Mussolini, Sacco-Vanzetti and the Anarchists

Mussolini, Sacco-Vanzetti, and the Anarchists 61Political calculation and diplomatic tact had caused Mussolini to vary theintensity of his public support for Sacco and Vanzetti. Between 1920 and1922, he saw their plight as a useful weapon in his struggle against thesocialists and the communists, and when he saw the potential for making thema nationalist symbol, he appropriated their cause. After coming into office, hebelieved that support for Sacco and Vanzetti would help to bind Italian-American loyalties to the Fascist regime, which claimed to act as the protectorof Italian emigrants abroad.' 12 Yet once in power, Mussolini felt unable to actas decisively as he wished because the case could potentially hinder efforts toestablish good relations with the United States and hurt chances for Americanloans and a more favorable immigration policy. 13 A more strident approach,he feared, would elicit the ire of U.S. authorities, including Governor Fuller,whose presidential aspirations had come to his attention." 14 Even theanarchists recognized his delicate position,"15 and Mussolini himself wasembittered by his dilemma."16But raison d'etat alone does not explain why Mussolini, even whilecracking down on the anarchists at home, strained his ideological credibilityas a Fascist and put his prestige at risk by making personal appeals on behalfof Sacco and Vanzetti. The evidence also suggests that a lingering, if perverse,nostalgia for what he identified as his own youthful anarchist impulsesremained imbedded in his psyche. His propensity for violence and directaction, along with his inclination to see himself as a rebel who lived indefiance of bourgeois morality, led him to feel a spiritual kinship with the anarchists.l17The anti-Fascist writer Giuseppe A. Borgese explained Mussolinithis way: "He said. . . that every anarchist is a dictator who failed. His roadhis closely watched apartment in Rome, he wrote to a friend, "I was convinced thatSacco and Vanzetti, if not freed, would at least not be killed; the blow has struck meterribly." See Malatesta to Virgilia D'Andrea, September 1927, in Errico Malatesta,Epistolario (n. 85 above), p. 259.112 De Felice, "Alcuni temi per la storia dell'emigrazione italiana" (n. 13 above),p.7.113 Burton (n. 8 above), p. 68."14 When the journalist Edward H. Jones interviewed Mussolini in 1928, Mussoliniasked him, "Do you think that Fuller will be the next president of the United States?"See Creighton Hill, "Alvan T. Fuller-Failure," Lantern (July-August 1928), pp. 7-8;and "Cio che narra un americano che visit6 Mussolini per il caso Sacco e Vanzetti,"In Progresso Italo-Americano (August 1, 1928).115 Schiavina (n. 9 above), p. 108.116 "I am no longer," Mussolini exclaimed in 1934, "the head of government who,between 1925 and 1927, had to limit himself to asking for the salvation of Sacco andVanzetti. I no longer have American creditors who impose their will. Now I have myhands free." De Begnac, Taccuini (n. 3 above), p. 376.117Gentile, Le origini dell'ideologia fascista (n. 25 above), pp. 2-6, 133, 136.