American political and economic support, financial backing from bourgeois interests, support from the church and deep state, etc.
There is no need to have a whole discussion again. We had one last year about Togliatti and the PCI, and we’re on completely different wave lengths on the politics...
The OSS went out of their way to save Borghese OTL, and the CIA kept in close contact with him until the coup attempt of 1970.
Considering the unfair advantages both the LDP and DC had, as well as the dealings of the likes of Andreotti, I would hardly call them free, and especially not fair.
- the PCI-PSI win the 1948 Italian election, and an American-backed coup led by Junio Valerio Borghese re-establishes a fascist state.
- a stronger French Left could also cause a right-wing military coup in France (May ‘46 referendum gets a majority, and it leads to a PCF-SFIO government with a...
Togliatti spent much less time than Molotov with Stalin though. He’s much less likely to believe himself into the lie they feed the masses, and that is if you consider Molotov as being brainwashed rather than attempting to secure his own political legacy, which started and ended with Stalin. Why...
But why would he continue to toe the line when it is not in the interest of his government, his party, and himself? Does Togliatti think Stalin is the secular reincarnation of Christ? No, there is simply no reason for him to toe the Moscow line more than he has to do (and he’ll make sure even...
This premise that the PCI of the 40s and 50s was just the Italian version of the Stalin fanclub is just bizarre. In 1948 the PCI was still very well respected by the Italian left, and Togliatti even led the Popular Front that election, while the French (centre-)left had already opted to...
This is my interpretation of how Germany woud look like by say the mid-50s (I’m just riffing something quickly):
- East Germany will not be that much different than OTL, but perhaps be a bit bigger due to annexing land in the West, and most likely have a lot more hungry mouths to feed (though...
The Germans don’t have to pick a side y’know. They can also just go ‘screw both of them’, and try go it independently, though they will undoubtedly have a lot of Soviet, British (and perhaps also American) troops on their land, and most likely have their nation divided into at least a state or two.
And even if the PCF was an especially pro-Moscow parties by Western pro-USSR Communist Parties, the PCI was in many ways the polar opposite. Even a committed and respected Stalinist like Togliatti acted much more autonomously, and even against the interest of the USSR, than you’d expect of...
Like who? Which communist leader was worse than Mussolini? And not to delve into whataboutism, but the violence inflicted by the far-right in Italy post-45 is much worse than the far-left’s. It were after all the Gladio boys that attempted to implement a coup every five minutes.
When exactly...
I really don’t think it is in Stalin’s interest to let the entire German nation starve out. The Morgenthau Plan is gonna seriously fuck up Germany, but I could easily imagine Stalin not pursuing the program in the Soviet-occupied zone. I’m not saying they’ll have the capabilities to feed the...
Wasn’t that argument mostly used because of his lack of experience? You can say a lot about Jackson’s views on foreign policy, but he does have experience.