Junio Valerio Borghese, known as the Black Prince of Borghese, was an Italian aristocrat descended from the Borghese family of the Italian black nobility. Borghese commanded the Decima Flottiglia MAS, a former regiment of the Italian Navy, which fought as a prominent piece of the army under the Nazi puppet state known as the [[Republic of Salo]] in Northern Italy during World War II. The regiment continued to fight the Allies in the northern territories under the Republic's administration right up until the end of the war.[^1] Unlike some fascist collaborators strung up beside Mussolini in the Piazzale Loreto, Borghese was chaperoned to the sanctuary of [[Vatican City]] by OSS spook James Angleton. Borghese then became the primary OSS and later CIA asset in establishing the Italian branch of [[Operation Gladio]]'s stay-behind network, designed to suppress left-leaning political movements in Italy. The Black Prince lived on to become a figurehead of Italy's post-war fascist movement. Trieste, part of the former [[Republic of Salo]], had a strong left-leaning labor union movement after the war, making it one of the first targets of [[Operation Gladio]] using former Decima Flottiglia MAS operatives under Borghese's direction in 1953.[^1] ### Golpe Borghese [[Pier Paolo Pasolini]] made the film Salo in response to an Italian fascist coup attempt in 1970 orchestrated by Borghese and carried out in his name, known as the [[Golpe Borghese]]. After the coup failed, Borghese fled to Spain where he died in 1974, possibly poisoned. The [[Golpe Borghese]] was linked to the [[Propaganda 2|P2 (Propaganda 2)]] secret society uncovered a decade later.[^1] ### Footnotes [^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). *Eye of the Chickenhawk*. United States: Thehotstar.