Seymour Weiss would push back against any efforts to remove the Jupiters, but he and others realized that President Kennedy had a “keen interest” in the matter and that Secretary of Defense McNamara had ordered that action be taken (assigning his General Counsel John McNaughton to take the lead). Nevertheless Weiss and Assistant Secretary of State William Tyler presented Secretary of State Rusk with a memorandum making the case against action on the Jupiters or at least postponing their removal until a “later time.” Paralleling arguments made during the crisis by Ambassadors Hare and Reinhardt, Tyler pointed to the “symbolic and psychological importance” of the Jupiter deployments. While Tyler noted parenthetically that the Italians had “given indications of a disposition to work toward the eventual removal of the Jupiters,” the U.S. could not phase them out “without general Alliance agreement,” including Italy and Turkey’s consent, “unless we are prepared to lay ourselves open to the charge of abrogation of specific or implied agreements.” Rusk was in the know on the secret deal, but his reference to a “later time” was consistent with it and signing the memo would have placated Tyler and Weiss.

Following a year-long buildup of tensions, Fascist Italy conquered Ethiopia between October 1935 and May 1936 in a brutal war that included the use of airplanes and chemical weapons. Its “success” came 40 years after Ethiopia had defeated Italian troops, making this ancient African center of Christianity a paragon of successful anti-imperialism. The war formed part of broader Fascist Italian aspirations in the Mediterranean and Africa, renewing Ancient Rome’s empire. European powers, including the French and British empires, and other countries condemned Italy’s attack, and at the League of Nations adopted some economic sanctions against Italy. After all, Ethiopia had become a League member in 1923. But those sanctions were feeble, exemplifying how inter-state power politics could bypass the League’s collective security engagements, doubly if an aggressed country was non-white. (In fact, France had signaled it would not react massively already before Italy’s attack.) Italy withdrew from the League and concluded separate deals with France and Britain, which above all wished to keep Italy content to deal with the emerging Nazi challenge of the post-World War I order in Germany and on the continent.

However, the war triggered massive protests around the world, most intensely by African and leftist organizations. It was the most serious proof to date of the threat posed by Europe’s extreme right-wing-ruled states, especially Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. Arabs, too, commented extensively on this case, as Haggai Erlich’s Ethiopia and the Middle East (1994) has shown. People who like the Egyptian Yusuf Ahmad had Muslim sensitivities condemned Ethiopia for always having maltreated Muslims and opined that for them, Fascist rule would be preferable. Ahmad’s book, Al-Islam fi al-Habasha [Islam in Ethiopia] was financed by Italy and praised inter alia by Shakib Arslan (excerpts of a book of whose are included in this collection). Critique of Italy’s colonial war came mainly from liberal nationalists and leftists. Among the latter was Salim Khayyata.

The text printed here is a series of key excerpts from the introduction to his Arabic book Al-Habasha al-mazluma, aw fatihat akhar niza‘ li-l-isti‘mar fi dawr inhiyarihi [Oppressed Ethiopia, or The Start of The Final Fight Against Colonialism in the Period of its Downfall]. Born in 1909 in the United States to migrant parents, Khayyata returned with them to Tripoli, Lebanon, in 1922. He became a member of the Communist Party of Syria and Lebanon (CPSL). As noted in Tareq Ismael’s The Communist Movement in the Arab World (2011), the CPSL was founded in 1924, following French North Africa (1919), Egypt (1922), and Palestine (1923). A writer, Khayyata published inter alia in the leftist journals al-Duhur and al-Tali‘a, both of which he also edited for some time in the 1930s. (This collection’s document on the 1939 Anti-Fascist Congress in Beirut is from the latter journal.) Torture in a French prison in Lebanon early on in World War II left him very impaired mentally. He passed away in 1965.

A Chinese Communist Party digest of commentaries about Chinese foreign affairs and domestic politics made by Hu Yaobang, Zhao Ziyang, Deng Xiaoping, Zhang Wenjin, and Huang Hua to various foreign officials from the United States, the Philippines, and other countries.

Hysni Kapo and Luo Shigao discuss the state of the international communist movement, reviewing developments country by country.

A summary of political information gathered from Italian Communist Party's delegation to China on international relations, reforms and economic situation, and ideological and cultural positions of China.

Introduced by a cover letter by Antonio Rubbi dated January 7, 1988, this is a report by Lina Tamburrino from China dated December 26, 1987. It discusses relations between China and USSR, China’s position on Cambodia and the missile treaty.

This document dated March 17, 1987 is a report from Antonio Rubbi on his meeting with the Chinese foreign minister, Wu Xueqian. The most interesting facts of the meeting were that China expected to establish full relations with all Eastern European socialist countries by the end of 1987 and that the student protests had been fueled by intellectuals who wanted to “westernize” the country. As for Hu Yaobang, the Chinese official explained that had been removed from office because he had failed to uphold the principles of Chinese policy.

This document is an account of the meeting between Wu Xueqian, Chinese foreign minister, and Enrico Berlinguer, secretary of the Italian Communist Party, in Beijing on August 28, 1983. The topics covered by the meeting were the improvement in relations with the Eastern bloc and talks on disarmament, as well as relations with other countries

Introduced by a cover letter by Antonio Rubbi dated January 15, 1982, the document is a report by Siegmund Ginsberg dated January 4, 1982 from Beijing. It is an account on the situation in the country and on some positions of the CCP.

This document dated November 29, 1981 is the final version of a letter from Enrico Berlinguer to Hu Yaobang, President of the Chinese Communist Party, in which he invites his Chinese counterpart to contribute to finding a solution to the situation that has developed in Central and Latin America, especially with regard to US interference in these countries.