When the Trains Ran on Time

His posthumous career began poorly enough. The corpse of Benito Mussolini hung heels-up alongside that of his mistress, Clara Petacci, like a pig outside a butcher shop. But last week, with the 20th anniversary of his death, the reputation of the Duce was undergoing a remarkable rehabilitation in Italy.

Smeared all over the Italian press was a series of "re-examinations," to which readers responded with enthusiastic letters. "He was shy, notwithstanding all his arrogance," wrote ex-Editor Mario Missiroli, of the weekly Epoca. Concluded Domenico Bartoli, of Milan's Corriere della Sera: "His intuition in evaluating the weakness of his adversaries was penetrating and exact." Paolo Rossi, vice president of the Chamber of Deputies, went further. "One must admit," said he, "that Mussolini's conqueror's march [on Rome, when he took power from Victor Emmanuel III in 1922], considered as an art work, was particularly brilliant. And it would be unfair not to recognize Mussolini's great qualities of political imagination. Other dictators, from Hitler and Nasser to Sukarno and Fidel Castro, are inferior imitators."

Readers and editors recalled the popularity of the strutting little chieftain, the cheering crowds that greeted him, the cottages where his picture was pasted beside the Virgin Mary, and the women who fell in love with him. "It's still unclear to me," wrote a reader from Foggia, "to what extent Mussolini imposed himself on Italians and to what extent he was called. Because there was once a time when we were all a bit mad." Insisted Novelist Giovanni Artieri: "Mussolini gave Italians the awareness of belonging to a great nation."

Did it all mean that Italians now want a second Mussolini? Hardly, for Italians are generally prosperous and contented, and the neo-Fascist party draws less than 5% of the vote. What the reassessment does show is that older Italians regard the Fascist era as so far behind them that they can view it with balanced detachment. To Italians under 30, the '30s seem remote, colorful and romantic--much as they do in the U.S., where today's teen-agers are making a jaunty pop hit out of that sour Depression lament, Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.