ABSTRACT
The issue of foreign involvement was also taken up by a special committee of the Italian Parliament given the responsibility to investigate the kidnapping and subsequent assassination of former Prime Minister Aldo Moro in 1978. The committee discovered that several attempts were made to exert such direct influence, but that the Italians were reluctant to become involved. They feared that the development of a direct relationship would compromise their independence and self-defined role as a revolutionary vanguard in Italian society. The Soviet Union and its allies have not been the only foreign states accused of involvement in a conspiracy to promote terrorism in Italy. The terrorists themselves were hardly immune to the conspiratorial line of reasoning. Conspiracy theories are hardly unknown in the context of American politics, particularly extremist politics. A review of the political explanations for Italian terrorism would be incomplete without reference to the central role played by the neo-fascist movement.
