Italy: Battleground for US and USSR - COLD WAR DOCUMENTARY

Our historical documentary series on the history of the Cold War continues with a video on the creation of Italy after World War II, as the country goes through a transition, during which the US and the USSR fight over its fate
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#ColdWar #Italy #NATO

[@felixdelabarara494]

Am I the only one who first watches WW2 and then watch The Cold War? This is my fav release day of the week on YT.

[@undolf4097]

I go Cold War first but yeah it’s awesome

[@ronezekian9865]

I watch both, too!

[@golden_smaug]

Hear hear

[@od9694]

I watch WW2 then cold war then WW2 again

[@Oldmanplum]

Dont forget time ghost history and even the original great war channel's new videos. All quality content

[@DmitriPolkovnik]

Post-war Italy. The madmen finally did it.

[@patched8789]

Italy is definitely one of the most interesting post-war stories to cover!

[@zacharymeinholz7817]

I would love to hear more about Italy in the Cold War

[@edoardogiardina8036]

The Strategy of tension occured in Italy from the late 60s to the early 80s would be a great topic to cover for this channel

[@baljitpahal9348]

Yes !

[@larrybuzbee7344]

I was there '73-'75, field artillery, tactical nukes, Vicenza. Very interesting.

[@larrybuzbee7344]

@@consolexxvii8423 I was at Caserma Edderly, in town, but had friends at Pluto. Were you there and if so when? We may have met. I'm the guy who got pulled out of parade on the steps of the church by Top for wearing one blue sock and one yellow. 🤣🤣🤣 Was also assistant instructor with the ski program. Tough duty!

[@jamesl.b.8408]

The map at 4:58 mins is wrong, it clearly shows three towns close to Naples in the southern Italian region of Campania as opposed to Modena, Parma and Reggio Emilia which are towns in northern Italy in the notoriously leftist region of Emilia-Romagna.

[@lastresort3159]

Apparently it's an area notorious for the largest waste dump in Europe hence the name "triangle of death". Someone just did a quick google search and slapped the picture without paying attention.

[@EyeR89]

This

[@JackWiizard]

Wtf I didn't expect such a gross error!

[@andrewturkington369]

Anyone else notice Bella Ciao in the background

[@randomalien7746]

Yes

[@varun300690]

Yes i noticed in 4th minute

[@weatherspoonelias]

Yes!!!!

[@hussey4826]

Ye

[@matteoorlandi856]

YES, SADLY.

[@PRITZ060191]

Hello! I am from India. I hope one day you make episodes about the following Cold War topics related to India: 1) The unique "Non-Aligned Movement" of which India was a founding member 2) The 1971 Bangladesh's War of Independence in which US and USSR attempted to take sides, along with Pakistan and India as the respective proxies.

[@luigibellini811]

When you'll make more video about Italy, remember to talk about the neo-fascist paramilitaries, "the Brigate Rosse", the Massonic p2, the gladio operation, the mafia, and the less known "Anello" (Ring) an organization made of ex italian social republic officers.

[@baljitpahal9348]

Yes - absolutely this !

[@jacopofolin6400]

Le brigate rosse erano di pensiero comunista, anche se in effetti nn c'è molta differenza fra socialisti

[@alessiogiardini665]

Red brigades were communist

[@luigibellini811]

@@alessiogiardini665 i was making a list, i’m not saying the Br were nei fascist lol

[@smokyondagrass2353]

Hey, u got a link to the Anello ring

[@walidhousni3186]

UN: So...in the war you were with the allies, the axis, or the Soviets? Italians: YES

[@MichelaRossini]

Only an ignorant foreigner could write such an offensive and stupid thing. Italy is not an homogeneous country, it's made of a rich North and a poor South, different peoples have different interests.

[@joeb7373]

As I recall, there was a movement in Sicily in the early post war time frame to petition and apply for U.S. statehood. That isn’t as outlandish as it seems at first glance. Mussolini once said that the U.S. would never attack Italy because there were more Italians in New York than there were in Milano.

[@joeb7373]

Well, it wouldn’t be any more far fetched than Hawaii being granted statehood

[@Alaryk111]

@Rick K Puerto Rico was part of Spain for longer than Italy is a unified country.

[@badape3620]

If you look deeper into that attempt mobster Lucky Luciano and the Mafia attempted that so they could keep closer ties to America

[@MichelaRossini]

Mafia ties between Sicily and the USA.

[@ftdefiance1]

I would like further information on Italy

[@andreamanfredi8133]

Finally a video on Italy thank you!

[@heinricusblasius7917]

If you want to grasp the atmosphere of post WW2 Italy, and the tension between the pro-US and pro-USSR factions I can only warmly recommend the Don Camillo Film series. Albeit funny, it really conveys the atmosphere of that time in Italy.

[@chaoslord4831]

hopefully they cover the "years of lead" in this series

[@wokekkk]

the "funny" era of Italy

[@rogergarcia4349]

Min 4:58 the map should be one of the Emilia-Romagna in tjhe North. You have put one of the Campania Region. Double check that map!

[@EmmeandEffe]

Except a wrong map approx at min 5:00, great episode. Please post more video on post-war Italy

[@prashanttiwari9377]

Great Episode David. Loved it. Also loved the subtle bella ciao music in the background. Keep up the good work. And hell yes. We need coup episodes please :)

[@raflyraihandy]

This is a very interesting topic, hope to see more after this video!

[@Zaeyrus]

Love the 'Bella Ciao' in the background! :)

[@lakshyakashyap1490]

What's the background music name in 9:02 - 13:22 ? pls tell

[@DrakhAutokrator]

Yes, make more, please. Operation Gladio, the Red Brigades or the Years of Lead as a whole.

[@neonz616]

Tolyatti has VAZ (Lada) factory, not GAZ (Volga). GAZ is located in Nizhny Novgorod, formelly called Gorky (GAZ stands for Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod, Gorky Automobile Factory). VAZ stands for Volzhsky Avtomobilny Zavod (Volga Automobile Factory), Tolyatti coasts Volga river.

[@bulatiskhakov8863]

yes, i noticed that too. Very weird mistake as the channel has an access to a russian guy who has even participated in a few episodes.

[@DenizErtuncay]

Special episode for Trieste, please!

[@sashapalmer2627]

Please so much! So interesting & intricate, and little known, including still by myself- all of my possible votes for an episode on Trieste

[@alessandromorter2242]

We definitely need more, particularly with the Anni di Piombo

[@Jokkkkke]

More Italy please! Their political-economic developments with the years of lead and that would be a very interesting listen I think

[@dkwlin4351]

Post war Italy❤️🇮🇹 Germany, Japan and Italy have become the US great allies from Foes In WW2. Italy also made a post-was economic miracle in 1960. I recommend that The Cold War can make a video about Post-War Greece and military coup in 1967.

[@johnmaxwell1750]

Please consider examining the following topics re future Cold War videos concerning Italy: (1) Red Brigades terrorism; and what links there were between Red Brigades and the Bulgarian State Secret Service; (2) Bulgarian responsibility (or non-responsibility) for the John Paul II assassination attempt in 1981.

[@brokenbridge6316]

"What if" Italy had gone communist. Would that have changed history. Would it devastate the country. Who knows. My compliments to all those who made this video a reality.

[@yaldabaoth2]

Would have gone neutral like Yugoslavia. The USSR couldn't have done anything for Italy and Italy allowing Soviet troops in the country would have triggered World War 3 most likely. They would have been way too close to France and provoked French troops to occupy Italy. So, it wouldn't have changed much in terms of the Cold War. Inside Italy would be a different story of course.

[@lofn8166]

@@yaldabaoth2 Italo-Yugoslavian Block?

[@nicanornunez9787]

Maybe, but I would say Korea/Vietnam situation with the obvious north V south post proxy war division would be the most probable result, with a missile crisis Being Italian instead of Cuban so probably more influential role of both gramsci and Mussolini replacing in pop culture, Hitler and che. I think more neoralism, Fellini going to America, both Calvino and Eco, on the communist side, probably a nobel for Eco instead of Svetlana. And some more years of east Germany and cold war other than that same stuff.

[@brokenbridge6316]

All of this sounds pretty intriguing. Is their anymore you all have to say about this?

[@arthurfrb6165]

@@yaldabaoth2 Viva il Re!

[@dejavue3013]

Brilliant again. Si! Piu sul italia per piacere 😀

[@IohannesI]

It would be very interesting to have more about post war Italy. Thank you for your work!

[@aleb9364]

Hi David, could you please make a video about Junio Valerio Borghese and it's attempt of coup?

[@christiancolson]

Keep up the good work. More cold war Italian history, please.

[@Mondo762]

Would like to hear more about the OSS involvement in Italy after the war.

[@itsblitz4437]

Interesting Fact: Italian Socialist Republic it was also called the 'Salo Republic' as the city of Salo was its capital city once.

[@weddman100]

Keep the good content comin

[@umbertogiancola1370]

The three nostrils thing is by Giovannino Guareschi, fervent monarchist and vibrant catholic but certainly NOT a DC supporter, if not by desperate need. He was a great writer, father to Peppone and Don Camillo, which somebody in Europe may know.

[@deniskoscak1735]

Please make an episode about the "Trieste crisis"

[@emilianoborro5]

Great video, I'm always fascinated by the story of Italy during the cold war, but I have to give you a little pronunciation tip, 'gli' is a single phoneme and I understand it might a difficult sound for an English speaker but it is really better to just say 'li' if you are not able to pronounce it, it sounds closer than g-li

[@Thaumazo83]

Yes, I agree. For a native speaker of English the Italian "gli" is difficult, and "li" is a passable approximation. If David knows French, the sound of the Italian "gli" is close to the French sound "ill", like in "ville", town.

[@MrModena]

Great work! I’m an Italian Teacher (in an International School). I teach History and your video is really good, in every point of view. Please continue with this work!!!

[@TheColdWarTV]

Thank you for the kind words!

[@---uf2zl]

Very good video! It'd be great to learn more!

[@tomdis8637]

Your office temperature is much higher there - 25C - than your usual 20C. LOL I figured out what that “transistor radio” actually was on your desk! Good videos all. Thanks!

[@pablononescobar]

Free Territory of Trieste--please do an episode!

[@francescoazzoni3445]

You got the wrong triangle of death; you showed the triangle of death in campania called so for high level of industrial pollution casued cancers.

[@ggbpartystarter5958]

Talk about the Pacepa affair, the right hand of Ceausescu who spied for Moscow, Bucharest and Washingron and finally fled to us, leaving Ceausescu insecure about his antourage.

[@EverettGuenther]

So no mention of Operation Gladio or is that in the future?

[@SmashingCapital]

Amazing video

[@Vishnu-rf5wk]

I really enjoyed this Vedio

[@Game_Hero]

Any occasion for an episode about little known things like you mentionned at 17:08 should be taken, this is my support for episodes about those stories. The more numerous and varied episodes we would get from such a great subject the better. Good episode! PS: I'll again repeat my humble requests for a post-war Canada and a post-war Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) episode. I also highly request a episode about the communist crisis in San Marino in the late 50s (aka a post-war San Marino episode where there were way much more that meets the eye).

[@splean75]

Another great video, thank you! How about a video on operation Gladio?

[@extremathule982]

I'm amazed, never seen before: an English speaker capable of correctly treating this part of Italy's history, without stating an assortment of bullshit and bollocks. *Kudos Mr. "Cold War"!*

[@bhutochakrabarti4173]

I came from your other channel of kings and general recommended by a friend . And I've been hooked on ever since and also I've watched like close to 20 videos in the last two days. Just a request please cover the story on Indias, especially on Indira Gandhi.

[@brankeane2830]

Oh! You should do an episode on Operation Gladio! That story’s always a fun ride :D

[@Nikolapoleon]

In a future video, could we get some context for Golpe Borghese's failed coup?

[@arnaldoteodorani277]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/l5K4l5SghbuahM0

[@Nikolapoleon]

@@arnaldoteodorani277 Cool. I have always been a fan of Biographics, and I didn't know they made one about him. I still want to see The Cold War's take on his story, though.

[@inspecthergadget4503]

There should be a video about Vietnam during WW2, up until the Vietnam War. In some way quite similar to Indonesia, we were close to being granted independence by the Japanese and already had an interim government led by Tran Trong Kim. They declared independence og France and announce the birth of the Empire of Vietnam. However that government was silenced by Ho Chi Minh and the communist Viet Minh (later Viet Cong or Victor Charlie as the the Yanks) and they took over the country in August 1945. The initial government had to move to the South for French and British protection (the North had Soviet and Chinese backing) and from then they formed the Republic of Vietnam. And then the French lost, the Americans jumped in and the rest is history. Not many people know about this government that declared independence as the communist state refused to teach it in school.History was written by the victor, as always.

[@andre0000000007]

brilliant doco, thank you so much.

[@abdulrahmanalomari7680]

A very interesting topic to cover please is "years of lead" in Italy, 1968-1988

[@giacomotomassone2108]

Sorry, but I think U take the wrong image of the "Triangolo della Morte", because u have shown the province of Naple, not Modena

[@AxelPoliti]

Very interesting. There is now a wealth of Italian resources on the Cold War. Your reconstruction of the Pallante incident is good but incomplete without the essential "Salerno inflection" (svolta di Salerno), where Togliatti, freshly arrived from USSR declared that the ICP (PCI) would take power only with democratic means. Stalinbtold

[@tvtvvtvt8017]

If I was a conquering army, it would be hard not to attempt to conquer northern Italy, not because they deserve it (they didn't), and not because they're bad people (they weren't). It's simply b/c northern Italy is astonishingly beautiful, with the beautiful people, and with the beautiful art from a rich culture which preceded it.

[@funetkopio4274]

Is "The Milan Brigades" same or different from "The Red Brigades" of post war Italy? I'm asking because they may have actually been an NATO/CIA backed operation to subvert communist agenda by doing terror attacks while posing as a communist aligned terror group. It is said to part of the Operation Gladio, the NATO's Stay Behind plan. That would make a really great Cold War episode, I'm sure. They actually released some previously confidential papers about Operation Gladio in Finland and it is really shocking to hear what was done without the consent of the state or the people. People were killed in both sides of the Fin-Russian border and by operators from many NATO and other countries. In hindsight it makes sense, since we have really long border and it is mostly really deep forested and not many people around to feel the cold war turning hot..

[@manic2360]

This ./. ^^^^^

[@fabioferrarese5600]

the red brigades were leftist terrorist cucks, the cia supported the far right adn then those mf started to do terror attacks as well edit: never heard of the "milan brigades before" i tried to do a quick research but couldn't find anything

[@jacopofolin6400]

Le brigate rosse erano dei terroristi che operavano durante gli anni di piombo, NON un piano NATO, la Cia però ha supportato invece milizie filo-fasciste. Ma dire che le brigate rosse nn sono dei terroristi è tipico di feccia comunista

[@schenkenbergvanmierop8094]

Could you tell me a bit more about stay-behind operations in Finland? Its stay-behind organisation hasn't really been written about extensively in the literature. Just a side-note, "Operation Gladio" is only applicable to the Italian context; other stay-behind organisations had their own names. Imo, the distinction matters, because calling everything "Gladio" can obscure the differences between the various groups. I'm personally most familiar with the situation in the Netherlands, whose stay-behind organisations stuck to their stated mission of preparations against a foreign (soviet) invasion. As far as I've been able to tell from the source material I've been able to see, the Dutch organisations probably didn't do anything shady. It's hard to say the extent to which stay-behind organisations deviated from their original mission of preparations against invasion. Imo, it's likely that Gladio in Italy was involved in some way or another in the violence of the Years of Lead. However, we simply don't know how far-reaching this involvement was The most explicit evidence we have is the usage of explosives in a car bomb attack in 1972 that matched those from a Gladio arms cache. Italian judge Felice Casson, who led the investigation on the bombing, apparently found some pretty suspicious links; however, as I cannot read Italian I am not able to give a good assessment of the court document he produced. For those interested in the topic, I highly recommend Olav Riste's paper "Stay Behind: A Clandestine Cold War Phenomenon", which gives a good overview of the state of stay-behind activities during the Cold War. Riste has also written some interesting stuff on the Norwegian stay-behind organisation. When it comes to Italy, Leopoldo Nuti has also written a decent paper on Gladio. I'm not able to say what the good literature in Italian is. More generally the Journal of Strategic Studies' 2007 special section on stay-behind organisation is absolutely invaluable to research on this topic. Do yourselves a favour and skip Daniele Ganser's "Nato's Secret Armies: Operation GLADIO and Terrorism in Western Europe", because that book is a piece of trash with piss-poor methodology, and a stain on the study of stay-behind organisations.

[@stefanoconti4426]

Outstanding video, more comments on how Italy lived thru post WW2 yes please!

[@chevaliergryphon1308]

Love your videos about the Cold War!

[@luisacelaya4362]

Oh hi, will you talk about the Romanian Air Force of the Romanian People's Army??? (I heard they were talented and mighty)

[@randommonkey4900]

RAF lol

[@ffffuchs]

what would the point of featuring an air force that took part in no combat?

[@enpakeksi765]

Perhaps Military Aviation History might touch upon the RAF some day?

[@ciprianbodea7838]

It would help undermine the argument that Romania had a strong army during communism if they did.

[@hoponasu2471]

Regarding covert action Italy was interesting place in 1970s and 1980s..pls do story on that time period

[@gsacelm7753]

5:00 wrong triangle of death lol

[@ronezekian9865]

Disappointed that you didn't mention the influence of the Czechoslovak coup of Feb., 1948, upon the outcome of the April, 1948 elections in Italy. Didn't that play a role, too?

[@theMOCmaster]

Trieste episode!!

[@randyalexander4820]

more

[@123Dunebuggy]

I would love to see a video for the coup and a other about the situation of Trieste.

[@TheAndrewSchneider]

Just started learning the names of all the Italian prime ministers and this episode (with Mario Scelba) made a whole lot more sense! Yes to Fanfani shenanigans and Segni coup contemplations and Craxi and prominent Communist party politicians... We want to throw things at Bettino Craxi!

[@oliverstianhugaas7493]

*The Venician Italians along the Dalmatian coast where murdered in the hundreds of thousands, the city of Fiume is the best example, the bones are still in the caves under the city.*

[@gramsci747]

Happy to help you if you want to work together on a video on Trieste/Trst.

[@percamihai-marco7157]

Can you make please an episode about the ocupation of Tibet by China in 1950?

[@giacomotomassone2108]

Must say that for an Italian interesting in politics and geopolitics, u've done a very good work depiting our post-war situation from a foreign prospective. I look foward to see new videos about my country (❁´◡`❁)

[@tommasofogli8845]

That map you showed of the triangle between Parma, Modena and Reggio Emilia was wrong. That is a map of three cities near Naples

[@petermeter9890]

If communists had won we would have pizza pelmeni and no spaghetti westerners. Both would have been tragic

[@bigworm3886]

It would be interesting to cover the Italian Economic Miracle of the 1950's.

[@Marinealver]

A couple of videos on the OSS to the CIA and the NKVD to the KGB would be nice.

[@zaeemameer8701]

In the words of Oliver Twist through Charles Dickens (or vice versa), "May I have some more?" A long-winded way to say I'm in favour of more Italy vids...

[@AppleMac1221]

Do the 1958 Lebanon Crisis please!!!!!!!!

[@БожидарТузчиев]

You made a mistake about the city of Toliati: its not the car manufacturer volga ,its VAZ and the the lada cars are based on a fiat 121

[@sankarchaya]

it would be cool to see a video on the role of the mafia in this, I know they aligned with the conservatives against the left in favor of Washington

[@joeb7373]

You have to remember Italy always has three governments functioning simultaneously- the elected one, the church and the mafia

[@tharos]

I am asking for more.

[@Justme-to6yu]

Italy is a great country when its not at war.

[@jockobotzi]

I would've like for u to go into how the C.I.A. incorporated/used La Cosa Nostra(Mafia) in its Anti-Communist framework in Italy

[@giacomocuttin5630]

definetly not the map of Modena, Parma and Reggio Emilia at 5:03. On the other hand a very nice piece!

[@sonergulal2005]

At around 6;20 you talk about the return of the Dodecanese, these were not returned to the owner but handed over to Greece. The population was till 1912 all Turks, where after annexion by Italy this changed: Greece deported their own people to the islands. In 1947 all islands were given to Greece, something what is still a big dispute today for Turkey and Greece.

[@AnthonyFontana]

Yes! Please make more post-war Italy videos!

[@madmanwithabox11]

Would love to see the channel cover the years of lead in Italy

[@theblue5224]

Allies be like: italy you have to give Friuli and Trieste to Yugoslavia Italy be like: how about we ask the soviets?

[@patrickblanchette4337]

17:25 Yes; please do more videos on the subjects you just mentioned!

[@scoutgamer9448]

Please, talk about the Poltava U.S. Air base of ww2! How it worked. Who owned it (prob the headman Idk) . Tell if it had Soviet officers or something. AND MORE!!

[@dennistesolat5346]

Oh. Grappa and polenta. My favourite

[@user-xq4st9ie7r]

Please cover "Gladio" /"Stay Behind"

[@giorgiociaravolol1998]

Italians: well, can't we enjoy a bit of Carbonara without foreigners for 5 minutes?

[@emmettdoylemusic]

Please cover the Years of Lead, and the Autonomia movements and the Italian workers' movements!

[@LookingEastChannel]

Maybe already mentioned, but Tolyatti was and still is home to the AutoVAZ (Lada/Zhiguli) factory, and not Volga. Togliatti was prior to his death instrumental in bringing the Russians and FIAT together, to have the FIAT 124 produced in Russia

[@Jodonho]

Togliatti would have been a disaster.

[@Guiscardo777]

@Jose Raul Miguens Cruz Italy is not Yugoslavia, dude.. and Yugo WAS a disaster.

[@Niro.C]

Please make a video on the Red Brigades and the Bologna train bombing in 1980.

[@DolanOk]

My dad got in trouble for yelling at Italian Communists while in the Air Force at a bar in the 60's lmao