1948 Italian General Election Analysis

The war created many social and political problems throughout the country and by the election of 1919 things changed dramatically. The socialists and popular Catholic parties took over the Parliament, which lead to the ideas of a revolution among the people (Defusco). One leader of this revolution was Benito Mussolini, who founded a movement called Fascism. After four years of revolution, Mussolini took over as the dictator of Italy and eliminated civil liberties, political parties, and encouraged a totalitarian regime (Defusco). Mussolini soon joined forces with Hitler and World War II came into affect. The Fascists later turned on Mussolini and Italy joined the Allies to fight Germany. This reaction lead to a strong anti-Fascist movement called the Committee of National Liberation (Defusco). By the year 1946 the idea for a republic was anonymous. Various parties were

Italy’s problems started with the fact that it didn’t have one main ruler, but two people and a concept, resulting in a different approach to the unification. Gulseppe Mazzini had a radical program focusing on a centralized democratic republic based on universal suffrage and the will of the people. Vincenzo Gioberti, who was a catholic priest called for a federation of existing states

The Truman Doctrine affected the Cold War by stopping Communists from destroying Europe any further. History.state.gov states, “President Harry S. Truman established that the United States would provide political, military and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces.” In his speech, he asked Congress to give support to the Greek government and go against the Communists. If the U.S. government failed to help the Greek government, the Communists would continue to damage Europe. The Truman Doctrine affected the Cold War, and another policy that affected the Cold

After the Sacco and Vanzetti trial, two communist men who were accused of commiting a robbery at a shoe company in 1919-1920, people at the time (some even till this day) believe they're execution was based on politics.This incident lead to the establishment of the National Security Agency in 1952 by president Harry S. Truman to keep an eye on U.S. citizens.Government surveillance programs do more harm than good because they invade civil liberties, and sometimes even lead innocent people to suffer unfair punishments, which ultimately fails to protect the citizens that they are designed to safeguard especially when these programs are

Within Italy, The Great War caused many problems and a great amount of distress. As a result of this, hundreds of new fascist groups started to emerge. In October 1922, Benito Mussolini became the Prime Minister of Italy and contributed a lot to the nation. He developed his power by forming the Fascist National Party in 1923 and eliminating political opposition. Mussolini and his followers ruled Italy through an authoritarian dictatorship. He made it clear that the war was a turning point for Italy and the returning of combat soldiers would form a new elite and bring about a new type of state to transform Italian politics and society. Mussolini set many

Many of the policies implemented during Truman’s administration were provoking in the minds of the Soviets. And Americans would have probably been less fearful if President Truman hadn’t emphasized Communism as such a big threat. He installed fear in the minds of the citizens and other officials. Maybe not a fear of any tangible threat communism posed but the simple idea of being taken over, from abroad and

During the 1950’s, Communism was a major fear that Democratic nations such as America were afraid of because of its radical ideas. The actions taken due to the Red Scare and the rise of McCarthyism were necessary and completely justified to protect America’s freedom and government from Communist power. With an increase of Communistic nations invading other countries and forcing their ideas upon them there was an uproar of fear in the United States. The Domino Theory was a legitimate fear of if one nation falling to communism, every nation around it would fall as well. Focusing their attention to VIetnam especially, America increased military control in these regions. Multiple Legislative actions taken by the United States such as the creation of the HAUC and the Espionage and Sedition acts were necessary to stop threats to America’s freedom. The heated tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War contributed to the fear of an attack from the East. Senator McCarthy’s convincing accusations lead to many accurate accusations as well as the rise of McCarthyism. Valid points were brought up about president Roosevelt’s New Deal policies of having capitalistic characteristics. While some actions did take away the civil liberties of some Americans, and were not always accurate, they were necessary to protect American Democracy, as well as the safety of the citizens.

Another factor for the US becoming militarily involved in Korea was the US domestic policies. US ideology was highlighted in NCS 68 which said ‘the assault on free institutions is worldwide now,’ and ‘a defeat of free institutions anywhere is a defeat of everywhere,’ therefore they felt it was their duty to stand against communism. However, NSC 68 also says ‘half measures will be…more dangerous,’ in reference to the 1930’s. Truman feels guilt over not getting involved in the British policy of appeasement against the Nazi’s in Europe, which led to WW2. In his memoirs he wrote ‘democracies failed to act it encouraged the aggressors to keep going.’ However, as this was written in his memoirs, it is written in hind sight, therefore will not be completely accurate. Furthermore, in 1949, Spy Trials were hosted in the US, when scientists and politicians were interrogated by HUAAC, the House of Un-American Activities Committee, and found to be giving nuclear research to Russia. This included Klaus Fuchs, a member of the Manhattan Project. As well as this, the US lost their nuclear monopoly when Russia successfully exploded their first Atomic Bomb, several years before expected, and China became communist. This led to the fear of more spies within the US government, and Truman was accused of ‘losing China’

After 1947, however, in a policy that U.S naturally favored, communists were systematically excluded from

During the Cold War, America as a whole was terrified of the idea of communists. Everybody had a perception of a communist, and knew that they did not like them. The American Government took many measures to protect the United States from Communism. In 1947, President Harry Truman made an Executive Order 9835 with the purpose of making the United States Government more secure. To summarize the order, it was to have all people holding or applying for Government positions to be checked or inspected a great deal for being or

The United States involved itself in World War II to preserve democracy, but when Joseph Stalin made it his top priority to spread communism across Europe, the United States’ goal was endangered. As a result, in 1947, President Harry Truman created Executive Order 9835, which called for “a loyalty investigation of every person entering the civilian employment of any department or agency of the executive branch of the Federal Government” (Document 1). Truman’s Executive Order exhibits a clear distrust of the protection of American ideals, as Truman would have never instituted this policy if he were not paranoid of the communistic plague. Truman’s paranoia was not only displayed by Executive Order 9835, but also emulated by the American people. Truman’s Doctrine spurred fear across the American public, most prominently showed in the trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. The Rosenberg’s were unfairly tried and biasedly considered communists by the American government, ultimately resulting in execution. As seen by Elliot Erwitt’s photographs, the American public was enraged and feared communist ideals (Document

The relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union was very tense, especially during the Cold War. Prior to this war, during World War II, they worked together as allies. Both of them had different ways of economically thinking. The Soviet Union was communist and the United States was capitalist. However, during this time Russia wanted to spread communism across the world, but the United States aided the cessation of the spread.

Consider the intricate sociopolitical climate of Italy just before the film’s release in 1948. Italy would hold its first election after almost twenty years of rule, Benito Mussolini was overthrown as head of Fascism and prime minister of the Italian government on July 15, 1943. The political framework of the Italians

Within theories and finding, The Truman Doctrine was established and on March 12th, 1947. Truman speech pledged “American support for free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures” (Simkin, n.d.) Congress also agreed to give economic aid to the military to help fight Greece against communism as he felt that the political stability was threatened. With Greece in trouble Truman as concerned the other countries would fall into Communism and was known as the ‘domino theory’. If it was not for Truman then Greece and Turkey could no longer afford to fight the rebels. “Truman said that the Cold War was a choice between freedom and oppression; Therefore, Americans would have to abandon their decisions not to get involved in European affairs; America was OBLIGED to get involved” (Clare, n.d.). The Truman Doctrine was an American challenge not only to Soviet ambitions but also through a policy of containment.

The economic issues in Italy lead to the rise of fascism. Mass unemployment meant that the socialists were rising in number. This meant that powerful industrialists turned to fascism as they would stop the trade unions from deciding workers’ rights. This leads to funding for the fascists helping them gain power. The economic crisis had brought about a huge rise in the support of socialism. The fascists became ever more appealing as their policies were anti socialist. They were not weak like the liberals in tackling socialism as they used