Mussolini was standing near the window overlooking the Piazza Venezia. He looked somber, older and much thinner after recovering from the debilitating gastric illness as Galeazzo Ciano walked in and saluted ceremoniously. After a long silence the Duce said in a low, tired voice, averting his eyes:
“Have you thought about what you want to do now?”
Ciano was puzzled at first but quickly understood that those almost whispered words signified that he had just been fired and that the Duce in his mind had already skipped the initial part of that unpleasant conversation. This was the outcome that Ciano had been expecting for months after the failure of his attempts to open a channel to the Americans in Casablanca and Lisbon and after FDR had announced the famous ‘unconditional surrender’ clause at Casablanca a few days before. It signaled the final collapse of Ciano’s overtures and his complete loss of favor with the Germans. Hitler, Himmler and Ribbentrop were all demanding his head. Mussolini physically weakened and depressed was slavishly obliging them.
The meeting ended with Ciano becoming Fascist Italy’s last ambassador to the Vatican. He could have gone off to Argentina, a comfortable post, safely removed from the intrigues of Rome and Berlin, but he still had ambitions and wanted to remain close to the political center in the hope of playing a role in the crisis that everyone knew was about to unfold. Mussolini didn’t allow him time to react. Their working relationship had come to an end and the dictator also resented Galeazzo’s many transgressions. Now he had to fire him to retain his credibility both with Fascist party hardliners and the Germans.
That same day, back in his office at the Palazzo Chigi, Ciano placed a phone call to Admiral Calamai asking him to come to his office early that afternoon. Calamai arrived as Ciano was already packing his private papers.
“I must inform you that my mission at the foreign ministry has ended and that I am no longer overseeing the secret negotiations. Any further contact is suspended and subject to the decisions of the new man in charge, most probably Ambassador Giuseppe Bastianini, a reliable person that you can trust.”
The Admiral was stunned by the news given in such a nonchalant manner. The foreign minister appeared relieved to be leaving a post he had held for seven eventful years. To the public at large Ciano still embodied the Axis alliance and the Pact of Steel, which he had vigorously promoted before the war. His departure signaled that events were definitely turning against Italy and Germany. The Admiral left the foreign minister’s office with a curious feeling of drift. Anything could happen and no single individual could possibly shape the course of events.
On February 10, a few days after Ciano had vacated his office at the Palazzo Chigi, an envelope was delivered to his home in the residential neighborhood of Parioli. It was marked “Personal for His Excellency Count Ciano” and contained a newspaper clipping from the New York World Telegram dated January 12. The short article had an understated headline: “Gangland Execution for Labor Leader” and ran: “Noted labor leader Carlo Tresca was shot dead at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 15th Street late last night. Mr. Tresca was 64 years old and lived in Washington Heights. He was the owner and editor of a weekly Italian language newspaper published in Manhattan, Il Martello that espoused progressive labor causes and had always taken a strong position against Mussolini’s Fascist regime and its supporters in this country. The paper’s offices are located on 15th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues. Mr. Tresca was gunned down as he was walking to the bus stop by a man who managed to escape in a passing car. The gunman was later apprehended but the police hasn’t yet revealed his identity.”
An anonymous typed message came with the newspaper clipping and read: “Assignment Completed.” Ciano placed the clipping back in the envelope and had one of his secretaries deliver it by hand to the Palazzo Venezia for Mussolini’s eyes only. It was a final “service” the son in law had dutifully performed.