Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

(1903–44), Foreign Minister of italy (1936–43). His posthumously-published diaries provide candid insight into the regime of mussolini , whose daughter he married in 1930. Often known thereafter simply as il genero (the son-in-law), Count Ciano had inherited a taste for the good life from his father, an admiral and early supporter of fascism . Having trained as a reporter and then served briefly as a diplomat in Shanghai, Ciano returned home to oversee propaganda, before flying bombers in the italo-ethiopian war . As foreign minister from 1936, he helped to involve Italy in supporting franco in the spanish civil war , and organized the murder of Mussolini's opponents abroad. Though he was a prime mover in the Rome-Berlin axis , his diaries indicate an increasing distrust of hitler's Germany. In the course of world war ii , he came to favor peace with the Allies. Accordingly, he was sidelined in 1943, being appointed ambassador to the Vatican. In July 1943 Ciano, along with a majority on the Fascist Grand Council, voted for the removal of Mussolini. Characteristically, Hitler blamed Ciano personally for the fall of the Duce and had him arrested. Handed over to the Italian fascists in northern Italy, he was executed by firing squad on January 11, 1944. In the meantime, his wife had fled to Switzerland, taking her husband's diaries with her. ... log in or subscribe to read full text