Il contributo italiano alla pace in Vietnam

[Autom. eng. transl.] The period of the Vietnam War between 1965 and 1968, often hurriedly summarized with the simple category of escalation, reveals a rich historical and fascinating events for understanding the continuation of the conflict and, in part, for a careful historical analysis. also of its outcome. The study of this period illuminates a passage from the Cold War to be read in a non-flattened perspective on the dominant role of the two superpowers and describes the behavior of other important actors who did not march only on the tracks of a strict and uncritical observance of the choices of the Soviet Union or the United States. In the case of the Marigold operation, the Italo-Polish attempt at mediation between Washington and Hanoi that took shape at the end of 1966, the examples of Italy and Poland emerge. Italy, in the Atlantic field, tried with determination to assume an autonomous and mediative position, without ever failing to be loyal to the United States. Foreign Minister Amintore Fanfani played a particularly active role in this. In a way that in various aspects speculate, in the socialist field, Poland, a Catholic country and member of the International Control Commission in South Vietnam, wanted to promote a mediation for peace, in agreement with Moscow, but elaborating an original foreign policy of which the foreign minister, Adam Rapacki, was the main architect. Thanks to the use of available Italian sources, it is possible to deepen the role of Moro governments in this context, enriching the picture outlined by international historiography and in particular by the studies of James G. Hershberg. The positions of Paul VI and the Holy See are closely linked to the events dealt with. The Pope's desire to be actively involved in an impartial mediation between the belligerents, the mobilization of the Italian Catholic world, the question of Vietnamese Catholicism had different points of contact with Italy's diplomatic efforts. The intricate history of the Marigold operation and of other Italian attempts to negotiate peace in Vietnam was also intertwined with the simultaneous exacerbation of the Sino-Soviet break: although the disagreement between the USSR was evident to the Americans involved in the Vietnam war. and the People's Republic of China, the official rhetoric of the Johnson administration continued to speak of a threat from the united communist bloc. Acutely aware of the risks of this division was the PCI, which in the three years examined kept its focus on the work of the Italian government and at times assumed a collaborative role for peace in Vietnam.