En personlig favorit bland 1900-talets politiker som idag tyvärr är helt okänd för den breda allmänheten är den italienske fascisten Italo Balbo.
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Italo Balbo (Ferrara, 6 June 1896 – Tobruk, 28 June 1940) was an Italian Blackshirt (Camicie Nere, or CCNN) leader who served as Italy's Marshal of the Air Force (Maresciallo dell'Aria), Governor-General of Libya, Commander-in-Chief of Italian North Africa (Africa Settentrionale Italiana, or ASI), and the "heir apparent" to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
After serving in World War I, Balbo became the leading Fascist organizer in his home region of Ferrara. He was one of the four principal architects of the March on Rome that brought Mussolini and the Fascists to power in 1922. In 1926, he began the task of building the Italian Royal Air Force and took a leading role in popularizing aviation in Italy, and promoting Italian aviation to the world. In 1933, perhaps to relieve tensions surrounding him in Italy, he was given the government of Italian Libya, where he resided for the remainder of his life. Balbo was the only leading Fascist to oppose both anti-Jewish racial laws and Mussolini's alliance with Nazi Germany. Early in World War II, he was killed by friendly fire when his plane was shot down over Tobruk by Italian anti-aircraft guns.
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On 6 November 1926, though he had only a little experience in aviation, Balbo was appointed Secretary of State for Air. He went through a crash course of flying instruction and set up to build the Italian Royal Air Force (Regia Aeronautica Italiana). On 19 August 1928, he became General of the Air Force and on 12 September 1929 Minister of the Air Force.
In Italy, this was a time of great interest in aviation. In 1925, Francesco de Pinedo flew a seaplane from Italy to Australia to Japan and back again to Italy. Mario De Bernardi successfully raced seaplanes internationally. In 1928, Arctic explorer Umberto Nobile piloted the Airship Italia on a polar expedition.
Balbo himself led two transatlantic flights. The first was the 1930 flight of twelve Savoia-Marchetti S.55 flying boats from Orbetello, Italy to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil between 17 December 1930 and 15 January 1931. From 1 July – 12 August 1933, he led a flight of twenty-four flying boats on a round-trip flight from Rome to the Century of Progress in Chicago, Illinois. The flight had seven legs; Orbetello — Amsterdam — Derry — Reykjavík — Cartwright, Labrador — Shediac — Montreal ending on Lake Michigan near Burnham Park. In honor of this feat, Mussolini donated a column from Ostia to the city of Chicago; it can still be seen along the Lakefront Trail, a little south of Soldier Field. Chicago renamed Seventh Street Balbo Drive (it still bears the name) and staged a parade in his honor.
Faktum är att han skrev en bok om sin stora flygning över Atlanten, vilken redan 1933 gavs ut på svenska med titeln
Med luftarmada över Atlanten.
Framförallt bör man dock beundra Balbo för två saker. Till att börja med för hans moraliska mod då han stod upp mot Mussolinis tilltagande antisemitism och värsta diktatorsfasoner (Mussolini kallade honom vid ett tillfälle för "ett demokratiskt svin"). Dessutom för den insats han gjorde vid det italienska koloniseringsprojektet i Libyen då 90 000 italienare flyttades över Medelhavet till den nya kolonin, vilket antagligen var det mest välgenomförda storskaliga koloniseringsprojektet i historien.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italo_Balbo
http://italianmonarchist.blogspot.se...alo-balbo.html