Terror in Italy: After Moro’s Murder

With the 54-day stand-off that stretched from the kidnapping to the murder of Aldo Moro, the strategists of the terrorist warfare, which for years has been bloodying Italy, set themselves a double objective. First: to put the hostage on trial, both as a person and symbol of an “objective enemy,” since they consider themselves agents authorized by history with the right of life and death over everyone. And second: to use the threat of the death sentence to force an exchange of prisoners and virtual recognition as an “armed party,” in outright defiance of the law and articles 18 and 49 of the Italian Constitution, with the aim of bringing about the disintegration of the legal system.

The ideological terrorism of our time always includes, as a necessary element, a sacrificial trial and, if possible, a confession—from the solemn show trials of the Stalinist period to the occult rituals of the guerrilla bands. In Italy, for a number of y...