“With P2, we had Italy in our hands. The Army, the Guardia di Finanzia, the police… they were all ruled by our members.” - Licio Gelli

“Every week the streets of Milan were the theater of demonstrations, and were lit up by the fires of Molotov cocktails.” - Guido Passalacqua

My childhood took place at a time known in Italy as The Years of Lead. It was a time of tear gas, terrorist attacks, false flag operations, anarchists getting thrown out of the windows of police stations, bombs on trains, assassinations, and street battles. One day, in my hometown, a bomb placed in a bank killed 17 people and wounded many more. It was the opening round in a war waged terrorists and some members of the secret services to bring about an authoritarian coup. This episode is about the dark days when political violence was an ever-present reality in the streets of Italy.

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