Confronting America: The Cold War Between the United States and the Communists in France and Italy (The New Cold War History)

Brogi's book looks not only at Italian and French Communist resistance to Americanization, but it also reveals how the United States was forced by the anti-American Communist Parties in France and Italy to reassess its anticommunist strategies, its image, and the general meaning of American liberal capitalist culture and ideology.

Throughout the Cold War, the United States encountered unexpected challenges from Italy and France, two countries with the strongest, and determinedly most anti-American, Communist Parties in Western Europe. Based primarily on new evidence from communist archives in France and Italy, as well as research archives in the United States, Alessandro Brogi's original study reveals how the United States was forced by political opposition within these two core Western countries to reassess its own anticommunist strategies, its image, and the general meaning of American liberal capitalist culture and ideology.
Brogi shows that the resistance to Americanization was a critical test for the French and Italian communists' own legitimacy and existence. Their anti-Americanism was mostly dogmatic and driven by the Soviet Union, but it was also, at crucial times, subtle and ambivalent, nurturing fascination with the American culture of dissent. The staunchly anticommunist United States, Brogi argues, found a successful balance to fighting the communist threat in France and Italy by employing diplomacy and fostering instances of mild dissent in both countries. Ultimately, both the French and Italian communists failed to adapt to the forces of modernization that stemmed both from indigenous factors and from American influence. Confronting America illuminates the political, diplomatic, economic, and cultural conflicts behind the U.S.-communist confrontation.

Throughout the Cold War, the United States encountered unexpected challenges from Italy and France, two countries with the strongest, and determinedly most anti-American, Communist Parties in Western Europe. Based primarily on new evidence from communist archives in France and Italy, as well as research archives in the United States, Alessandro Brogi's original study reveals how the United States was forced by political opposition within these two core Western countries to reassess its own anticommunist strategies, its image, and the general meaning of American liberal capitalist culture and ideology. Brogi shows that the resistance to Americanization was a critical test for the French and Italian communists' own legitimacy and existence. Their anti-Americanism was mostly dogmatic and driven by the Soviet Union, but it was also, at crucial times, subtle and ambivalent, nurturing fascination with the American culture of dissent. The staunchly anticommunist United States, Brogi argues, found a successful balance to fighting the communist threat in France and Italy by employing diplomacy and fostering instances of mild dissent in both countries. Ultimately, both the French and Italian communists failed to adapt to the forces of modernization that stemmed both from indigenous factors and from American influence. Confronting America illuminates the political, diplomatic, economic, and cultural conflicts behind the U.S.-communist confrontation. Publisher's note The communists and national rebirth in France and Italy, 1944-1946 Confronting the communists in government : the American response, 1944-1947 Polarized confrontation : U.S. aid and propaganda versus cominform in France and Italy, 1947-1950 Communist peace campaigns and American psychological warfare, 1948-1955 The cultural Cold War at its peak : mass culture and intellectuals, 1948-1956 Diplomatic maneuvering : communist and American interplay of foreign and domestic policies during the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations Redefining oppression : the 1960s, from affluence to youth protest Redefining interdependence : the Eurocommunism of the 1970s and the U.S. response Epilogue : cultural and political decline. Fierce and cunning in their Cold War anti-American propaganda, the French and Italian Communists identified capitalist oppression with American domination. Pressed by this resilient internal opposition from within two core Western allies, the United State