The "Strategy of Tension" Theory
Many aspects of the "years of lead" are still shrouded in mystery and debate about them continues. There were many, especially on the left, who spoke of the existence in those years of a strategy of tension (strategia della tensione). According to this theory, occult and foreign forces were involved in creating a "strategy of tension". Identified organizations included: Gladio, a NATO secret anti-communist structure; the P2 masonic lodge, discovered in 1981 following the arrest of its leader Licio Gelli; fascist "black terrorism" organizations such as Ordine Nuovo or Avanguardia Nazionale; Italian secret service; and the United States.
Despite repeated denials of its authenticity the existence of several copies of US Army Field Manual 30-31B, some of them found in possession of key figure of pro-U.S. and far-right eversive figures (such as Licio Gelli), are hard to discount as fabrications.
This theory re-emerged in the 1990s, following Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti's recognition of the existence of Gladio before the Parliamentary assembly on 24 October 1990. Juridical investigations into the Piazza Fontana bombing and the Bologna massacre and several parliamentary reports pointed towards such a deliberate strategy of tension. Milan prosecutor Guido Salvini indicted a U.S. Navy officer, David Carrett, for his role in the Piazza Fontana bombing. He also surprised Carlo Rocchi, a CIA operative in Italy, in 1995 while searching for information concerning the case in the mid-1990s.
In 2000, a Parliamentary Commission report from the Olive Tree, a left-of-center coalition, concluded that the strategy of tension had been supported by the United States to "stop the PCI, and to a certain degree also the PSI, from reaching executive power in the country".
On May 4, 2007 the Italian Parliament declared May 9 as a memorial day dedicated to the victims of terrorism.
Read more about this topic: Years Of Lead (Italy)
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