Ciano's Hidden Diary: 1937-1938

by Count Galeazzo Ciano.Dutton, $4.00.

This first volume of Ciano’s diary had not been recovered from the German S.S. when the rest of the diary was published in 1946. The author was clearly something of a fool; but his absurdly high moral tone, his inordinate vanity and bombast, his fawning on the Duce, lend piquancy to the narrative and make it all the more revealing as a chronicle of Fascist policy. The main topics are Italy’s role in the Spanish War; the negotiations with Britain and France aimed at erasing the policy of sanctions; the formation ol the Axis; and the Munich crisis. The book confirms the folly of appeasement, but it also suggests that Mussolini was pretty set on eventually going to war. There is much detail that is of considerable historical interest, and there are many amusing trivia: Mussolini thought that Hitler used rouge to hide his pallor; he wanted his epitaph to be: “Here lies one of the most intelligent animals who ever appeared on the face of the earth. Goering made Ciano think of Al Capone.