FDR & Mussolini were close friends & Mussolini disliked Hitler, so why did Italy join the Axis?

not close friends...remember that this was the time of Ann Rand as well...very much experimentation in those days politically after a dismal decade of horrid global economy....with hindsight we can see it now, but in those days everything was on the table to fix things....and Mussolini was not Hitler...Hitler's fascism was a special sort of evil

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RE:

FDR & Mussolini were close friends & Mussolini disliked Hitler, so why did Italy join the Axis?

FDR's personal letters reveal that he was impressed by what Mussolini was doing and said that he kept in close touch with that "admirable gentleman."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Deal_and_corp...

The stimulus for Germany siding w/ Italy was the Franco-Soviet Pact in May 1935. There was not going to be a repeat of WW1 where Germany would be flanked on all sides. It was more Italy who wanted to be allies w/ Germany, not Germany w/ Italy. 'Restoring the Roman Empire' could best be achieved if they were on the side of the Reich was the thinking of Mussolini's inner circle led by his son-in-law Ciano. It was more of a mutual forced cooperation. It was more practical.

Believe it or not, Hitler wanted Britain to be its ally than any other Nation. I have not read it, but I would imagine the full explanation would be in Mein Kampf.

Not true at all.

FDR and Churchill were great friends. El Duce was deposed by force by them. As soon as we found out that Italy was down to 24 hours of jet fuel, FDR contacted the Italian government and offered "unconditional surrender", and we then pulverized Italy because the Nazis refused to leave.

"From the very beginning, I said to the Germans, 'Fight England and America!' "

Benito Mussolini, July 31, 1943

(This is the man you said was friends with FDR?)

Hitler rescued Mussolini (look up Operation Oak). They can't have disliked each other that much.

Hitler promised comrade Mussolini lots of Shinny new ME-109 fighters and mark 4 tiger tanks...sieg heil

Italy got bogged down in Ethiopia and Mussolini needed someone to bail him out

If you're not part of the solution, then you're part of the problem.

It was simply a means to an end for both of them, unemployment, too many mouths to feed, possibility of disease as a result--and when every other option of sustaining their population failed to work, it was the only solution.

The final solution.

You can't believe wikipedia.

In my school textbook, it says Hitler was impressed my Mussolini's fascist ideas and adopted that into Nazism. They then paired to dominate the world.

Hitler offered Il Duce a shot at taking over the world, FDR didn't.