Thoughts on Mussolini (Washington, Lincoln, slaves, army)

[krakenten]

Franco was no dummy.

He knew that Spain, still wounded by the Civil War, would fall apart if it entered a general conflict.

Hitler was furious with him, but Franco didn't care a fig-and that's how he became the longest surviving blackshirt.

Notice that the Falangista's didn't long survive him.

[Tricky D]

Originally Posted by djmilf

C'mon wackos, either FDR was a pinko commie bastard or a nazi fascist bastard, not both. At least try to stay consistent, kk?

I was under the impression that you Americans believed that Communism and fascism was 1 and the same.


Originally Posted by Ira500

The guy knew his hair dye, though.

Even when you believe Reagan was a total dimwit he still is a genius compared to Dubya.

[Ira500]

Reagan was a skillful orator and a good actor. I disagreed with almost 100% of what he believed, but he was funny and charming. He may have had Alzheimers, but he was smart.
George W Bush, on the other hand, is not going to go down in history as brilliant, or charming, or a good speaker, or known for his honesty.

[mofford]

If were talking about communist dictators behind the iron curtain, then Nicolai Ceausescu come to mind as one of the most interesting. He was the last one to go, in Dec 1989 via execution like mussolini. Very cruel, with ruthless stalinist style of leadership. Even though he broke relations with the russians because they were not stalinist enough for his taste, he managed to remain independant like Tito. Alot of people thought he was a vampire, which he played up at every opportunity. He had some very strange habits, and made some eyebrows pop up when he visited the USA to see Nixon. Ive only seen one documentary on him a couple years ago on history international. It got me interested, he was a real peach.

[tijlover]

I'm halfway through Denis Mack Smith's bio of Mussolini, what an interesting read!

I had to laugh, given the low fertility rate in Italy today, how Mussolini tried to get women to each have 12 children during his realm, and quite the opposite happened, as the birth rate fell, instead.

His endearing himself to the Vatican was especially interesting, willing to rescue any Catholic bank that collapsed, making it a crime to swear in public, exempting them from property taxes and blocking construction of a mosque in Rome.

His applause squad was also interesting. Imagine a job like that, following him around and your job was to cheer and applaud where he spoke to the public!

Only 30 days into office, a new reporter interviews him in his office, and there's pictures all over the walls. Of whom? Himself, of course!

[kevxu]

Originally Posted by Tricky D

I guess Mussolini was right.
Even Ronald Reagan agreed to it.
And Reagan was far smarter than Dubya.

Even dead he is.

[kevxu]

Originally Posted by 6 Foot 3

I know Italy was weak during WWII as Hitler had to rescue Italy several times. Do you think that Mussolini would have made Italy a power had it not been for Hitler more or less forcing him to allie with Germany in the 1930's or do you think even without Hitler and the Nazi Germany that Italy would have been a average European country.

Henry Luce thought he was the bees knees, and touted him during the early 30's in his magazines Fortune and Time.

[CAVA1990]

Don't forget that a major reason for Mussolini's rise to power was the awful socialist governments following the first world war who, among other things, treated the returning soldiers very poorly. These soldiers became Mussolini's key cadre. One could argue that his developmental dictatorship was necessary for the modernization of Italy.

[Paquito Chocolatero]

Mussolini was swept away by the "crazy man in Berlin", the official name of Hitler in Rome.

I don't think he would have survived the war, even without his "antics" in Ethiopia, Albania, Lybia, etc.

The WWII was centered on the elimination of "Fascism", and he invented Fascism, he was more than a symbol.

Franco survived because he switched sides in 1941-42 and he ditched Falange, Spanish fascists, as early as 1941.

[noetsi]

Mussolini rose out of the general incompetence of both the public and private sector in Italy - which was widely seen as ineffective by Italians. He promised to make government more efficient, make the trains run on time and improve Italy's status in the world. Its common to place him on the right from an American perspective, but in fact his policy crossed over conservative and socialist policies stressing (in theory) cooperation between Italians of different economic backgrounds through corporatism.

In practise his philosophy (like Facism generally) was a poorly thought out and weakly executed fig leaf for his personal rule. Little actually was done to change Italy other than foreign wars during his tenure.