Rome
Winston Churchill was behind the 1945 assassination of Benito Mussolini, according to a documentary that aired in Italy this week. The show said that the British wartime prime minister was trying to make sure that secret letters he wrote the Italian dictator wouldn’t be made public. The letters allegedly offered Italy a separate peace with the Allies, in defiance of President Roosevelt’s insistence that the war could end only with the capitulation of all Axis powers. In the documentary, a former Italian partisan, Bruno Lonati, says that he helped a British agent kill the Italian dictator and that the agent retrieved the letters. Historians, who have always held that two Italian partisans killed Mussolini, were skeptical. “It’s just a love of conspiracy,” said World War II expert Christopher Woods.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Quiz of The Week: 15 – 21 NovemberQuiz Have you been paying attention to The Week’s news?
-
Can the UK do more on climate change?Today's Big Question Labour has shown leadership in the face of fraying international consensus, but must show the public their green mission is ‘a net benefit, not a net cost’
-
The Week Unwrapped: Will US Catholics rebel against the Pope?Podcast Plus what are the ethics of freezing your late partner?
