ABSTRACT
On July 25, 1943, the Fascist Grand Council, eager to end both Mussolini's rule and Italy's involvement in the war, forced the dictator's resignation. Mussolini, who had been held captive, was freed by German paratroopers and established a new Fascist Republican regime in northern Italy. Italians in the United States (US) were urged to write their relatives to vote anti-Communist. The US government gave twenty-nine ships to Italy as a sign of friendship and faith in Italian democracy; some US leaders intimated that all US aid to Italy would cease in case of a Communist victory, and Congress hurriedly passed an interim aid bill for Italy. Cordial relations exist between the Italian government and the Vatican, and the papacy overtly supported the Christian Democratic party for many years. The papacy naturally deplored the loss of these Eastern-rite Christians who for so long had pledged allegiance to the pope, and thus the conflict between the Vatican and communism grew more intense.
