Word: scelba
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Scelba drove on serenely. At Carpi, scene of repeated Red-led strikes, he got out and walked through the market place, alone and unprotected. When the crowd recognized his balding head and his hooked Sicilian nose, some people sneered, but most, admiring his guts, applauded. When Scelba's police escort finally caught up with him and asked anxiously whether they had better clear the square, Scelba just laughed and walked on, still alone...
...Communist leader burst into his room. "How old are you?" snapped the Red. "Forty-eight," answered the Minister of the Interior, looking up from his meal. "Ah," sighed the Communist, "You made me lose a bet. I just laid down a thousand lire that you were 52 at least." Scelba's bodyguard, who this time had managed to stay by his side and were fully expecting an assassination attempt, sighed with relief, and Scelba took a nap in a chair before an open window, a perfect target for any Red marksman...
...Scelba did not display his courage just for the fun of it. He had a political point to make, and in several speeches during his visit to Emilia he explained the point. Said he: "Communists speculate on the fears of others . . . The Italian Communists are only a minority [but] with threats and violence they intimidate large sections of the population . . . We must kill this inferiority complex which persists where Communists are concerned...
...Times of Calamity." To help kill the inferiority complex, Scelba had a plan. Scelba wanted to establish a civilian volunteer force, a kind of home guard, that could protect Italy against Red sabotage. It was Scelba's answer to recent well-documented reports that the Communists are training guerrillas and saboteurs in the hills...
...Scelba wanted his new force to be nothing like the Fascist blackshirts (although a lot of Italians thought that was precisely what the doctor ordered). Said Scelba firmly: "We reject any idea of private [armed] organizations, of Fascist methods which, after 20 years of Fascist rule, left behind them an Italian Communist party which is the largest outside Russia. Anyone hoping for a . . . return to Fascist methods unwittingly hopes for an increase in Communist strength...