Et Tu, Brute?: The Assassination of Benito Mussolini

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From the July 1st, 1936 morning edition of the Chicago Tribune:

ORGANIZERS CONFIDENT OF MASSIVE TURNOUT FOR ISOLATIONIST RALLY ON INDEPENDENCE DAY

Lindbergh Tells Press “Americans Want No Part Of A European War”

From Fallen Caesar:

It is difficult to understand any decision Hitler made as chancellor of the Third Reich, particularly his occupations of Austria and Italy, without being aware of his intense paranoia. He saw the Badoglio regime as a threat not just to his aspirations of uniting all German-speaking peoples in Europe under his rule but to the security of the Reich’s southern borders, judging it to be “unstable” and “alarmingly hostile towards German interests”....

From the July 2nd, 1936 morning edition of the New York Times:

ROME ACCUSES NAZIS OF VIOLATING ITALIAN AIR SPACE

Badoglio Alleges German Spy Planes Attempting To Photograph Italian Troop Bases

POLICE BRACING FOR TROUBLE IN ADVANCE OF INDEPENDENCE DAY RALLY

Rally Organizers Pledge To Keep The Peace

From the July 3rd, 1936 evening edition of the Miami Herald:

AMERICA FIRST RALLY ORGANIZERS PREDICT TURNOUT OF 200,000 FOR D.C. RALLY TOMORROW

FDR Criticizes Isolationists As “Naïve”

BERLIN DISPUTES BADOGLIO’S AIRSPACE VIOLATION CLAIMS

Says Luftwaffe Flights Near Italian-Austrian Border Are Routine Air Defense Patrols

From a CBS News radio broadcast dated July 4th, 1936:

The crowd gathered here outside the White House right now is a sizable one, to be sure... National Park Service officials calculate there are at least ten thousand people marching in the street at this hour. The organizers of the march have told me that Charles Lindbergh will be arriving within the next hour to give the keynote speech for today’s demonstration...

From the 2006 PBS-TV American Experience documentary The White House Riot:

At around 2:30 PM on the afternoon of July 4th demonstrators attending the counter-protest which had been organized in response to Lindbergh’s America First rally began exchanging some heated words with the isolationist marchers; fifteen minutes later an unidentified bystander threw what looked like a rock or a piece of granite at Lindbergh. The isolationists reacted first with shock, then with outrage, and charged at the anti-isolationism demonstrators in a frenzy of anger at what they believed was an unprovoked attack by pro-intervention fanatics against the aviation pioneer...

From the July 4th, 1936 evening edition of the Washington Post:

51 INJURED, 22 ARRESTED IN RIOT OUTSIDE WHITE HOUSE

Lindbergh Among Those Incarcerated

From the July 5th, 1936 morning edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer:

LINDBERGH RELEASED AFTER POSTING BAIL; FDR ORDERS FEDERAL INVESTIGATION OF RIOTS

CHAMBERLAIN OFFERS TO MEDIATE GERMAN-ITALIAN CRISIS

From Case Black:

Events were moving faster than anyone-- including Chamberlain --could have expected as he awaited the responses of Hitler and Badoglio to his mediation offer. Not only were German-Italian relations continuing to deteriorate, but the political tensions in Spain were on the verge of escalating into full-fledged civil war....

From the July 7th, 1936 afternoon edition of the Sydney Morning Herald:

RIGHT-WING UPRISING UNDERWAY IN SPAIN

Fighting reported between rebels and government troops south of Madrid

From the July 10th, 1936 evening edition of the Philadelphia Daily News:

HEAVY FIGHTING IN MADRID AS SPANISH REVOLT ENTERS FOURTH DAY

RIBBENTROP SAYS BERLIN WILL RESPOND “IN LESS THAN 24 HOURS” TO CHAMBERLAIN’S MEDIATION OFFER

From Hitler vs. Schuschnigg:

It was an extremely confident Hitler who appeared before the Reichstag on July 11th to proclaim his final decision regarding Chamberlain’s offer to serve as mediator in the border crisis between Germany and Italy. His intelligence agents had told him that neither Italy nor Britain was in much of a position for opposing his expansionist agenda, and his industrial ministers had advised him that the crash program to upgrade the German armed forces was making swift and highly substantial progress...

From the July 12th, 1936 morning edition of the New York Times:

HITLER SAYS ACCEPTANCE OF GERMAN TERRITORIAL CLAIMS TO SUDETENLAND “ABSOLUTE NECESSITY” BEFORE TALKS WITH ITALY AND BRITAIN CAN TAKE PLACE

Badoglio Accuses German Chancellor Of “Obstructionism”

From the July 14th, 1936 afternoon edition of the Detroit Free Press:

SPANISH REGULAR TROOPS PUSH FALANGIST REBELS BACK FROM MADRID WITH HEAVY LOSSES TO BOTH SIDES

CHAMBERLAIN URGES HITLER TO DROP SUDETEN TERRITORIAL DEMANDS

From Case Black:

As the nascent Spanish civil war continued to escalate and the Czech people continued to fear the prospect of Nazi occupation, Hitler reveled in the power he had gained over the destiny of Europe...a power he exploited to its fullest advantage....

From the July 16th, 1936 morning edition of the Los Angeles Times:

HITLER HOLDS FIRM ON SUDETEN QUESTION

Says No Meeting With Chamberlain or Badoglio Unless Territorial Demands Granted

From the 2011 ZDF-TV documentary Invasion Italy:

Hitler was dismayed to learn that his war minister, General von Blomberg, did not endorse his military plans vis-à-vis Italy and the Sudetenland as enthusiastically as he would have liked Blomberg to do. He accused the general of being a “defeatist” and admonished him to change his tune; Blomberg, a World War I veteran of considerable professional competence, would not comply with this demand. The arguments between them on the efficacy of the proposed strategies for occupying Italy and the Sudeten region would climax abruptly on July 20th when Hitler dismissed Blomberg and replaced him with Wilhelm Keitel, a pompous staff officer whose chief qualification for his new post seemed to be his total subservience to the Führer...

From the July 21st, 1936 morning edition of the Boston Globe:

GERMAN WAR MINISTER DISMISSED

BRITISH MEDITERRANEAN FLEET ON MANEUVERS OFF MALTA

From an NBC Radio news broadcast the next night:

Adolf Hitler today warned the British government that the maneuvers currently being staged by the Royal Navy’s Mediterranean fleet near Malta could be construed as, in his words, “an unnecessarily provocative act against Germany”.... From a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation news bulletin dated July 22nd, 1936:

In a statement released earlier today the British embassy in Ottawa reiterated Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s denial of German accusations that the Royal Navy Mediterranean fleet maneuvers currently being held off Malta were part of preparations to start a war against the Hitler regime. The statement, drafted by the embassy’s military attaché, insisted that the Malta maneuvers are nothing more than a routine preparedness exercise...

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