Reform in the Structure of Command Staff of the Italian Armed Forces in the Mid-1950s (Raffaele Cadorna’s Project)

Abstract

The article shows that the reform, carried out in the structure of the officer corps of the Italian Armed Forces in the mid-1950s, was a response to a number of interconnected organizational, personnel and socio-economic problems that the Italian Armed Forces had to face in the first post-war decade. Special attention is paid to the foreign policy factor, which became the catalyst for the reform, in particular, to the new objectives faced by the Italian army during the period under review in connection with the beginning of confrontation between two blocs in Europe and the country’s entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). As an important aspect related to the main issue the author also analyzes the activities of general and senator Raffaele Cadorna Jr., one of the most famous Italian military leaders, who after retiring worked as a member of the IV Commission of the Italian Senate (Defence) and became the compiler of the main provisions of the bills № 56 (“Regulations on officer service in the Army, Navy and Air Force”) and № 298 (“Promotion of officers in the Army, Navy and Air Force”), which formed the basis for the reform studied in the article. In order to be as objective and impartial as possible showing the personal contribution of the general to the practical implementation of the proposed innovations, the author, based on official parliamentary documentation, analyzes the circumstances of the entry into force of these bills, paying particular attention to the main amendments made by other senators to the initial project of the reform proposed by Cadorna.