501.BB/10–2548: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Acting Secretary of State
Martel 82. Upon my departure from Rome, Count Sforza drew me aside and commented on what he said were Hickerson’s statements to Italian Ambassador. I subsequently asked Dunn to obtain informally from Sforza the substance of these comments. The following was provided by Sforza:
“Excerpt from telegram from Count Sforza to Ambassador Tarchiani following Secretary Marshall’s visit to Rome:
It was at the airport that, going apart from the diplomatic crowd, I said to him (the Secretary of State):
That I wanted to repeat clearly what we had explicitly and implicitly said the night before, namely that knowing how much neutrality is now a vain formula, we were as one (toto corde) [tutt’ accordo?] with the United States for the protection of western civilization, and that thus we were aware that, in view of the supreme interests at stake, we, accepting Hickerson’s advices to Tarchiani1—you certainly know them—we did not intend to place conditions (especially since in a new atmosphere much would be clarified and resolved);
But, seeing that Italy is much more exposed than the other countries, even is doubly so because, disarmed as she is, she can be the objective of two different aggressions, it was our duty to warn him that on one single point we could not compromise: no hiatus between possible pledges by us on the one side and guarantees and assistance in rearmament on the other. This was necessary for us not only for our conscience, but also to build necessary Italian unanimity.
With rearmament and guarantee—I added—we could face any danger. And our resolution would be invaluable because it would annul the risk of a totalitarian govt imposed by the lowest minority in the event of commencement of foreign invasion. Remember—I said—that what happens in Italy soon happens in France.”