tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8778001285727771343.post4801922665417698178..comments2009-07-23T12:39:11.482-07:00Ercolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07624336130332596024noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8778001285727771343.post-10024843458113660022009-07-23T08:16:48.164-07:002009-07-23T08:16:48.164-07:00Gentlemen,<br /><br /> I would tread softly on this issue since not long after Mussolini’s mock-heroics vis-à-vis the Nazi (both German and Austrian) putsch in Austria (1934), he gave tacit support to Hitler’s designs in Austria (starting in1936) leading to the eventual Anschluss (1938). The Brits were preoccupied with a number of treaties that they desperately wanted signed with Hitler in this period (primarily naval) and so they were in a flip-flop- mode diplomatically speaking. French diplomacy was in a confused state; largely the result of the trauma of chaotic internal politics and having their Prime Minister, Leon Blum, beaten to within an inch of his life in public. Both Hitler and Mussolini took advantage of this opportunity for some military adventurism in Spain and Abyssinia, among other things. It also drew them closer together on many levels; what followed, as every warm body knows, was the worst 7 years in human history. And both leaders took their respective nations into the abyss.Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16558424820424726809noreply@blogger.com