Benito Mussolini, one of the most popular and dynamic leaders of the 1930's, ended his life hanging upside down, his face beaten to a pulp. His own people did this to him.

Years earlier, they were cheering his every word and enthusiastically backing his military adventures in Europe and Africa. Italian wives contributed their jewelry and Italian soldiers carved a bust of his face while on duty in Ethiopia. Today, this sculpture lies neglected in the palace compound of Emperor Yohannis in Mekele.

Many people were fooled by Mussolini. Italians the world over conducted massive fundraising campaigns to support Italy in its war of aggression against Ethiopia.

The smooth and effective Italian PR machine made Italian militarism fashionable to the extent that prominent individuals such as the English writer Evelyn Waugh became open admirers of Mussolini. The well-regarded mayor of New York, Fiorello La Guardia, refused to reign in the rabid pro-Italy campaigns being conducted in that city in 1935.

The Italian public relations was so effective that even the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was unable to take a firm, public stand against Italy's use of poison gas in Ethiopia.

Here is what one scholar wrote:

"The institution was too impressed by Mussolini to weigh his words against his deeds."

"In the final analysis, the ICRC did not understand what had really happened in Ethiopia. It lacked the political imagination to look behind the slick façade which Fascist Italy presented and, indeed, it fell into the trap which had been skillfully prepared by the Italian propaganda machine. Then again, it shared this fate with many other people and governments in Europe. It was not only the ICRC's failure, but that of a whole era." Force versus law: The International Committee of the Red Cross and chemical warfare in the Italo-Ethiopian war 1935-1936; By Rainer Baudendistel; 1 March 1998; International Review of the Red Cross no 322, p. 81-104

The lesson here is that propaganda is no substitute for integrity and justice. History will always render a negative verdict on dictators who lead their people into the dead-end of aggressive militarism.

- Dagmawi