Word: il
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...Italian Foreign Minister Dino Grandi was the most dashing figure on the diplomatic stage and the fair-haired boy of Fascism as well. Then, in a surprise Cabinet shakeup, Dictator Benito Mussolini took away spade-bearded Dino Grandi's portfolio and made himself Foreign Minister. Some thought that Il Duce was miffed at the way Signer Grandi had conducted Italy's side of the negotiations at the Reparations Conference at Lausanne, but a more widely accepted theory was that he had violated Mussolini Commandment...
...contrast Italy's outstanding exception to such Fascist mores can also be found in Il Duce's family. Although Signor Mussolini's favorite and eldest child, Edda, has done her duty to the State by giving birth to two future soldiers and one future housewife, she has not toiled unduly in the kitchen and has not hesitated to enter the male province of international politics...
There had been altogether too much discussion, it was said, about who should succeed Il Duce, Dino Grandi or his bearded "twin," Italo Balbo, leader of the famed mass flight to the Chicago Fair. Grandi was "exiled" as Ambassador to the Court of St. James's in 1933 and Hero Balbo was made Governor of Libya, in which hot and barren land he sits to this day. Last week Ambassador Count Grandi was recalled from London to become Minister of Justice, and observers wondered whether he had not again been kicked upstairs...
...international conferences, and at Geneva, London, Locarno and other diplomatic stamping grounds, everyone except the French described the young Italian as "dynamic," "charming," "electric," and "captivating." While Il Duce thundered about Mare Nostrum and armed Italy as fast as he could, Diplomat Grandi talked disarmament and assured the world of Italy's peaceful intentions. With the French, rulers of the Geneva roost, he engaged in a never-ending fight for prestige. At the height of his career as Foreign Minister he paid a goodwill visit to the U. S. and chatted amiably with President Hoover and Secretary of State...
...consistently made a liar out of his Ambassador by violating pledges as fast as they were given, Count Grandi was able to persuade Prime Ministers Baldwin and Chamberlain to negotiate Mediterranean settlements guaranteeing the status quo. It was only when Italian Blackshirts invaded Albania that Britain reluctantly decided that Il Duce could not be trusted and turned to Russia...