--- title: Dino Grandi url: https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/dino-grandi/ description: 3 verified quotes from Dino Grandi, Foreign Minister (1929 to 1932), Ambassador to Britain (1932 to 1939), President of the Chamber of Fasci and… section: FRAME --- ![Illustration: a Second World War naval-intelligence collage of a Pacific theatre map, aerial reconnaissance photographs and radar plots.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/detail/hero-wwii-pacific.jpg) [Quotes](https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/) · Italy # Dino Grandi ![Dino Grandi in a portrait of about 1925](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/images/fascist-italy/dino-grandi.jpg) [Photo](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_102-00160,_Dino_Grandi.jpg): Unknown (Bundesarchiv), CC BY-SA 3.0 de Foreign Minister (1929 to 1932), Ambassador to Britain (1932 to 1939), President of the Chamber of Fasci and Corporations; author of the Grand Council motion of 25 July 1943 · Italy On the regime page: [Fascist Italy under Mussolini](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/fascist-italy/#dino-grandi) 3 quotes, oldest first. [Filter with other speakers](https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/#speaker=dino-grandi). 1. > ““I don’t know how I was able to disguise myself as a Fascist for twenty years.”” — Original (Italian) — “Non so come ho fatto a contrabbandarmi per fascista durante venti anni”. — English: Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001) (English text as printed in this edition) — January 22, 1942 · Private-remark · Rome — Ciano records Grandi, then president of the Chamber of Fasci and Corporations, speaking freely about his position. Ciano adds that Arpinati told him Grandi presented himself in Bologna as a liberal and royalist critic. — Galeazzo Ciano, diary entry of 22 January 1942, recording the words of Dino Grandi, in Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001); Italian original: Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937-1943 (Italian text; 2020 FS digital reprint) [Source](https://archive.org/details/GibsonHughTheCianoDiaries19391943TheCompleteUnabridgedDiariesOfCountGaleazzoCian) 2. **Content note:** Threat against a named official. The words are shown as they were said or written. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was) — > ““That rascal,” he said, “is preparing himself to become the Italian Petain and would like to kill us all. But we shall bump him off first.”” — Original (Italian) — “Quel mascalzone” ha detto “si prepara a fare il Pétain italiano e vorrebbe ammazzarci tutti. Ma noi la festa la faremo a lui.” — English: Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001) (English text as printed in this edition) — August 10, 1942 · Private-remark · Rome — Ciano records Grandi on General Ugo Cavallero, Chief of the Supreme General Staff, whom Grandi detested. Grandi had told Ciano that for the first time in twenty years he had asked for carabinieri protection at his villa. — Galeazzo Ciano, diary entry of 10 August 1942, recording the words of Dino Grandi, in Hugh Gibson (ed.), The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943 (Doubleday, 1946; Simon Publications reprint, 2001); Italian original: Galeazzo Ciano, Diario 1937-1943 (Italian text; 2020 FS digital reprint) [Source](https://archive.org/details/GibsonHughTheCianoDiaries19391943TheCompleteUnabridgedDiariesOfCountGaleazzoCian) 3. > “Invites the Government to beg the King, to whom the whole nation looks with loyalty and confidence, that he should for the honour and safety of the country, assume the effective command of the Army, Navy and Air Force according to article 5 of the Constitution, and take the supreme initiative of command which our institutions confer upon him and which has been throughout our history the glorious heritage of the House of Savoy.” — Original (Italian) — invita il Capo del Governo a pregare la Maestà del Re, verso la quale si rivolge fedele e fiducioso il cuore di tutta la Nazione, affinché egli voglia, per l'onore e per la salvezza della Patria, assumere, - con l'effettivo comando delle forze armate di terra, di mare e dell'aria, secondo l'articolo 5 dello Statuto del Regno, - quella suprema iniziativa di decisione che le nostre istituzioni a Lui attribuiscono e che sono sempre state, in tutta la storia nazionale, il retaggio glorioso della nostra Augusta Dinastia di Savoia. — English: Muriel Currey, in Pietro Badoglio, Italy in the Second World War: Memories and Documents (Oxford University Press, London, 1948), where the resolution is printed as the "original text of the resolution" — July 24, 1943 · Statement · Rome, Palazzo Venezia (Fascist Grand Council) — Grandi presented the motion to the Grand Council on the night of 24 July 1943, after the Allied landing in Sicily. The King dismissed Mussolini the next afternoon. The paragraph quoted asks that the King resume effective command of the armed forces. — Ordine del giorno Grandi, motion presented to the Fascist Grand Council, night of 24 to 25 July 1943 (final paragraph), English in Badoglio, Italy in the Second World War, trans. Muriel Currey (OUP, 1948), ch. 5, The Coup d'Etat, pp. 40-41 (footnote); Italian text from it.wikisource.org, 'Italia - 24 luglio 1943, Ordine del giorno Grandi presentato al Gran Consiglio del Fascismo' [Source](https://it.wikisource.org/wiki/Italia_-_24_luglio_1943,_Ordine_del_giorno_Grandi_presentato_al_Gran_Consiglio_del_Fascismo)