Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti confirms that a secret armed stay-behind network, linked to NATO, was kept ready to resist a Soviet invasion. Similar networks are exposed across Western Europe.
Contested history
Consensus: Secret stay-behind networks, coordinated with NATO and the CIA, existed in many Western European countries during the Cold War.
Stay-behind networks existedEstablished
Italy and other governments confirmed them in 1990, and the European Parliament condemned them that year.
Gladio was behind Italy's terrorist bombingsDebated
Italian investigations tied some neofascist bombers to rogue intelligence officers, but direct Gladio involvement in specific attacks was not proven.
NATO or the CIA ran a Europe-wide strategy of terrorUnsupported
The claim leans partly on a US Army field manual that Washington says is a Soviet forgery.