Guerra Contro il Terrore

Not always was the Ministry of Lesser Breeds the paragon we know today. In 1976, "at the height of the Cold War" as the Guardian hath it, or during détente as the merely historical might say, Foreign Office planners considered supporting "a clean surgical coup" as a means of ensuring that Italian democracy was protected against the whims of Italian voters. Faced with the possibility of government by the Italian Communist Party, the British ambassador in Rome blubbered that it "would create a serious problem for Nato and the European Community and could turn out to be an event with catastrophic consequences", whereupon the Foreign Office drew up a memo listing options from financing rival parties to "subversive or military intervention" against the legally elected government of a sovereign nation. Pelting with flowers was apparently not among the results foreseen, perhaps because the Eyeties are more nearly white than the Arabs: the idea of military intervention was considered "unrealistic" because of the potential for "prolonged and bloody" resistance by those under attack. Imagine that.