Puppetmasters: The Political Use of Terrorism in Italy

by Philip Willan

The CIA has been accused of a massive intelligence failure in the run-up to the 9/11 attacks -- the result, it is said, of a moralistic and bureaucratic approach to information-gathering. But the CIA's spies had few qualms when it came to cultivating terrorist organisations and interfering in the internal politics of Cold War Italy. Puppetmasters reveals how US intelligence services exploited the P2 masonic lodge to prop up friendly Christian Democrat-dominated governments and counter the growing political influence of the Italian Communist Party. It was a ruthless strategy involving coup plots, right wing terrorist bombings and the manipulation of the Red Brigades. And it gave Italy one of the bloodiest and most protracted periods of terrorist violence ever seen in a modern, industrialised society.

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction, Italy, Conspiracy Theories

374 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1991

About the author

Philip Willan is an author and freelance journalist specialising in Italian parapolitics. He has worked in Rome for more than 30 years and is the author of Puppetmasters, The Political Use of Terrorism in Italy, first published by Constable in 1991. His latest book, The Vatican at War, From Blackfriars Bridge to Buenos Aires, was published by www.iuniverse.com in September 2013. It examines the murder of Roberto Calvi in the context of the Vatican's engagement in Cold War anticommunist intrigue, part of a complex legacy of historic problems that confronted Pope Francis on his election. In the past he has contributed research to David Yallop's best-selling In God's Name, about the alleged murder of Pope John Paul I, and Charles Raw's The Moneychangers, an analysis of the relationship between the Banco Ambrosiano and the Vatican bank.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is maddening.

As someone who came into this with a decent understanding of Operation Gladio and the Years of Lead, I knew this would be a murky affair. But this text merges both well established and documented facts, like US/NATO/CIA manipulation of terrorism in Italy and the coordination of this effort via the P2 lodge, with all sorts of rumor and allegation with no documents to back them up. On the one hand, most of the time the author is clear when something is just an allegation and when something has evidence, but he spends so much time on stuff that he declares "remarkable" or "lame" that it becomes very difficult to sift established facts from rumor.

I think part of what hurts the value of this book today is that it was written in 1990 when much of this information was still coming out. These events are still shrouded in a lot of mystery but there have been some facts more nailed down since the boom came out.

A very interesting book on an area of history long kept from mainstream discourse but unfortunately difficult to recommend.

[Roger Cottrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for anyone who wants to understand how terrorism in Italy was manipulated by the CIA and state, why the facts don't add up in official versions of the Moro kidnap and murder and how a scumbag like Berlusconi came to power with the support of the British and US governments. Never mind the film based on THE BAADER MEINHOFF SYNDROME (see my review) that's coming out shortly. Willan's book is the main one I used in writing my feature film script, MORO, which I hope to be of the same statre as Spielberg's MUNICH

[AC · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book is a bit dry and the topic is too narrow for general interest. Nor is it that deeply sourced. But ok.

[Nigel Tskitishvili · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books around on the darkest and most confusing aspects of Italian terrorism. Willan corroborates as many stories as possible to draw as clear and reliable of a picture of the Italian Cold War terrorist scene as possible.