CHAPTER TWENTY-THREEBenito Mussolini had the support of the majority of the Italian people (Lindsey paraphrased the boy in his long memorandum to Desmond Richelieu), at least in his early years in power. That included Italian Jewry. Mussolini was no racist, certainly no anti-Semite. Italy had been in a state of political confusion and economic turmoil in the years following the First World War, and Il Duce was seen as a unifying leader who would bring discipline and order to the nation.
In power for a full decade before Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of the dying Weimar Republic, Mussolini considered Hitler a petty upstart. The first time Hitler tried to grab Austria, Mussolini massed Italian troops and threatened war, and Hitler backed down. Il Duce was a hero to the British and French t
