“American Pressures and their Containment in Italy during the Ambassadorship of Clare Boothe Luce, 1953-1956”

This article advances three main arguments. First, that the attitude of the Eisenhower administration toward Italian affairs was indicative of the different approach between its "strategy of containment" and that of the Truman administration. Second, that America's projects for Italy during the first mandate of Eisenhower were entirely consistent with the more general European strategy pursued by the new Republican administration. The third argument is that the ambitious attempt of the U.S. ambassador to Rome, Clare Boothe Luce, to drastically transform Italy's political landscape stemmed from her diligent application of Eisenhower's strategy. The article does not seek to offer a new perspective on the bilateral relationship between the United States and Italy during the early Cold War. Nor will it supplement the growing literature on the importance and autonomy of the foreign policy of Washington's lesser allies. Instead, the purpose of this essay is more modest and old-fashioned: to assess the character and evaluate the impact of America's intervention in the domestic affairs of one of its Cold War junior partners. Indeed, post-World War II Italy offers an excellent case study of the structural Cold War nexus between international and domestic factors. It enables an evaluation of the limits imposed by systemic constraints and external pressures on the national sovereignty of Western European countries.