Ideology and Violence in the Cold War

This book focuses on the kidnapping and subsequent murder of Aldo Moro. It not only reconstructs the facts, but also sheds light on the national and global reasons for which he was killed. Moro’s assassination was a watershed moment in the history of the Italian Republic from 1945 until today. However, its relevance was not only national: it was in many ways a global event, a significant episode in the history of the confrontation between the blocs in the Cold War. This book is written by two authors – a professional historian as well as prominent politician, Claudio Signorile, who was deputy secretary general of the Italian Sociality Party and in contact with the Red Brigades during the negotiations to save Moro’s life. Divided into three parts, the first part analyses Italy as a frontier country in the Cold War. It considers all the bloody episodes, from the early seventies until the Moro case, that mark the tension between the USSR and the USA. The second part examines the political situation in Italy in greater detail – the chronic weakness of the political system as well as the nature of red and black Italian terrorism. The third part scrutinizes the kidnapping story that many persons believe, are not an entirely Italian affair. After four parliamentary commissions of inquiry (the most recent occurring in 2022), there is still no certainty about what happened and who had killed Moro.