"Is God So Angry?"

Palmiro Togliatti, boss of Italian Communism, last week used military words such as "counteroffensive" and "mobilization." To the Communist Central Committee convened in Rome he declaimed: "We have not yet achieved our main objective--conquest of a progressive democracy. ... It is hence necessary to develop a decisive democratic battle, not only on the parliamentary terrain, but in all fields of the national life. ... It is necessary to liquidate this Government of reaction."

Since there is no Charles de Gaulle in Italy, the Reds needed an ostensible target, and they chose what they call the "neofascist aggressors," a term in which they include the beaten and disintegrating Qualunquists (Common Man Front) and the Movimento Sociale Italiano, which is frankly fascist but small and weak. Actually the Communist target was the pro-Western, Christian Democratic Government of Premier Alcide de Gasperi. The Communist objective was to test the efficiency and self-control of the Government police.

In Milan a tremendous crowd of about 100,000, mobilized in the Piazza del Duomo, spent seven hours wrecking Qualunquist headquarters and rightist newspaper offices, sweeping rightist newspapers from the stands and burning them in the street. They gave the show away, however, by stoning the offices of the Saragat Socialists (antiCommunist but certainly not fascist) and finally by marching against police headquarters.

Then in scores of other towns from the northern plains to Sicily, the pattern was repeated. Desks, typewriters and telephones sailed out the office windows of the luckless Qualunquists, stacks of rightist newspapers made huge bonfires, and Red orators cursed the Government for not silencing "the fascist press." In Naples the Communists tried to raise a Red flag over the city hall. At that point the Reds, having completed their test run, seemed ready to take a breather and check results. The Communist-dominated labor confederation sent a letter to the Premier saying they were anxious "to avoid the peril of a civil war."

Among the plain people, ripples of cold fear ran up & down Italy's long spine. TIME Correspondent Emmet Hughes cabled from Naples: "In a cafe on the Via Medina, I asked the sad, round-faced proprietor behind the marble counter how afraid he was. His stubbly chin trembled and the watery blue eyes seemed ready to gush tears as he said, 'Of course I'm afraid. How many Italians have to die? You Americans killed some. The Germans killed others. Now it seems we're going to kill each other. We've got poverty. We've got hunger. Must we have war, too? Is God so angry with us?' "

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