coup. Following a year and a half of prison, he was freed in 1978, the investigative magistrate declaring that he was unable to proceed in the trial. He was later completely exonerated for attempting to plot a coup. Liberal, monarchist, then admirer of Charles de Gaulle, Edgardo Sogno returned to politics only in 1996, as a candidate to the Italian Senate, in Cuneo, for the National Alliance (Alleanza Nazionale) party founded by Gianfranco Fini. Failing to be elected, he retired to private life. In his 1998 memoirs, Sogno revealed how he had visited the CIA station chief in Rome in July 1974 to inform him of his plans for an anti-communist coup. He wrote: "I told him that I was informing him as an ally in the struggle for the freedom of the west and asked him what the attitude of the American government would be," and then: "He answered what I already knew: the United States would have supported any initiative tending to keep the communists out of government." Honors Order of Merit of the Italian Republic Grand Officer – June 2, 1974 Publications De Gaulle: La spada appesa al filo Bietti (1997) Due fronti (1998), memoirs ("Two Fronts", two accounts of the Spanish Civil War, one from the Francist side and Sogno, the other from Nino Isaia who took part to the International Brigades) La grande utopia: I confini delleconomia, della natura, della morale Sugarco (1982) ASIN: B0000ECLR6 See also History of Italy as a monarchy and in the World Wars History of the Italian Republic Italian Resistance and Partisans Spanish Civil War References 1915 births 2000 deaths Counts of Italy Politicians from Turin Italian monarchists Nobility from Turin Italian military personnel of World War II Italian anti-communists Italian resistance movement members Italian Liberal Party politicians National Alliance (Italy) politicians 20th-century Italian politicians Italian people of the Spanish Civil War Diplomats from Turin Italian diplomats 20th-century diplomats