Transnazionalismo e guerra fredda. Gli italoamericani e le elezioni politiche del 1948 e del 1976 in Italia

During the Cold War, the United States paid particular attention to the political dynamics in the Mediterranean region and Italy soon became a priority in the American agenda in this area. After preventing the Communist-dominated Popular Front from winning Italy’s 1948 elections, Washington feared again a Communist victory at the polls twenty-eight years later. This article examines what role Americans of Italian descent played in the US anti-communist drives in their ancestral country in both the 1948 and 1976 Parliamentary contests in a comparative perspective. It concludes that, while they cooperated with the American government in 1948 by urging relatives and friends living in Italy not to vote for the Popular Front, they did not make a significant contribution to the 1976 anti-Communist campaign. Many Italian Americans had previously embraced Washington’s crusade against communism out of expediency in order to help Italy regain her pre-World War II international standing as a medium Mediterranean power. As such a goal had been overall achieved by the mid 1970s, they felt free to discontinue their anti-Communist militancy in Italian politics.