In Italy's Chamber of Deputies, politicians howled with anger at the U.S. "America now needs Tito more than De Gasperi," they shouted. "What is the value of the Atlantic pact?" The cause of their rage was U.S. unwillingness to give full support to Italian claims on the Free Territory of Trieste.
The Free Territory was one of the oldest pawns in the cold war. The U.S. had influenced the Italian elections of 1948 by announcing that it favored return of the whole Free Territory to Italy. Yugoslavia also had claims on the Trieste area, and Yugoslav troops occupied the southern...
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