Confidential U.S. State Department Central Files, Italy: Internal Affairs, 1950-1954, Part 1. Political, Governmental, and National Defense Affairs

The U.S. State Department Central Files are the definitive source of American diplomatic reporting on political, military, social, and economic developments throughout the world in the 20th century. Concentrating exclusively on those Central Files that have not been microfilmed by the National Archives or other publishers, UPA's microfilm editions of the Central Files nonetheless dwarf the State Department's very selective volumes of the Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS). Containing less than one percent of the material in the Central Files, FRUS focuses on U.S. relations with individual countries but does not include coverage of many of the key topics to which the majority of the original files are devoted. Each part of the Central Files contains a wide range of materials from U.S. diplomats in foreign countries: special reports on political and military affairs; studies and statistics on socioeconomic matters; interviews and minutes of meetings with foreign government officials; court proceedings and other legal documents; full texts of important letters, instructions, and cables sent and received by U.S. diplomatic personnel; voluminous reports and translations from foreign journals and newspapers; and countless translations of high-level foreign government documents. The Central Files on the internal and foreign affairs of Italy cover the period from the height of Fascist rule through the economic recovery of the war-torn nation. This collection combines diplomatic reports, minutes of meetings with Italian diplomats and political figures, and analyses from the Department of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the White House. Internal and Foreign Affairs, Italy, 1950-1954 focuses on economic reform under the new multiparty government dominated by the Christian Democrats. It documents reform measures of the early 1950s, including implementing land reform, slowing rampant inflation, and stabilizing the lira. Political infighting among and within the formative political parties is also well documented, as are domestic intrigues, the "miracle" of postwar industrial recovery, and the infamous Electoral Law of 1953, which led to the downfall of the CDR's Alcide De Gasperi.