Aldo Moro

The Via Fari is an unremarkable street in Rome but on 16th March, 1978, it was the scene of a remarkable and horrifying event that, in the end, would change the shape of European politics and the Cold War.

Two large, dark cars pass down Fari Street. The one in front contains two specialist bodyguard/drivers from the Italian Police. The second car contains three policemen from the same special protection unit. Five bodyguards, and, little wonder, because the passenger in the front car is Aldo Moro, at that time the Italian Prime Minister, and Italy's senior statesman.

The cars slow and then come to a stop, their movement blocked by something, but there is no time to discover the cause of the delay. Suddenly, heavily armed men, not in uniforms, appear from nowhere. One of them then shoots all five bodyguards with quick, precise fire from his sub-machine gun. They don't even have time to draw their weapons, let alone fire them. And while the policemen are coldly, quickly killed, another member of the ambush team shoots Aldo Moro just once in the upper leg to immobilise him. The firing is over in a few seconds and the team quickly pushes Moro into a car which then speeds away through the streets of Rome. They only have a few minutes to reach their hiding place before there will be roadblocks everywhere.

The kidnapping of the Italian Prime Minister shocked Italy, Europe, the world. It soon became clear that the group responsible was the 'Red Brigade', an extreme left-wing terrorist team. Curiously, the police had destroyed the group. All the leaders were in prison but, it seemed, this was a new generation of the Red Brigade, and their goal was to force the Italian government to release their comrades from prison. Their plan was bold and direct: they grabbed the head of the government, no less. This meant that the Italian administration would be leaderless at the moment of greatest crisis since the Second World War.

Nonetheless, the government took a firm line and said that, for the safety of other politicians and of Italian democracy, they would not consider the idea of a prisoner exchange. People convicted of serious crimes under Italian law would have to stay in an Italian prison – that was that.

The Pope and many other prominent Italians begged the government to re-consider. The Pope offered himself as a replacement hostage instead of Prime Minister Aldo Moro but, of course, no such thing happened. For fifty-five days, Italy lived in anticipation as the nation hoped for Moro's safe delivery from danger.

Aldo Moro had been born in Puglia, in 1916. He lived in both the North and South and, so, he knew Italy well. Through the Fascist years of his youth, he stuck to his Catholic faith and developed a career as a law professor. When the war ended, he took a job at La Sapienza University in the capital, Rome, and began to explore his interest in national politics. Communism was popular in Italy in the post-war years and Moro was attracted by a number of its socialist ideas but, in the end, communism and socialism did not sit well with his Catholic faith, so he joined the Christian Democrats, a more moderate left-wing party.

In the fast and furious confusion of Italian politics after 1945, Aldo Moro quickly enjoyed success, serving in a number of governments. In the end, he served his country as Prime Minister, at different times, for a total of six years, which made him the most senior player in Italian politics.

Even Aldo Moro's enemies agreed that he was a master negotiator which, for Italian politicians of the day, was the key skill. Elections did not tend to produce an absolute winner or majority for one party and so, in the days or even weeks following an election, there would be a delicate process of talks to put together a coalition government.

In early 1978, Aldo Moro was busy with exactly this process but, this time, it was a little different. He was flirting with the Communists. The Communists, though a large party in Italy, had not been part of any government since the late 1940s. Now, it looked like they would be part of a new government with the Christian Democrats.

Some people were not happy about this, not happy at all. Conservative Italians and the Americans knew that the Communists would try to pull Italy out of NATO, the American organised alliance of Atlantic nations, working together to defend itself against the Communist Soviet Union. During the Cold War, NATO had some key naval bases in Italy. If Italy came out of NATO, these would be closed to their ships. It could easily change the balance of power in the Mediterranean.

Meanwhile, Aldo Moro was still being held by the group, calling themselves the 'Red Brigade – 2'. The police were searching everywhere and a sharp national division had arisen about whether or not to negotiate with the terrorists. The government refused to consider the idea. The leader of the terrorist group took Moro to the underground car-park of the apartment building in Rome where they had kept him hidden. He told Moro that he was being moved to another hideout and that he must get into the boot of the car and cover himself completely with the blanket in there. Aldo Moro followed his instructions and, when his head was covered, the terrorist shot him ten times, killing him immediately. His body was later found in the car which had been abandoned on a quiet street in Rome.

The 'Historic Compromise' with the Communists fell apart and Italy stayed in NATO. However, the true identity of the attackers that day in the Via Fari, or even their exact numbers, remains a mystery. The team which attacked Aldo Moro were highly trained and experienced, as the speed and meticulous planning of the operation show, not to mention the precision killing of the bodyguards; a piece of marksmanship far beyond the abilities of any contemporary terrorist.

Theories about what really happened are, of course, countless; and all kinds of agencies and shady characters are supposed to be somehow connected to the kidnap and killing – from the Mafia to the Vatican.

One sinister explanation is that a NATO covert operations group called 'Gladio', deliberately set up and controlled the 'Red Brigade – 2'. The kidnap and the demands for the release of the original Red Brigades was just an elaborate cover. They knew that the Italian government could not consider negotiation in these circumstances. And, when inevitably they refused to talk to the terrorists, the kidnappers' handlers in 'Gladio', the NATO covert group, ordered them to 'execute Moro in the name of the Revolution'.

Those desperate to keep Italy in NATO had eliminated their worst enemy, Aldo Moro, and cunningly put the blame on their other enemies, the Communists.