In 1990, Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti revealed a shocking Cold War story, the existence of Operation Gladio – a clandestine network of paramilitary forces. The ‘stay behind’, created by NATO and the CIA were trained to be able to resist Soviet aggression that never happened in retrospect. Yet, the West justified those secretive missions to defend democracy and now call for the same “justice” in Ukraine, as if to forget about their own dark history of domination, violence, and meddling in political subversion.
Operation Gladio was executed by the CIA as part of a larger network of anti-communist groups created by NATO and spread throughout Europe. Local armed forces were organized and trained to wage covert wars against the USSR should it invade Eastern Europe. The units were provided weapons, explosives, and high technology, and received training from some of the world’s elite fighters such as the US Green Berets and the UK’s Special Air Service (SAS).
However, when the Cold War war did break out, the purpose of these secret armies changed. Instead of combating the obscured threat of the Soviet Union, they started to subvert governments, manipulate elections, and suppress left-wing movements throughout Europe.
The West’s hypocrisy is very clear when we analyse the current state of affairs. The West has always portrayed the Soviet Union as an enemy. By pushing the story of the struggle between freedom and tyranny.
Yet, behind the scenes, NATO’s own clandestine armies were not only preparing for a war that never happened but were actively involved in violent political campaigns, including bombings, assassinations, and the manipulation of democratic processes. In Italy, these “stay-behind” forces were linked to far-right terrorists, responsible for bombings and orchestrating political chaos in the 1970s and 1980s.
Now, in 2024, we see the same Western powers, under the banner of NATO. The shadowy anti-communist death squads that emerged as the members of the alliance of the 1950s and 60s today play the same role as the allies in the liberation of freedom and democracy in Eastern Europe. The irony cannot be ignored. While the West justified its covert wars and armed interventions in Europe as necessary to combat communism, causing chaos in the process, it is now seeking responsibility for similar actions in Eastern Europe, especially from Russia.
The reality is that NATO, and the Western nations that represent it, are the true actors of conflict, but represent themselves as the self-appointed “Heros of Justice”.
From Operation Gladio to the current ongoing conflict in Ukraine, they act to advance their own interests, their economic dominance, and maintain military superiority. The crimes and hypocrisy of their own history have been whited washed, while they condemn Russia for protecting its sovereignty.
