ITALY'S NEW PARTNERSHIP / THIS IS OIL AND WATER, " CRACKED ITALY'S 
NEW FOREIGN MINISTER GIUSEPPE SARAGAT . THE NEW CENTER-LEFT COALITION, OUTGROWTH 
OF THE APERTURA A SINISTRA (OPENING TO THE LEFT) WHICH STARTED 
ALMOST TWO YEARS AGO, LAST WEEK FINALLY MANAGED TO FORM A 
CABINET . IN ADDITION TO THE PREMIERSHIP, THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATS WOUND 
UP WITH 15 OF THE 26 CABINET POSITIONS, INCLUDING THE KEY 
MINISTRIES OF DEFENSE, TREASURY, AND INTERNAL AFFAIRS . ALONG WITH THE 
VICE PREMIERSHIP, THE LEFT-WING SOCIALISTS GOT FIVE MORE POSTS, THE ONLY 
IMPORTANT ONE BEING THE BUDGET MINISTRY . FOUR CABINET JOBS WENT 
TO THE SOLIDLY ANTI-COMMUNIST SOCIAL DEMOCRATS (INCLUDING SARAGAT'S FOREIGN MINISTRY) AND 
THE MODERATE REPUBLICANS . ITALY'S 25TH CABINET IN 20 YEARS JOINS 
PARTIES OF DIFFERENT AIMS INTO AN ALLIANCE BASED ON WHAT EACH 
SIDE HOPEFULLY TAKES TO BE EXPEDIENCY : THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATS WANT 
SOCIALIST SUPPORT FOR A FAR-RANGING PACKAGE OF REFORMS ; THE SOCIALISTS 
WANT TO EXERCISE POWER AFTER 16 YEARS IN POLITICAL EXILE . 
AS ODDLY MATCHED AS THE PARTIES THEMSELVES ARE THEIR TWO LEADERS, 
FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE THE KEY POLITICAL FIGURES IN ITALY . 
PREMIER ALDO MORO, 47, IS THE ANTITHESIS OF THE VOLUBLE, EMOTIONAL 
ITALIAN . A RESERVED ONETIME LAW PROFESSOR, HE DETESTS THE ACID 
NAME CALLING OF ITALIAN POLITICS, IS SO SHY THAT HE OFTEN 
TRAVELS BY CAR TO AVOID THE NECESSARY SOCIAL AMENITIES ON PLANES 
AND TRAINS . MORO'S POLITICAL GENIUS IS FOR COMPROMISE, SOMETIMES ACHIEVED 
BY PURE TENACITY . HE ONCE REDUCED A COLLEAGUE TO NEAR 
COLLAPSE BY ARGUING REASONABLY FOR FOUR UNINTERRUPTED HOURS . SO CONSCIENTIOUSLY 
CAPABLE IS MORO OF SEEING ALL SIDES OF EVERY QUESTION THAT 
FRIENDS AND FOES ALIKE ARE CONVINCED THAT HE AGREES ONLY WITH 
THEM . MORO'S COLORLESS CAUTION WAS THE VERY QUALITY THAT BOOSTED 
HIM TO POLITICAL PROMINENCE . FIVE YEARS AGO, AFTER SHARP-TONGUED AMINTORE 
FANFANI QUIT IN A HUFF AS CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC LEADER IN A 
DISPUTE OVER HIS THEN STILL HEAVILY OPPOSED PLANS FOR AN OPENING 
TO THE LEFT PARTY ELDERS LOOKED FOR A REPLACEMENT . HE 
HAD TO BE A MAN NOBODY WAS MAD AT, AND MORO 
FILLED THE BILL . ALTHOUGH FANFANI LATER BECAME PREMIER FOR MORE 
THAN TWO YEARS, MORO STAYED ON AS THE PARTY'S CHIEF STRATEGIST 
. NO LESS VIGOROUS THAN FANFANI IN HIS ADVOCACY OF THE 
CENTER-LEFT ALLIANCE, MORO AT THE SAME TIME WAS MORE MILITANTLY ANTI-COMMUNIST 
THAN FANFANI AND THEREFORE PROVED FAR MORE PERSUASIVE WHEN IT CAME 
TO SELLING CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATS ON THE SCHEME . PROPHETICALLY, MORO 
HAD ONCE TRIED TO JOIN THE SOCIALIST PARTY BUT WAS TURNED 
DOWN AS BEING " TOO CATHOLIC . " A DEVOUT CHURCHGOER 
WHO ATTENDS MASS DAILY, HE WAS BORN IN LECCE IN THE 
HEEL OF ITALY'S BOOT, STUDIED LAW AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BARI, 
AT 24 BEGAN TEACHING . ENTERING PARLIAMENT IN 1946, THE NEWCOMER 
WAS NICKNAMED BY HIS COLLEAGUES " THE QUAKER " BECAUSE OF 
HIS DOUR OUTLOOK AND AUSTERE HABITS . THROUGH SHEER DILIGENCE, MORO 
BECAME UNDER SECRETARY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS IN 1948, RECEIVED HIS OWN 
MINISTRY (JUSTICE) IN 1955 . HOWEVER, HIS SPEECHES AS A POLITICIAN 
SOUNDED AS IF HE WERE STILL ADDRESSING LAW STUDENTS AT BARI, 
CONTAINED SO MANY PEDANTIC ABSTRACTIONS THAT DECIPHERING HIS MEANINGS GAVE RISE 
TO A WHOLE NEW GROUP OF EXPERTS KNOWN AS " MOROLOGISTS 
. / MARRIED, FATHER OF FOUR DAUGHTERS AND ONE SON, MORO 
LIVES UNPRETENTIOUSLY IN A LOWER-MIDDLE-CLASS APARTMENT DISTRICT IN ROME . HIS 
WIFE, WHO ALMOST NEVER APPEARS IN PUBLIC WITH HIM, OWNS FEW 
FANCY FURS OR JEWELS . OUTSIDE OF HIS FAMILY, MORO'S ONLY 
NONPOLITICAL PASSION IS FLOWERS, WHICH HE RAISES AT A SMALL COUNTRY 
HOUSE ABOUT 30 MILES FROOM ROME . " THERE, " HE 
SAYS, " I AM PERFECTLY AT EASE BECAUSE I AM WITH 
MY CHILDREN AND MY ROSES . " VICE PREMIER PIETRO NENNI, 
72, IS AS IMPULSIVE AS MORO IS DELIBERATE . WHILE MORO 
ACHIEVES AGREEMENT THROUGH PATIENCE, NENNI OFTEN GETS HIS WAY BY SHEER 
CHARM AND ELOQUENCE . IN MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY, HIS 
CAREER HAS FOLLOWED INNUMERABLE TWISTS AND TURNS . EVEN AS A 
YOUTH IN ROMAGNA, IN ITALY'S RUGGED NORTH, NENNI WAS AN ADEPT 
AT POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY . AFTER HIS PEASANT PARENTS DIED, HE WAS 
PLACED IN AN ORPHANAGE BY AN ARISTOCRATIC FAMILY . EVERY SUNDAY 
NENNI RECITED HIS CATECHISM BEFORE THE COUNTESS AND IF HE DID 
WELL RECEIVED A SILVER COIN . " GENEROUS BUT HUMILIATING, " 
HE RECALLED . HE BECAME A SOCIALIST AND BEFRIENDED A FELLOW 
ROMAGNAN NAMED BENITO MUSSOLINI . IL DUCE'S FASCIST THUGS LATER ALMOST 
SHOT NENNI WHEN THEY RAIDED AND BURNED HIS SOCIALIST HEADQUARTERS IN 
MILAN . NENNI FLED TO FRANCE, AND DURING THE NEXT 17 
YEARS FOUGHT ON THE LOYALIST SIDE IN SPAIN, WAS CAPTURED BY 
THE NAZIS IN OCCUPIED FRANCE DURING WORLD WAR II, TURNED OVER 
TO ITALIAN POLICE, AND DEPORTED TO THE LONELY ISLAND OF PONZA 
IN THE TYRRHENIAN SEA IN 1943 . THREE DAYS AFTER NENNI 
ARRIVED, THE SHORTLIVED GOVERNMENT OF MARSHAL BADOGLIO SHIPPED ANOTHER EXILE TO 
PONZA : MUSSOLINI . NENNI MADE HIS WAY TO ROME, BECAME 
FOREIGN MINISTER AND VICE PREMIER IN A COALITION CABINET THAT INCLUDED 
COMMUNISTS . WITH A BERET PUSHED TO THE BACK OF HIS 
HEAD AND HIS BULL VOICE ROARING, NENNI DEMANDED " UNITY OF 
THE WORKING CLASS, " FAITHFULLY BACKED MOSCOW . STALIN REWARDED HIM 
WITH A PEACE PRIZE IN 1951 . SLOWLY NENNI REALIZED THAT 
THE SOCIALISTS WERE CAPTIVES OF THE ITALIAN COMMUNISTS . YET HE 
COULD NOT ESCAPE WITHOUT SHATTERING HIS PARTY, WHICH WAS HEAVILY INFILTRATED 
BY REDS . FINALLY, MOSCOW'S BRUTAL CRUSHING OF THE HUNGARIAN REBELLION 
AND KHRUSHCHEV'S DESTALINIZATION SPEECH IN 1956 GAVE NENNI THE CHANCE HE 
WAS LOOKING FOR : HE BROKE HIS / ACTION PACT " 
WITH THE COMMUNISTS, ALTHOUGH THE PARTY STILL PRESERVED CLOSE TIES WITH 
THEM . NENNI ALSO RETURNED THE STALIN PRIZE MONEY ($25,000), WHICH 
HE HAD USED TO BUY A LUXURIOUS SEASIDE VILLA . IN 
ROME, NENNI LIVES MORE MODESTLY IN AN APARTMENT WITH HIS WIFE 
AND ONE OF HIS THREE DAUGHTERS, GIULIANA, A SOCIALIST SENATOR . 
IN FRAIL HEALTH HE FELL IN A MOUNTAIN STREAM 17 MONTHS 
AGO AND INJURED HIS HEAD NENNI NEEDED ALL HIS POWERS TO 
PERSUADE HIS SHARPLY DIVIDED PARTY TO ENTER THE CENTER-LEFT COALITION . 
AT LEAST FOR THE TIME BEING, NENNI HAS LIVED DOWN THE 
BOAST HE UTTERED 16 YEARS AGO : " NOT EVEN A 
REVOLVER PRESSED AGAINST MY HEAD WILL MAKE ME BREAK WITH THE 
COMMUNISTS . / 