(INTRODUZIONE Se queste mie note vedranno un giorno la luc...)
INTRODUZIONE Se queste mie note vedranno un giorno la luce è perché io ebbi la precauzione di metterle in salvo prima che i tedeschi, con un basso tranello, si fossero impadroniti della mia persona. Non era nelle mie intenzioni allorché redigevo questi frettolosi appunti di darli alle stampe così come erano: intendevo piuttosto fissare eventi, particolari, dati, che un giorno avrebbero dovuto servirmi, se il Cielo mi avesse concesso una serena vecchiaia, quali elementi per scrivere i ricordi della mia vita. Non costituiscono dunque un libro, ma piuttosto la materia prima con la quale il libro avrebbe dovuto più tardi venir composto. Ma forse in questa stessa scheletricità, nella assoluta mancanza di superfluo è il pregio di questi miei diari. Gli avvenimenti sono in essi fotografati senza ritocco, e le impressioni sono le prime, le più genuine ...
Galeazzo Ciano, conte di Cortellazzo was an Italian statesman and diplomat who became one of the key figures in the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini after his marriage to Mussolini’s daughter Edda (1930). He was especially influential in bringing about Italy’s entry into World War II after the fall of France (June 1940).
Background
Gian Galeazzo Ciano was born in Livorno, Italy, in 1903. He was the son of Costanzo Ciano and his wife Carolina Pini; his father was an Admiral and World War I hero in the Royal Italian Navy (for which service he was given the aristocratic title of Count by Victor Emmanuel III).
Education
He was educated at the University of Rome, where he took a degree in law.
Career
After working briefly as a journalist, he entered the diplomatic corps, holding posts in Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires and serving as consul general in Shanghai and as minister to China. After his marriage to Edda Mussolini, he rose rapidly through the ranks: chief of the press bureau (1933), undersecretary of state for press and propaganda (1934), and member of the Fascist Grand Council, the inner group that determined party policy. An avid aviator, he led a bomber squadron in the war against Ethiopia (1935–36) and, on his return to Rome, became minister of foreign affairs (June 9, 1936). He was regarded by many as a likely successor to Mussolini.
Although he had repeatedly advocated the Italo-German alliance, Ciano became wary of Adolf Hitler when Germany invaded Poland (September 1939) without first consulting Italy, in direct violation of an agreement given to Ciano in May by the German foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop. At first Ciano persuaded Mussolini to adopt a policy of nonbelligerence, but, when France fell, he urged entry into the war.
After several Axis defeats in 1942, Ciano became one of many Fascist proponents of a separate peace with the Allies. The suspicious Mussolini dismissed his entire Cabinet (Feb. 5, 1943), and Ciano was appointed ambassador to the Vatican. Nonetheless, Ciano and other leading Fascists retained enough power at the historic meeting of the Grand Council (July 24/25, 1943) to force Mussolini’s resignation. When the new government was preparing charges of embezzling against him, the immensely rich Ciano fled Rome. He was captured by pro-Mussolini partisans and Germans in northern Italy. On Mussolini’s orders, he was brought to trial on a charge of treason, found guilty, and executed by a shot in the back.
(INTRODUZIONE Se queste mie note vedranno un giorno la luc...)
Politics
Ciano then joined the group in the Grand Council of Fascism that was working against Mussolini's war policies, and he voted against the Duce at the dramatic session of the Council on July 24, 1943.
Unfortunately for him, it was impossible to pursue a policy of imperialism without tying Italy to the Third Reich.
Membership
He was a founding member of the National Fascist Party and re-organizer of the Italian merchant navy in the 1920s.
Connections
On 24 April 1930, when he was 27 years old, he married Benito Mussolini's daughter Edda Mussolini, and they had three children (Fabrizio, Raimonda, and Marzio), though he was known to have had several affairs while married.