Augusto Rosso

Augusto Rosso studied law at Turin and entered the diplomatic service in 1910. His early career included Washington, military service in the First World War, and an embassy position in London. In the late 1920s he became one of Italy’s specialists in the League of Nations, working on reparations, arbitration, security, and disarmament. He headed the ministry’s League affairs directorate before returning to Washington as ambassador. ¹

Rosso promoted Italian culture in the United States while representing the Fascist government during its confrontation with Ethiopia. He proposed a cultural institute suited to American audiences, but also personally defended Italy’s demand for a protectorate over Ethiopia. In a September 1935 meeting with William Phillips, he justified colonial expansion as an outlet for Italy’s population and dismissed the League’s proposed compromise as insufficient. ^{1, 2}

Transferred to Moscow in 1936, Rosso reported on Stalin’s purges and negotiated with Maxim Litvinov and, later, Vyacheslav Molotov. The deterioration of relations between the Axis and Soviet Union brought him back to Italy in 1941. ¹

After Mussolini’s fall, Rosso briefly served as the Foreign Ministry’s secretary general. He refused to collaborate with the Italian Social Republic, but the Foreign Ministry’s retrospective account records that a postwar purge nevertheless forced him into retirement before eventual reinstatement. His later writing examined Soviet and American foreign policy. He died in 1964. ^{3, 1}