The end of World War II devastated the Italian economy. The abrupt removal of Fascist price controls caused dangerous levels of inflation in a country short on natural resources such as coal and farming land. In 1944, Italy’s per capita income plunged to its lowest point since the turn of the century.
In 1947, the United States granted Italy 150 million dollars in aid as part of the Marshall Plan, a program intended to rebuild struggling European economies. The Americans threatened to stop sending aid dollars if the Italian Communist Party, whose proposals for social and economic reform had gained widespread support in the post-war years, won a majority in the 1948 Italian parliamentary elections. The Marshall aid represented an early move in the geopolitical chess match between the United States and the communist Soviet Union.
In 1947, the United States granted Italy 150 million dollars in aid as part of the Marshall Plan, a program intended to rebuild struggling European economies. The Americans threatened to stop sending aid dollars if the Italian Communist Party, whose proposals for social and economic reform had gained widespread support in the post-war years, won a majority in the 1948 Italian parliamentary elections. The Marshall aid represented an early move in the geopolitical chess match between the United States and the communist Soviet Union.
With financial backing from the American CIA, the Christian Democrats overcame a coalition of leftist parties, including the communists, to win a majority in the 1948 election. Over the next decade, Italy enjoyed a period of growth known as the country’s “economic miracle.” GDP rose by an average of 5.9 percent a year between 1950 and 1963.
"George Marshall really was the man who led this group of distinguished Americans who were fighting for a way that we could influence these elections, so we could be sure that the communists didn’t win." F. Mark Wyatt, a CIA operative in Italy during the 1948 elections, in a 1999 CNN interview.