Word: duces
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1930-1939
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Pacifists. Eyes turned to that other great pacifist, Benito Mussolini. The last chapter ended with II Duce dangling over the cliff, hanging on to neutrality, saying nothing. When would he rouse himself from the meditation into which the mightiest events of his time appeared to have plunged him? Always dynamic, conqueror of many an Ethiopian and Albanian, utterly fearless in denouncing the Masons, a great fellow for jumping over bayonets at Fascist parties (or, better still, having his subordinates do it) how would II Duce measure up to the strain...
...spoke (see p. 22). The world had expected him to speak for peace. He did so. But the Duce who had thundered at 20,000 Blackshirts at the cornerstoning of a new town outside Rome, who had stuck out his jaw and sounded off about almost every incident in Europe for 20 years- II Duce now spoke to 130 Fascist functionaries in a provincial capital, and limited himself to 600 words, 100 of which complained about attacks upon himself. The world lost interest; the pain in Warsaw seemed more severe than the heartaches of even the Duce...
Last week Benito Mussolini had a long talk with 77-year-old Marshal Enrico Caviglia, one of the few Italian heroes of World War I. Marshal Caviglia had recently inspected the fortifications on the Italo-French frontier and it was presumed that he and Il Duce did not discuss the weather. After this meeting all good Italians still waited anxiously for Mussolini to say something very definite about which way Italy would jump, as they had waited for three weeks since war began...
World War II may make Il Duce's everlasting reputation as a statesman. Few statesmen have ever been caught in such a hole. If he stuck his head out in one direction, it would be chopped off by Britain and France-on paper at least, their Mediterranean fleets could blow his to bits and their armies might overrun northern Italy. If he stuck it out in the other direction, he would have his other transalpine neighbor, Adolf Hitler, to deal with. And so, while the Italian press explained that Italy would remain neutral indefinitely, Mussolini...
...strong as these sorry reasons were, two splendid ways of looking at his neutrality remained to Il Duce. In the military situation created by the West Wall-Maginot Line stalemate, a neutral Italy, blocking access to Germany via the Tyrolean passes, had tremendous nuisance value. It would force Britain & France to go clear around through the Dardanelles, Black Sea and Rumania to assist Poland and establish the Salonika front (see p. 22). It was nuisance so great that it might bring B. Mussolini a fancy price if he chose to sell...