ROME LETTER
305
fact that they refuse any responsibility for the fascist regime. Some of
them go as far as calling Mussolini "a clown," and a few even repudiate
the term "fascist." But they are all very nostalgic about the period im–
mediately prior to October 28, 1922. On the other hand, they proudly
defend the main deeds of fascist foreign policy: Ethiopia, Spain, and
the declaration of war against France and England. That was 110t fas–
cism, but Italy, with her "eternal interests." Hence, fascism or no
fascism, they consider the Northern Republic as a last desperate stand for
the honor of Italy. Here too, however, Italian casuistry seeps into the
argument: neo-fascists don't maintain that Hitler's cause was just, they
simply insist that Germany was the ally. On the other hand, the British
and the French were the enemy, not America. America's "anti-fascist
war" was a lamentable misunderstanding for which she is now paying by
being forced to take over Mussolini's anti-bolshevist crusade.
In any case, with the morale of what used to be called "anti–
fascism" at its lowest after three years of disillusions, neo-fascists thought
that the Graziani trial would turn out to be a good prop for their limp
cause. After all, Graziani was only a military man, and an Empire
builder. He could make a good case for himself. And the scandal of
the last fascists, despised by everybody including the Germans whom
they unsuccessfully tried to please by slaughtering Italians at random,
might eventually be stretched so thin as to be forgotten, or even trans–
formed into a rarefied symbol of some sort.
Once again, however, the Italian fascists' passionate faith in rhe–
toric, and disdain for awkward details led them astray. The people of
the M.S.!' (the "Movimento Sociale Italiano," which is the official
organization of the neo-fascists) had reckoned without Graziani's titanic
egocentrism. Forced to play the role of the accused in a courtroom after
having been a Marshal and a Viceroy (of Ethiopia, in case you have
forgotten), Mussolini's last commander-in-chief has been behaving so
much like the caricature of an Italian, a general, and a fascist, as to
ruin
all hopes of drafting him for a symbol. As a matter of fact, one of
his first outbursts in court was directed precisely against his admirers,
when they started applauding him. "Keep quiet, you fools. Don't you
see that you are ruining me?" he yelled.
The judicial rite centered on Graziani has been dragging along for
nearly four months. People by now hardly skim the newspaper accounts
of the proceedings. But for several weeks the trial was . news. At the
first session, the ex-Marshal made his entrance into the courtroom
hoisting a red silk handkerchief at his waist pocket. "I was never a
Fascist," he proclaimed, "all I did, I did only for Italy. For the sake of
