Chi Vota per Garibaldii. Vota per Stalin. 1948. First edition of the poster
Italy: 1948]. Original poster.68 x 49cm..
Mounted on a support sheet. .....Vengono impiegate attrazioni, quali il cinema, con film ma anche cortometraggi a
contenuto propagandistico, e vengono distribuiti oggetti e figurine, diretti ad attrarre
l’attenzione e le simpatie degli elettori: molto nota la figurina con l’effige di Garibaldi,
che rappresentava il simbolo elettorale del Fronte Popolare e che, capovolta, diventa
l’effige di Stalin...
The Italian parliamentary elections of April 18, 1948, pitted Rome’s pro-Western government against a communist-dominated Popular Front. As numerous studies have shown, the American embassy, the CIA, and other US organizations intervened heavily in favor of the government and its allies during the election campaign. These measures ranged from covert financial support, to public statements by US officials, linking American economic aid to an electoral defeat of the Popular Front.....
Yet American efforts did not stop there. Recently discovered documents at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland, reveal that US Army intelligence officers contemplated an operation that went well beyond electoral support of anti-communist groups......
Reports from Italy in early 1948 pointed to the likelihood of a Popular Front victory at the polls, setting off alarm bells in Washington. On March 8, the National Security Council – the organization tasked to coordinate US national security policy among the armed forces, the State Department, and the CIA – recommended that American agencies escalate their anti-communist operations “by all feasible means” (NSC 1/3). Specifically, the directive called for measures “to minimize the effects” of a communist electoral victory, and for providing financial and military assistance to “the anti-Communist Italian underground” in the event of a Popular Front victory. Item #51-6933
Price: $500.00