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On this Day: Aldo Moro Kidnapped by the Italian Red Brigades
March 16, 2008 1:15 AM
by
findingDulcinea Staff
On March 16, 1978, former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro was kidnapped and held for ransom by the Red Brigades.
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The Red Brigades, a left-wing extremist group, seized Moro while he was en route to the House of Representatives, where he was set to help enact a compromise between the PCI—the Italian Communist party—and the Christian Democrats, of which he was a prominent leader.
March 16 was to be an historic day in Italian political history, with Moro slated to accept PCI leader Enrico Berlinguer’s Compromesso Storico, or "Historic Compromise." The Compromise outlined a government based on national solidarity between the PCI and the Christian Democrats.
At the time, Moro was one of the most successful interlocutors between the two parties, encouraging open communication and commonality.
After being pulled from his car in the middle of rush hour, Moro was detained by the Marxist-Leninist Red Brigades for 55 days. Throughout his captivity, Moro was allowed to send letters to political allies and family members. As a result, a series of correspondence documents his imprisonment.
Despite pleas from his friends, family and Pope Paul VI, the Italian government refused to negotiate with the Red Brigades. On May 9, Moro’s body was found in the trunk of a car, parked symbolically between the headquarters of the Christian Democrats and the Communist Party.
In the decades since his kidnapping and eventual murder, evidence has emerged to suggest that NATO, and the governments of Italy, the United States and Britain, were complicit in Moro’s killing.
March 16 was to be an historic day in Italian political history, with Moro slated to accept PCI leader Enrico Berlinguer’s Compromesso Storico, or "Historic Compromise." The Compromise outlined a government based on national solidarity between the PCI and the Christian Democrats.
At the time, Moro was one of the most successful interlocutors between the two parties, encouraging open communication and commonality.
After being pulled from his car in the middle of rush hour, Moro was detained by the Marxist-Leninist Red Brigades for 55 days. Throughout his captivity, Moro was allowed to send letters to political allies and family members. As a result, a series of correspondence documents his imprisonment.
Despite pleas from his friends, family and Pope Paul VI, the Italian government refused to negotiate with the Red Brigades. On May 9, Moro’s body was found in the trunk of a car, parked symbolically between the headquarters of the Christian Democrats and the Communist Party.
In the decades since his kidnapping and eventual murder, evidence has emerged to suggest that NATO, and the governments of Italy, the United States and Britain, were complicit in Moro’s killing.
Headline Link: Aldo Moro kidnapped
Although the original intent of the kidnapping seemed to be to leverage the release of 13 imprisoned Red Brigades members, Moro’s detention ultimately had a long lasting and deeply troubling affect on Italian politics. In the decades that followed, evidence emerged that Italian leaders who refused to negotiate with the terrorists were complicit in Moro’s kidnapping and murder. Further evidence suggests that world leaders, including NATO and the U.S. government were also involved.
Source: The Florentine
Background: Correspondence during the kidnapping
Throughout his time in captivity, Moro corresponded with family members and fellow politicians. Through a series of letters, Moro and his family pled with the Italian government to negotiate with the Red Brigades. In one letter, published by Time magazine on April 10, 1978, Moro writes to Italy’s Interior Minister, Francesco Cossiga: “Weigh your actions carefully in order to avoid further evil ... In the given circumstances, besides humanitarian reasons, what becomes apparent is the reason of state. Most of all this reason of state means that in my present condition I find myself under full and uncontrolled domination. There is the risk that I will be induced to talk in a manner that could be dangerous ... May God enlighten you for the best.”
Source: Time
Time magazine also published a letter written by Moro's family. The letter was printed on May 8, 1978, and read, “In this tragedy we have discovered, each one in his way, that you have given us unsuspected resources of moral strength and love. We cultivate, with prayer and deeds, the hope of seeing you again amongst us, and embracing you ... We love you profoundly.” According to Time, the letter, printed in Milan’s Il Giorno, renewed efforts for Moro’s release. UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim pled with Italian leaders to help negotiate Moro’s release, but PCI and Christian Democratic leaders refused.
Source: Time
Key Players: The Red Brigades
The Red Brigades were a Marxist-Leninist group in Italy, active until about 2003. The group advocated violence and class warfare, targeting mostly businessmen and politicians.
Source: MIPT Terrorism
Related Links: The aftermath of Moro’s murder and conspiracy theories
In 1993, 15 years after Aldo Moro’s kidnapping and murder, The New York Times reflected on the implications of the event for the Italian populace. Likening the killing to JFK’s 1963 assassination, The Times suggests that many of the holes in the Moro case would ultimately point to Italian politicians still in office. “At the heart of the mystery,” notes the paper, “is the question of what Mr. Moro told his captors.” According to the article, the only two people ever to see the transcripts between Moro and the Red Brigades were subsequently killed. Some claim that Giulio Andreotti, prime minister at the time of the kidnapping, ordered their murders.
Source: The New York Times
Richard Drake, author of “The Aldo Moro Case,” explores the conspiracy theories that have emerged surrounding Moro’s murder. Drake addresses a piece in The New York Times that implied that Moro was killed through a conspiracy. Drake explains that initially, “the Italian government, the CIA, Henry Kissinger, Mossad [and] the KGB” were implicated in the Moro murder. According to Drake, however, the killing more aptly represents the threats of a country captivated by Marxist-Leninist ideology: “For all those under the beguiling spell of the revolutionary mystique, the prescriptions of Marx and Lenin transformed the most bestial acts of inhumanity into thrilling deeds on behalf of the proletariat. The Moro kidnapping was just such an act.”
Source: The New Criterion Online
In an article published in 2008 by British paper The Daily Telegraph, an American envoy admitted to playing a critical role in Moro’s murder. Steve Pieczenik, a hostage negotiator in the State Department, claimed that Moro was “‘sacrificed' for the ‘stability’ of Italy.” According to his book, “We Killed Aldo Moro,” the U.S. and Italian governments instructed Pieczenik to write and deliver a false statement attributed to the Red Brigades, announcing Moro’s death. The statement was presented as a means of communicating to the Red Brigades that the Italian government already considered Moro dead, thereby removing the authority they leveraged through his captivity.
Source: The Daily Telegraph
Other developments in 2008 revealed that the British government was also involved in the fate of Aldo Moro. According to Philip Wan, who posted on The Guardian’s blog “Comment is Free,” the British Government under the leadership of James Callaghan of the Labor Party, went along with the American and NATO mission to destabilize the growing PCI, which Moro supported through his acceptance of the Historic Compromise. According to British Ambassador to NATO John Killick, "The presence of communist ministers in the Italian government would pose an immediate security problem for the Alliance."
Source: The Guardian Weekly
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