Sergio Fenoaltea

Sergio Fenoaltea combined law, political resistance, and diplomacy. As a young man he joined Giovanni Amendola’s opposition movement and helped organize the clandestine Giovane Italia. After graduating in law, he taught political economy at Rome and translated economic writing associated with Luigi Einaudi. He left university teaching in 1936 rather than join the Fascist Party. Arrested in 1943, he subsequently worked in the Roman Resistance and became secretary of the National Liberation Committee. ¹

After serving as an undersecretary in Ivanoe Bonomi’s government, Fenoaltea represented Italy in China and became NATO’s assistant secretary general for political affairs. He then served as ambassador in Canada and Belgium before taking the Washington embassy in 1961. ¹

He resigned in 1967 over Foreign Minister Amintore Fanfani’s treatment of the Vietnam War. In a subsequent clarification, Fenoaltea said his objection concerned the omission of Hanoi’s responsibility from Fanfani’s Senate statement. He framed the disagreement more broadly as a question of maintaining the Atlantic relationship: in his view, European security and democracy depended on understanding American responsibilities. ²

Fenoaltea later entered the Council of State and the Senate. He continued working on European security and cooperation. He died in 1995. ¹