The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overall assessment of the impact of the escalation of the Vietnam War on U.S.-Italian relations, on Italian foreign policy, and on the evolution of Italian domestic politics. Between 1965 and 1968, the Vietnam War played a large role in U.S.-Italian relations and was the cause of a heated domestic debate that divided not only Italian political parties but Italian diplomats as well, resulting in the resignation of one foreign minister and of one of the country's most important diplomats, the ambassador to the United States.

In order to understand how and why the escalation of the conflict in Southeast Asia had such a disproportionate relevance for Italian domestic and foreign policy, I first look at the origins of the center-left government, stressing the American concern over the impact that the “opening to the left” may have had on the traditional Italian alignment with Washington on foreign policy matters. I also look at how and why the war in Vietnam became an issue in Italian domestic politics. I then briefly tell the story of Italy's diplomatic involvement in attempts to bring about a negotiated settlement of the conflict, from the trip to Hanoi by Florence Mayor Giorgio La Pira to the tangled webs of the “Marigold” and “Kelly” negotiations, and try to explain the reasons for this burst of diplomatic activity on a matter in which Italy had no direct interests. In the conclusion, I suggest that the war might have had a negative impact on the experiment of the center-left by helping to end the isolation of the Italian Communist Party that the opening to the left was supposed to bring about.