On April 4, 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty was signed in Washington. In
July 1948, negotiations had begun, again in Washington, between the five
states that made up the Western European Union (Great Britain, France,
the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg), the representatives of the
United States and Canada. The governments of the five European states
aimed to involve the United States and Canada in a North Atlantic
alliance that would have excluded the defeated states of the Second
World War, Germany and Italy. The government of the United States
instead aimed at a broader alliance, which would reach as far as the
Elbe River, and would include, in addition to the western part of
Germany, then divided with the Soviet occupation of Eastern Germany,
Italy, Denmark, Norway, Greece and Turkey.
The defensive nature of the treaty was due to the concerns of the US
administration about a possible Soviet invasion; concerns skillfully
agitated to force the European states outside the area of influence of
the USSR to accept the aid provided for by the Marshall Plan and the
military aid, connected to the Atlantic Pact in the making. The US
administration, with the stipulation and the enlargement of the Atlantic
Pact, therefore aimed at different and partly contradictory objectives
in Europe: to preserve the capitalist mode of production, infusing it
with new vigor, to attenuate the effects of the class conflict, to calm
the traditional contrasts between the ruling groups of the various
states, at the same time to prevent Europe, once economically back on
its feet, from opposing the USA and therefore maintaining a hegemonic
position for the latter.
The reactionary role of the new treaty is particularly highlighted by
the events that led the Italian government to sign it. In order to
achieve the planned enlargement, the US government needed the
governments of the European states that it wanted to add to the five of
the WEU to make a formal request to Washington, necessary to overcome
the hostilities present both among the WEU states and in the US
Congress. An important role was played by the Italian ambassador to
Washington, Alberto Tarchiani, who made several visits to Italy to push
the Italian government, led by Alcide De Gasperi, to formulate this
request. In one of these visits Tarchiani obtained an audience with Pope
Pacelli, Pius XII, to convince the head of the Catholic Church to act
against the neutralism and pacifism that were widespread in large
sectors of the Catholic movement and the Christian Democrats. The mood
of the majority of the Italian popular masses, a few years after the end
of a disastrous war, was decidedly oriented towards the defense of peace
and neutrality, even among those who voted for the Christian Democrats
or the other government parties. Within the privileged classes, however,
pro-Atlantic sentiments were widespread, largely because the military
alliance was seen as a defense against possible social transformations;
partly, moreover, in sectors linked to the war industry and military
circles, adherence to the alliance was seen as a way to overcome the
provisions of the peace treaty regarding rearmament. In this situation,
the Pope decided to send a radio message on the occasion of the Catholic
holiday of Christmas 1948 in which, after having stated that every war
of aggression was a crime and that defense against an unjust aggression
was legitimate, he supported the need for solidarity of nations with the
one attacked. An intervention that silenced the opposition of the
left-wing Christian Democrats to the planned alliance.
From its inception, therefore, the North Atlantic Treaty has brought
together in a single organization the states that still maintained a
vast colonial empire, such as Great Britain, France, the Netherlands,
Belgium and Portugal. It is significant that even the French departments
of Algeria, until independence, were covered by the Pact. Furthermore,
over the years the Treaty has always increased the character of internal
control. Starting from the mid-1950s, pre-existing structures have been
coordinated, with the aim of creating a parallel security structure. The
network was called "Stay-Behind" and had branches in almost all NATO
countries, including Greece, Belgium, France, Germany and the
Netherlands. As for Italy, the structure was called Gladio and was born
in 1956, thanks to an agreement between the CIA and the Italian secret
services: the CIA would supply Gladio with money, weapons, explosives;
many neo-fascist exponents would join Gladio and it would be a structure
oriented to countering more than a Soviet invasion, the forces of the
labor movement and possible street riots.
To this we must add the theories on revolutionary warfare and
psychological warfare developed in France between the end of the
Indochina War and the beginning of the Algerian War (1953-1957). This is
a doctrine that combines extreme repressive aspects, such as torture,
with propaganda and provocative action. This doctrine has been adopted
by numerous NATO member states and also adopted outside the European
continent, such as in Latin America, where French theorists of
revolutionary war have recycled themselves as consultants to military
dictatorships. In Europe, it is worth mentioning the coup d'état in
Greece, led by a group of intermediate officers with the support of the
United States, to prevent the advent of a center-left government.
In Italy too, the strategy of tension and the resulting state massacres
were favored by the existence of the Gladio structure and inspired by
the doctrine of revolutionary war, with the aim of stopping the mass
movement that developed in 1968-69.
Today, NATO has largely exceeded the limits of a defensive alliance,
with interventions in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1993), Kosovo (1999),
Afghanistan (2003), Iraq (2004), the Gulf of Aden (2009), Libya (2011),
and Syria (2012). In addition to studying new forms of control of
popular movements within the country, the NATO apparatus has proven to
be one of the most efficient tools in the hands of governments allied
with Anglo-American imperialism to maintain economic, political, and
military control of the world.
Tiziano Antonelli
https://umanitanova.org/n-a-t-o-per-sfruttare-il-patto-atlantico-una-storia-di-violenza/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
July 1948, negotiations had begun, again in Washington, between the five
states that made up the Western European Union (Great Britain, France,
the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg), the representatives of the
United States and Canada. The governments of the five European states
aimed to involve the United States and Canada in a North Atlantic
alliance that would have excluded the defeated states of the Second
World War, Germany and Italy. The government of the United States
instead aimed at a broader alliance, which would reach as far as the
Elbe River, and would include, in addition to the western part of
Germany, then divided with the Soviet occupation of Eastern Germany,
Italy, Denmark, Norway, Greece and Turkey.
The defensive nature of the treaty was due to the concerns of the US
administration about a possible Soviet invasion; concerns skillfully
agitated to force the European states outside the area of influence of
the USSR to accept the aid provided for by the Marshall Plan and the
military aid, connected to the Atlantic Pact in the making. The US
administration, with the stipulation and the enlargement of the Atlantic
Pact, therefore aimed at different and partly contradictory objectives
in Europe: to preserve the capitalist mode of production, infusing it
with new vigor, to attenuate the effects of the class conflict, to calm
the traditional contrasts between the ruling groups of the various
states, at the same time to prevent Europe, once economically back on
its feet, from opposing the USA and therefore maintaining a hegemonic
position for the latter.
The reactionary role of the new treaty is particularly highlighted by
the events that led the Italian government to sign it. In order to
achieve the planned enlargement, the US government needed the
governments of the European states that it wanted to add to the five of
the WEU to make a formal request to Washington, necessary to overcome
the hostilities present both among the WEU states and in the US
Congress. An important role was played by the Italian ambassador to
Washington, Alberto Tarchiani, who made several visits to Italy to push
the Italian government, led by Alcide De Gasperi, to formulate this
request. In one of these visits Tarchiani obtained an audience with Pope
Pacelli, Pius XII, to convince the head of the Catholic Church to act
against the neutralism and pacifism that were widespread in large
sectors of the Catholic movement and the Christian Democrats. The mood
of the majority of the Italian popular masses, a few years after the end
of a disastrous war, was decidedly oriented towards the defense of peace
and neutrality, even among those who voted for the Christian Democrats
or the other government parties. Within the privileged classes, however,
pro-Atlantic sentiments were widespread, largely because the military
alliance was seen as a defense against possible social transformations;
partly, moreover, in sectors linked to the war industry and military
circles, adherence to the alliance was seen as a way to overcome the
provisions of the peace treaty regarding rearmament. In this situation,
the Pope decided to send a radio message on the occasion of the Catholic
holiday of Christmas 1948 in which, after having stated that every war
of aggression was a crime and that defense against an unjust aggression
was legitimate, he supported the need for solidarity of nations with the
one attacked. An intervention that silenced the opposition of the
left-wing Christian Democrats to the planned alliance.
From its inception, therefore, the North Atlantic Treaty has brought
together in a single organization the states that still maintained a
vast colonial empire, such as Great Britain, France, the Netherlands,
Belgium and Portugal. It is significant that even the French departments
of Algeria, until independence, were covered by the Pact. Furthermore,
over the years the Treaty has always increased the character of internal
control. Starting from the mid-1950s, pre-existing structures have been
coordinated, with the aim of creating a parallel security structure. The
network was called "Stay-Behind" and had branches in almost all NATO
countries, including Greece, Belgium, France, Germany and the
Netherlands. As for Italy, the structure was called Gladio and was born
in 1956, thanks to an agreement between the CIA and the Italian secret
services: the CIA would supply Gladio with money, weapons, explosives;
many neo-fascist exponents would join Gladio and it would be a structure
oriented to countering more than a Soviet invasion, the forces of the
labor movement and possible street riots.
To this we must add the theories on revolutionary warfare and
psychological warfare developed in France between the end of the
Indochina War and the beginning of the Algerian War (1953-1957). This is
a doctrine that combines extreme repressive aspects, such as torture,
with propaganda and provocative action. This doctrine has been adopted
by numerous NATO member states and also adopted outside the European
continent, such as in Latin America, where French theorists of
revolutionary war have recycled themselves as consultants to military
dictatorships. In Europe, it is worth mentioning the coup d'état in
Greece, led by a group of intermediate officers with the support of the
United States, to prevent the advent of a center-left government.
In Italy too, the strategy of tension and the resulting state massacres
were favored by the existence of the Gladio structure and inspired by
the doctrine of revolutionary war, with the aim of stopping the mass
movement that developed in 1968-69.
Today, NATO has largely exceeded the limits of a defensive alliance,
with interventions in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1993), Kosovo (1999),
Afghanistan (2003), Iraq (2004), the Gulf of Aden (2009), Libya (2011),
and Syria (2012). In addition to studying new forms of control of
popular movements within the country, the NATO apparatus has proven to
be one of the most efficient tools in the hands of governments allied
with Anglo-American imperialism to maintain economic, political, and
military control of the world.
Tiziano Antonelli
https://umanitanova.org/n-a-t-o-per-sfruttare-il-patto-atlantico-una-storia-di-violenza/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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