ABSTRACT
The Propaganda of the Marshall Plan in Italy in a Cold War Context
The study will highlight two key circumstances surrounding the workings of the Marshall Plan in Italy, namely the immediate Cold War context (e.g. the 1948 elections) and the fact that Italy was the country where communism had the most serious chance to come to power via the ballot box. The analysis will suggest that the European Recovery Program (ERP) propaganda effort largely failed in its short-term objectives. Left-wing strength continued to grow in various forms, and the quick-fix revolution in the customs and practices of the moderate parties, industry, and the state, as demanded by the Americans, was hopelessly unrealistic. However, the psychological boost to confidence that the ERP (and NATO) gave to the very weak ruling classes was as significant in Italy as it was elsewhere in Europe. In contrast, the Plan's long-term legacy is much more nuanced and hard to calculate. After fascism's failure, the United States offered a vision of modernization which was unprecedented in its power, internationalism and invitation to emulation. The ERP was one of the main ways that this modernization was expressed. How Italian society built mechanisms to adapt, translate, resist and domesticate this challenge had a lasting effect on the nation's development over the subsequent decades.
