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Sumner Welles
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- 1Sumner Welles quote on Italian elites and Mussolini circulates●Of Italy, Sumner Welles, former Under Secretary of State, writes that "especially the reactionary elements and the large
A passage from former US Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles is being widely shared, quoting him as saying that in Italy the reactionary elements and the larger banking and industrial interests welcomed Mussolini's dictatorship. Readers are highlighting the observation as a historical lesson about how business and conservative elites can back authoritarian governments. Some frame it as a warning with echoes in current American politics, which has revived interest in Welles's writings.