From 1956 onward, NATO and the CIA helped build clandestine paramilitary networks across Western Europe — Italy, Belgium, West Germany, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Turkey, Spain, Portugal — designed to wage guerrilla war if the Red Army crossed the Iron Curtain. The Red Army never crossed. The networks did not disband. In Italy, where the operation was codenamed Gladio, the same structures became entangled with right-wing terror that killed hundreds of civilians between 1969 and 1984. The network's existence was confirmed by the Italian Prime Minister, in Parliament, on October 24, 1990.
State & Intelligence Operations
1956-1990
