Operation Gladio
| Italian: Organizzazione Gladio | |
| Abbreviation | Gladio |
|---|---|
| Motto | "Silendo Libertatem Servo" (By being silent, I protect liberty) |
| Formation | 26 November 1956 |
| Extinction | 27 July 1990 |
| Type | Stay-behind paramilitary organization |
| Legal status | Defunct |
| Purpose | Defense of Europe from invasion by Warsaw Pact |
| Headquarters | Rome, Italy |
|
Region
|
Europe |
| Methods | Paramilitary/Clandestine |
|
Membership (1990)
|
622 (only in Italy) |
| Affiliations |
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, NATO |
Operation Gladio (Italian: Operazione Gladio) is the codename for a clandestine North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) "stay-behind" operation in Italy during the Cold War. Its purpose was to prepare for, and implement, armed resistance in the event of a Warsaw Pact invasion and conquest. Although Gladio specifically refers to the Italian branch of the NATO stay-behind organizations, "Operation Gladio" is used as an informal name for all of them. The name Gladio is the Italian form of gladius, a type of Roman shortsword. Stay-behind operations were prepared in many NATO member countries, and some neutral countries.
The role of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Gladio and the extent of its activities during the Cold War era, and any relationship to terrorist attacks perpetrated in Italy during the "Years of Lead" (late 1960s to early 1980s) are the subject of debate. Switzerland and Belgium have had parliamentary inquiries into the matter.
In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Winston Churchill created the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in 1940 to assist resistance movements and carry out subversive operations in enemy-held territory across occupied Europe. Guardian reporter David Pallister wrote in December 1990 that a guerrilla network with arms caches had been put in place following the fall of France. It included Brigadier "Mad Mike" Calvert, and was drawn from the 5th (ski) battalion of the Scots Guards, which was originally intended to fight against the Soviet forces attacking Finland. Known as Auxiliary Units, they were headed by Major Colin Gubbins, an expert in guerrilla warfare who later led the SOE. The Auxiliary Units were attached to GHQ Home Forces, and concealed within the Home Guard. The units were created in preparation of a possible invasion of the British Isles by the Third Reich. These units were allegedly stood down only in 1944. Several of their members subsequently joined the Special Air Service and saw action in France in late 1944. Their existence did not become widely known by the public until the 1990s, despite a book on the subject being published in 1968, written by David Lampe.
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