LUCIO CEVA

1927. Una riunione fra Mussolini e i vertici militari  

N. 2/1985

Summary — During Fascism the military summit meetings were, few and far between because, although there existed a General Chief of Staff (Badoglio) since 1925, Mussolini preferred to deal separately with the Chiefs of the single Armed Forces. The document published here bears witness to a meeting which took place in 1927, hitherto entirely unheard-of, among Mussolini, Badoglio and the Chiefs of the three Armed Forces. The object of the meeting, according to Mussolini, is "the preparation for war" with " offensive " plans. He does not tell exactly against whom this war will have to be waged even though from the memorandum read by Badoglio immediately after, it turns out that the opponent would have to be Yugoslavia. Nobody raises any objections to the aggressive intentions of the "Duce".

Actually, the years are still far away when Mussolini will be able to carry out aggressive actions taking advantage of the European fear of the German rearmament (Ethiopia 1935) or in the wake of the German victories (1940).