Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Western Europe, Volume VII, Part 2

256. Memorandum of Conversation⁰

PSV/MC/18

October 2, 1959.

SEGNI VISIT

SUBJECT

• International Communist Expansion

[Here follows the same list of participants as Document 252.]

The Secretary said that he would like to discuss with the Prime Minister the question of international communism and particularly to hear about the communist situation in Italy.

The Prime Minister said that he had already referred to the French, Turkish and Italian concern over communist expansion in Africa. He thought that the French concern might be somewhat excessive. With regard to the question of communism in Italy, the Prime Minister said that there was no doubt Italian communists were dependent on the Soviet Government, not just the Soviet communist party. The Italian communist party received financial help from the Soviet Union. Mr. Segni said that information available to the Italian authorities indicated that the inscribed membership in the Italian communist party was diminishing and that the circulation of the communist press had dropped. These developments had had an effect on the 1959 elections where the communist vote had remained static or had even shown a decrease. This decrease was particularly demonstrated in the recent San Marino elections where both the Communists and Socialists had lost.¹ It was also true in Sicily where it might have been supposed that the betrayal by a member of the Christian Democratic Party might have led to an increase in the communist vote.² However, this did not take place and the communist vote was about the same as in 1955. The Prime Minister said that if stability continued in the Parliament and Government and the economic situation continued to improve, the next administrative elections to be held in April 1960 should give favorable results, showing either an arrest or decrease in the communist vote. In reply to the Secretary’s question the Prime Minister said that these elections, conducted as they would be throughout the country, would be an important test of the political situation in the country.

At the request of the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Pella spoke about the source and amount of communist funds. He said that when there was no general election, the communists spent between $10,000,000 and $12,000,000 annually. When there was a general election, the communists then spent over $30,000,000 annually. The Italian authorities had thought that a good part of these funds was furnished through percentages on East-West trade provided by cover corporations. It was true that this type of transaction still existed but it now appeared that the amounts obtained through this source were less than the Government had originally thought. [8–1/2 lines of source text not declassified]

[2 paragraphs (17 lines of source text) not declassified]

Mr. Murphy then inquired what the Italian Government was doing with respect to organizing a campaign to deal with the communist problem. He had in mind security aspects, police and especially the trade union feature.

The Prime Minister said that with regard to the trade unions, the Government favored the activities of CISL and UIL. CISL had obtained some good results this year and the Government aided the free trade unions whenever possible. [3 lines of source text not declassified] The Prime Minister stated that the shop steward elections this year had shown a drop in CGIL representation. [4–1/2 lines of source text not declassified]. It now appeared that Togliatti would have to resign as Secretary of the Party. According to the Prime Minister, the percentage of the communists in the army was very small. Recent call-up tests had shown favorable results. In the Marche there recently had been a test call-up of 18,000 reservists. Of this number only one hundred had failed to show up. With respect to propaganda the Prime Minister said that he believed that the political parties should undertake this rather than the Government. Much of this propaganda work was done by the Christian Democratic Party and this involved considerable sacrifice. He said that there were two aspects of the propaganda campaign. One was ideological and the other was social-economic. With respect to the ideological aspect, there was no party better than the Christian Democratic Party to combat the communists since the beliefs held by the Christian Democratic Party were at the opposite end of the spectrum from the communists. The Christian Democratic Party was a strong supporter of democratic principles and also had its religious faith.

The Secretary inquired how it was possible on ideological grounds to have such a large communist group in a country which was strongly Catholic. The Prime Minister replied that the expansion of communist strength in Italy resulted in part from the inheritance of pre-war socialism. There were many convinced communists in Romagna and Emilia. In other areas the reasons were solely economic and these reasons lay behind the land reform program. The Government was trying to remove the economic conditions which made successful communist efforts to seduce the people in these areas. One of the greatest difficulties in the Government’s efforts to resist the communists lay in the strength of Soviet power. In 1956 the communists in Italy had lost through the Hungarian revolution, because the Soviet Union had, in effect, been outlawed by the civilized world. Today the situation was different because the Soviet Union was given a more respectable place in the world. This new situation gave added strength to the Communist Party. The Prime Minister stressed the relationship between the position of the Italian Communist Party and the international situation of the Soviet Union. This relationship existed because the Italian Communist Party was at the service of the Soviet State as were all communist parties. In this connection, the Prime Minister pointed out that Togliatti had recently said that the time of the barbarism of anti-communism was now over. Togliatti was playing on this theme because the Italian Communist Party naturally exploited everything which could give them added strength.

The Prime Minister concluded that the Christian Democratic Party and the present Government, a Christian Democratic Government, are determined to go ahead in their battle against the Italian Communists. He hoped that in the 1960 elections the Christian Democratic Party, as well as the other democratic parties which were helping the Christian Democrats, would increase their votes with corresponding losses by the Communist Party.

0. Source: Department of State, Conference Files: Lot 64 D 560, CF 1490. Secret. Drafted by Stabler and approved by M and S on October 26. See also Documents 252–255 and 257–258.
1. In September 13 general elections in San Marino, the Christian Democrats and Independent Social Democrats won 36 seats in the Grand Council while the Communists and Socialists won 24.
2. In the June 7 regional elections in Sicily, the Christian Democrats lost three seats while polling a slightly higher percentage of the popular vote than in 1955. The Communist Party gained one seat, although its popular vote declined slightly.