Formed in 1970, the Brigate Rosse (Red Brigades) sought to create a revolutionary state through armed struggle and to separate Italy from the Western Alliance (NATO). The Red Brigades’ main aim was the overthrow of the Italian government, the weakening of NATO and the creation of a Marxist state. On 16 March 1978, the former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro was kidnapped in a violent ambush, which left five men dead at the scene. Two days later, his kidnappers revealed themselves as the Red Brigades, a notorious terrorist group which had bombed and shot its way across Italy since the early 1970s. Eight weeks later, Moro’s dead body was dumped in downtown Rome. In December 1981, the Red Brigades kidnapped another high profile victim: a senior NATO staff officer, US Brigadier-General James Dozier. He was freed 42 days later in a daring raid by Italian commandos.
