Italy: Powerful Man

More than any other man, elusive Enrico Mattei, 56, influenced the sustaining postwar boom known as the "Italian Miracle.'' Boss of the state-owned oil and gas monopoly called E.N.I, (for Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi), he made it a power to reckon with in Italian politics, and was lionized by ordinary Italians for his daring, his nationalism—and his luck. He earned a U.S. Bronze Star as a war-time partisan. Elected to the Chamber of Deputies, he was put in charge of the sputtering state oil monopoly. Unwilling to see this remnant of Fascism dismantled,...

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