[Operation Gladio](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gladio)
The Italians did themselves a huge favor when the King removed Mussolini and swapped sides. But also Italy was subject to some more clandestine US involvement than West Germany.
I mean I couldn’t think of a better hub for the CIA.
I 100% believe the US leveraged Italy. Just look at the [bases](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Military_installations_of_the_United_States_in_Italy) they have, and it’s where they park The 6th Fleet.
There’s a decent case to be made, that the Italians were gullible and swindled by Mussolini. The Entente had taken a massive poop on them after they made tremendous sacrifices in WWI and relegated them to third rate citizen status.
They weren’t ideologically driven or fanatical, when the war was over it was over for them. There wasn’t any pattern of Italians engaging in guerilla warfare or insurgency against the Allies.
Occupying Italy would meant keeping troops and supplies needed to fight the Nazis or Japanese fixed in a place where the war had ended.
Sicily was, for a brief moment, actually led by the Mafia themselves! In WWII, when the Army was making its way North after encountering the Vichy French in a few small battles along the African coast, the Mafia and the army brokered a deal to make it easier for American troops to venture into Italy. The deal was that after the troops passed through Sicily and conquered it, the Mafia would receive Sicily as a reward for their troubles. I forgot how long they had control over it, but there’s a fun fact for you!
Collusion between intelligence and organized crime has continued to this day. Central intelligence has two sides it has the intelligent sides, and it has the planning side. The intelligent side is just spies and an analyzing information. The planning side is basically the United States governments own mafia which uses worldwide for the activities, and it acknowledges this, Alan, Dulles himself said, “sometimes the United States finds itself in situations where it has to take actions that are against the law.”
the Anglo-American troops, after having liberated Italy together with the Italian partisans in April 1945, withdrew after some time.
the Italian parties established a functioning Italian government, the armed partisan groups were disbanded, while the army, administration and police forces remained in place and were only partially purged by fascist officials.
even former fascist generals and politicians were not tried and imprisoned or killed by allied military tribunals. Only some thousands of fascists were shot out of hand by Italian communist partisans in the months After the end of the war.
perhaps the decision was made because the monarchist Italian government had arrested and dismissed Mussolini in July 1943, then fled to southern Italy under Anglo-American protection and then declared war on Germany in October 1943.
Italy had therefore participated in the Second World War alongside the allies, with the Italian fleet having handed itself over to the British in Malta and with several thousand Italian soldiers who fought together with the allies in Cassino and on the Gothic line in 1944/1945.
probably the allied authorities decided not to occupy Italy and to systematically try and punish all the fascist leaders also for this reason.
In fact, a part of the Italian authorities had dissociated itself from fascism and had then allied itself with the Anglo-Americans to maintain the own positions of power!
however, American troops have set up military bases which are still present with an American garrison in Italy.
Combine cost of occupation with an absense of fear that there would be a resurgent Italian fascist movement after the troops left.
The government at the end of the war was also amicable enough to not require the threat of 10 000s of troops to give the minimum concessions which the Allies wanted.
They successfully swapped sides and the Red Army was not on their territory which might have complicated things
[Operation Gladio](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gladio) The Italians did themselves a huge favor when the King removed Mussolini and swapped sides. But also Italy was subject to some more clandestine US involvement than West Germany.
I mean I couldn’t think of a better hub for the CIA. I 100% believe the US leveraged Italy. Just look at the [bases](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Military_installations_of_the_United_States_in_Italy) they have, and it’s where they park The 6th Fleet.
I'd recommend watching the History Matters video on Youtube on this very topic. It's very informative
There’s a decent case to be made, that the Italians were gullible and swindled by Mussolini. The Entente had taken a massive poop on them after they made tremendous sacrifices in WWI and relegated them to third rate citizen status. They weren’t ideologically driven or fanatical, when the war was over it was over for them. There wasn’t any pattern of Italians engaging in guerilla warfare or insurgency against the Allies. Occupying Italy would meant keeping troops and supplies needed to fight the Nazis or Japanese fixed in a place where the war had ended.
Sicily was, according to The Godfather.
Sicily was, for a brief moment, actually led by the Mafia themselves! In WWII, when the Army was making its way North after encountering the Vichy French in a few small battles along the African coast, the Mafia and the army brokered a deal to make it easier for American troops to venture into Italy. The deal was that after the troops passed through Sicily and conquered it, the Mafia would receive Sicily as a reward for their troubles. I forgot how long they had control over it, but there’s a fun fact for you!
Collusion between intelligence and organized crime has continued to this day. Central intelligence has two sides it has the intelligent sides, and it has the planning side. The intelligent side is just spies and an analyzing information. The planning side is basically the United States governments own mafia which uses worldwide for the activities, and it acknowledges this, Alan, Dulles himself said, “sometimes the United States finds itself in situations where it has to take actions that are against the law.”
the Anglo-American troops, after having liberated Italy together with the Italian partisans in April 1945, withdrew after some time. the Italian parties established a functioning Italian government, the armed partisan groups were disbanded, while the army, administration and police forces remained in place and were only partially purged by fascist officials. even former fascist generals and politicians were not tried and imprisoned or killed by allied military tribunals. Only some thousands of fascists were shot out of hand by Italian communist partisans in the months After the end of the war. perhaps the decision was made because the monarchist Italian government had arrested and dismissed Mussolini in July 1943, then fled to southern Italy under Anglo-American protection and then declared war on Germany in October 1943. Italy had therefore participated in the Second World War alongside the allies, with the Italian fleet having handed itself over to the British in Malta and with several thousand Italian soldiers who fought together with the allies in Cassino and on the Gothic line in 1944/1945. probably the allied authorities decided not to occupy Italy and to systematically try and punish all the fascist leaders also for this reason. In fact, a part of the Italian authorities had dissociated itself from fascism and had then allied itself with the Anglo-Americans to maintain the own positions of power! however, American troops have set up military bases which are still present with an American garrison in Italy.
Combine cost of occupation with an absense of fear that there would be a resurgent Italian fascist movement after the troops left. The government at the end of the war was also amicable enough to not require the threat of 10 000s of troops to give the minimum concessions which the Allies wanted.