...
...Now> that the peace treaty has been definitely approved, their bitterness is strong against those whom they consider the immediate cause of their ruin...
...It was necessary to win...
...The result is a chaotic situation which is not as grave as it might be because of the wealth of good nature anil common sense which the more intelligent foreigners are ready to recogni/.e in ths Italian people...
...Today tKe position of the I'titled States in the hearts of the Italian people in the following: it, is that of a friend who has betrayed us...
...Another moral axiom is that we all feel more indignant at a wicked action committed against us by a friend than at an even more wicked action committed by an enemy...
...Strong in the belief in this protectivefriendship, the Italian people found lighter the burden of their heavy loasea in lives and property...
...A'eic* (less...
Vol. 30 • March 1947 • No. 12
