History (112 page)

Beginning of the Korean war between the people's forces in the Nortl1 and the government forces in the South, supported by the United States. President Truman declares a state of national emergency.-In Vietnam the confl continues between the French and the Vietminh partisans, led by General Giap.

General mobilization in Vietnam.-Development of strategic atomic artillery in the United States . . . . .

. . . . . 1 952-1953-1954-1955

On the Korean front, American air raid at Pyongyang, with the death of six thousand civilians.-Reciprocal commitment of France and the United States against Communism in Indochina.-On the island of Cuba

5 5 1

(Central America ) the Batista dictatorsl1ip is established, with the support of tl1e USA.-Violent anti-Semitic campaign in the USSR with tl1e elimination of many Jews, mostly intellectuals. The entire Soviet population held by Stalin under a paroxysmic regime of persecution and terror.-Experi mental explosion of the fi Britisl1 atomic bomb and the fi American hydrogen bomb ( H-bomb) .

In USA debate concern the possible use of the atomic bomb in Korea.-In USSR death of Generalissimo Stalin.-ConRict in Egypt be tween Britisl1 and Egyptians, wlw demand the evacuation of the Suez Canal zone.-With an armistice, sanctioning tlJC division of the country, the end of the war in Korea, wl1icl1 cost tl1e two sides a total of about three million lives.-In the USSR, leaders of the Stalin period sentenced to death. First testing of the Soviet H-bomb.

French capitulation in Vietnam.-In Guatemala, with US support, a dictatorship is established, with the assassination of fi thousand leaders of the people and the return of the lands to landowners.-In the United States production of the latest type of H-bomb, which releases 15 megatons of energy (equaling fi million tons of TNT ), 750 times more powerful tl1an the bomb dropped on I-Iiroshima.-Repression by French colonialists in Tunisia and Algeria, in revolt.

State of emergency in Algcria .-USSR declares the end of the war with Germany, now divided into two Republics: the German Federal Republic ( Western bloc ) and the German Democratic Republic ( Eastern bloc). Still no solution to tl1e question of Berlin, situated physically inside the Eastern territory and politically divided between the tw opposing blocs. Constant Right of Berliners from tl1e Eastern sector to the Western Tl1e army of tl1e German Federal Republic is offi formed.-In opposition to the military Pact of the Western bloc (NATO ), the countries of the East ern bloc sign a military alliance of their own (Warsaw Pact) .-USA tests the fi underwater a tomic bomb.-USSR carries out the fi experimental dropping of an H-bomb from a plane . . . . .

. . . . . 1956-1957-1 958-1959-1960-1 961

The battle of Algiers against tl1e French begins.-At the Twentieth Party Congress in the USSR, Khrushchev denounces the late Stalin's reign of terror. Destalinization bcgins.-Revolt in Hungary, put down by Soviet military interven tion.-Suez crisis. Egypt closes the Canal, blocking the Row of emigrants and Jewisll refugees from every part of the world towards Israel. Victorious attack of Israel against Egypt. Military action of the French and Britisl1 who try to occupy the Canal, bombing Egyptian terri tory. Threats of Soviet intervention and withdrawal of the Franco-British

5 5 2 H I S T O R Y
. . . .
. .
1 9 - -

forces.-In Cuba, guerrilla war Jed by Fidel Castro against the Batista dicta torship.

In Indochina, fi lly evacuated by the French, the struggle for libera tion begins, with the Communist partisans, followers of I-Io Chi Minh (president of North Vietnam ) against a dictatorial govern establisl1ed in South Vietnam under American protection.-Experimenta/ explosion of the fi British I-1 b.-USA and USSR produce intercontinental ballis tic missiles with nuclear warheads, capable of reaching any part of the globe. No agreement among the Powers on the city of Berlin.-In Cuba, triumphant victory of Fidel Castro's revolutionaries and fl t of the dictator Batista.-Po/itical and ideological diff begin to be evident between the two major Communist Powers (Soviet Union and People's Republic of China ) .-Clashes on the C/1ina-India frontier.-Insurrection movements in the Belgian Congo, under the /eadersl1ip of Patrice Lumumba. Tl1e Belgians abandon the colony. Figllting and disorder throughout the

country.

Demonstrations in Italy against tiJC recently established govern

nco-Fascist in tendency. Police attack demonstrators; dead and wounded in the whole country. Resignation of the govern t-First French atomic bomb tested.-Heightening of the dissension between Communist Cl1ina and Soviet Union.-In Germany, a process is invented (State secret) for the production of a tomic weapons also by countries without means.-C/wos in the Congo. Lumumba assassinated.-In Algeria the struggle for inde pendence continues, with fi repression from the French colonialists.

-Anti-Castro attack on Cuba, with tl1e landing of an expeditionary force at the Bay of Pigs and bombing of the capital. The attack is repeJled.-In Moscow, the Chinese delegates, in protest, abandon the USSR Party Con gress.-In East Berlin (Soviet sector) construction of a fortifi wall along the border with West Berlin . Eastern sector closed to West Berliners. Com mu ting forbidden to East Berlin residents employed in the Western sector. East Berliners prohibited from going to tl1e West. Orders to slwot on sigllt at any attempt at infraction.-In Vietnam, opposition to the dictatorship continues. Useless methods of repression adopted by the Government ( the peasant population, habitual accomplice of the partisans, is segregated in fortifi villages, etc.) .-In the advanced nations, the progressive and colos sal development of industry expands, devouring the best energies and concentrating all powers in itself. Instead of serv man, machines enslave him. Working for industries and buying their products become the essential functions of the human community. The prolifera tion of arms is accom panied by the proliferation of ridiculous consumer goods, promptly outda ted because of the market's requirements. Artifi products (plastic ) alien to

5 5 3

the biological cycle transform land and sea into a deposit of indestructible refuse. In the world's countries, more and more, the industrial cancer spreads, poisoning air, water, and organisms, besieging and devastating built-up areas, as it deforms and destroys the men condemned to the assembly-lines inside the factories. For the systematic indoctrination of maneuverable masses in the service of the industrial powers, popular media of communication (newspapers, magazines, radio, television) are used to spread and propagandize an inferior "culture," servile and degrading, which corrupts human judgment and creativity, blocking ali real motivation of existence, and unleashing morbid coliective phenomena (violence, mental iliness, drugs ) .-With the exclusive fever of earning and consuming a tem porary period of economic boom in various nations, Italy among them. Economic-industriai competition with America on the part of the rival USSR, where heavy industry is stili favored.-After political diff the USSR withdraws its technical advisers from China, suspending 178 indus trial projects in that country.-Further Soviet experiments with nuclear weapons: explosion of a super-bomb, its energy equal to about 100 miliion tons of TNT (five thousand times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb) .-According to the latest calculations, expenditures for armaments throughout the world amount to about 330 milli doliars a day .

. . . . . 1 962-1963-1 964-1965-1966-1 967

Victory of the forces of liberation in Algeria.-Confl between Catholics and Protestants in Ireiand.-Instaliation of Soviet missile bases in Cuba and consequent blockade of the Soviet fl by the United States ( Cuba crisis ). Dismantling of the bases by the USSR.-Encyclical "Pacem in terris" by Pope John XXIII.-Death of John XXIII.-In Vietnam, partisan off and Government repression continue. In protest against the dictatorship, some Buddhists burn tl1emselves aiive.-Border skirmishes between Algeria and Morocco.-In Dalias, John Kennedy, President of the United States, assassinated.-Open break between Communist China and the Soviet Communist Party.-Military coup d'etat in Vietnam, with the support of the United States, which intervenes with massive bombing in North Vietnam.-China tests its fi atomic bomb.-The United States proceeds with its escalation against Vietnam, in which the strategy of total war is foliowed, with the three ails (kill ali, burn ali, destroy ali). New scien tifi technologies for the anti-personnel bombs (capable of freeing in a single explosion miiiions of steel peliets with mortal eff ), herbicides and chemical defoliants for the total destruction of vegetation and nature, etc. Military coup in Aigeria.-Military coup in Indonesia. Communism out Jawed. Half a miiiion Communists kiiied.-Subterranean atomic experi ments in USA and USSR-Intensive industrialization continues and

554 H I S T O R Y
. . . . . .
1 9 - -

expands, promoted by Eastern and Western Powers.-WI10Ie populations killed by famine in tiJe countries of t/Je T/Jird World.-American escalation goes on. T/Jree thousand six /Jundred twenty one aerial bombardments in Vietnam in a six mont/Js' period, the United States declares.-In Greece, army offi seize power and suspend t/Je constitution. Mass deportations and arrests .

and History continues

555

All
the seeds failed, except one.

I don't know what it is, but it is probably a fl and not a weed.

(Prisoner no.
7047
in the Penitentiary of Turi )

T H E E N D

N O T E S

A U T H O R ' S N O T E S

page v.
The verse, placed here as dedication, is from a poem by Ces Vallejo.

page
125.
Pitchipoi:
this name was apparently invented in the camp of Draney by Jewish children awaiting deportation, to signify the mysterious land towards which the trains of deportees set out. ( cf. Poliakov,
Nazism and the Extermination of the Jews. )

page
125.
water for death:
part of the funeral rites of the Jewish faith .

page
209.
Reschut
means :
ru
away.

page
327.
macere:
in Ciociaria this is the name gil'en to the terraces where fl is cultivated.

page
334.
"a page of glory in our
His
t
o
ry
"
:
this is Himmlcr's defi of the "fi solution" in an addres to the SS generals at Poznan, 4 October 1943.

page
494.
ZYKLON B:
for those who do not know, this is a chemical compound used by the Nazis for extermination in the gas chambers.

As far as the bibliography of the Second World War is concerned, since it is obviously vast,
I
can only refer readers to some of the many accounts c\'crywhere available on the subject. Here
I
must limit myself to mentioning-also by way of thanks-the following authors who, with their documentation and testimony, have given me some (real ) sugges for some (inven ted ) individual episodes in the novel : Giacomo Debenedetti
(16 ottobre
1943,
II
Saggiatore, Milan, 1959); Robert Katz
(Black Sabbath,
Macmillan,

Toronto 1969); Pino Levi Cavaglione (
Guerriglia nei Castelli Romani,
Einaudi, Rome, 1945 ); Bruno Piazza
(Perche gli altri dimenticano,
Fel trinclli, Milan, 19 56 ); Nuto Revelli
(La strada del Davai,
Einaudi, Turin, 1966, and
L' Ultimo fronte,
Eina11cli, Turin, 1971 ) .

T R A N S L A T O R ' S NOTES

page
11 4.
La:z;
and
Roma
are the two professional football (soccer) teams of Rome. They are bitter rivals, and their fans have always been prone to hea ted, even violent argument.