A Never-Ending Story: The Italian Contribution to FIG

Abstract

On November 28, 1957, the Defense Ministers of France, Italy and Germany (FIG) signed a far-reaching secret protocol, which contemplated the possibility of atomic military cooperation. Relying on new archival sources, this chapter investigates Italy’s involvement in this ambitious trilateral project. It also examines aspects not strictly pertaining to the nuclear dimension of the endeavor. This narrative attempts to show that the established historiography may have over-estimated the atomic component of the story, by overlooking long-lasting forms of conventional military cooperation. Surprisingly, these attempts at conventional cooperation also reveal other hidden nuclear angles of this strangely polyhedral triangle.