Britain, Italy, and the origins of the Cold War

"This volume analyses the British Labour government's contribution to the postwar reconstruction of Italy. It looks at Britain's role in Italian political processes in the immediate postwar period. It examines Britain's policies with regard to issues of Italian war criminality, the rebuilding of the Italian armed forces and the nature of Italy's institutional role within Western security arrangements and on Europe's new integrative bodies. Britain's policy towards Italy was influenced by power politics, the desire to frustrate Soviet and PCI design and to maintain its Great Power status. But throughout, it was underpinned by ideological considerations that aspired to export the principles of British social democracy. The aim was to provide Italy with an alternative model of political, economic and social development to that held out by either the USA or the USSR but, in the face of an intensifying Cold War, the Attlee government was to fail to achieve all of its goals."--Jacket.