SUMMARY OF PROPOSAL TO ESTABLISH US CONTACT WITH PIETRO NENNI

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01446R000100050013-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 18, 1998
• Sequence Number: 13
• Content Type: SUMMARY

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SUMMARY
of
"Proposal to Establish US Contact with Pietro Nenni"
The purpose of this memo is to renew a suggestion made in June
1956 that the US Government establish both direct and indirect contact
with Pietro Nenni with a view to determining his basic motivation in the
move to merge his party (PSI) with that of Saragat (PSDI). It is suggested
that such contact might be established on various levels, official and non-
official, open and covert. It also recommends maintaining close liaison
with the leaders of the Western European Democratic Socialist Parties
in monitoring this movement. Finally, it advances the position that some
form of merger is probable and that the US Government should be prepared
for the readjustment of our political thinking concerning Italy, which such
a development would entail.
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c. We should indicate that we have only one fundamental
concern, that a merged party should be uncompromisingly
democratic in its principles. Apart from that we should recog-
nize that a black and white, totally unambiguous platform cannot
readily be achieved. Insofar as our advice is desired, we should
not urge an explicit anti-Communist program, but rather a
progressive dissolution of the complex linkages between the PSI
and the PCI. We should also be willing to accept a somewhat
less than fully "American" orientation toward NATO and the
Western Alliance, so long as it did not continue the pro-Soviet
neutralism which the PSI has expressed in the past. We would
hope that, internally, the new party would give full tolerance to
the wide range of views from the right wing of the PSDI to the
left wing of the PSI. If this latitude were maintained, we should
have little fear that the merged party would become an instru-
ment of Communist manipulation.
d. We should indicate to Saragat that we would be disturbed
by any outcome which resulted in further fragmentation of the
Socialist left, such as the three-party situation referred to in
paragraph 3. d. above. If Nenni emerges from the PSI in
effective control of the party, we should urge Saragat not to
pursue tactics of obstruction but to enter into specific positive
negotiations for merger. He should make every effort to hold
the right wing elements of his party with him in this endeavor.
e. Within the limits imposed by time and discretion, we
should make advance preparations to negotiate a rapprochement
with Nenni in the event that he emerges victorious from the Con-
gress. We should be prepared to deal with him on a basis of
forgetting "by-gorses" and seeking to determine the outlines of
a modus vivendi, if not positive support.
f. We should work through our contacts with the Socialist
International leaders to establish the basis of an accommodation
in the event of a successful merger, so as to insure ourselves
against any loss of prestige or influence through having viewed
it, hitherto, with palpable misgiving.
25X1A9a
"H&R*j4&m
Chief, SRS/DDI
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