When Liberty editor, Fulton Oursler (1893 – 1952), sat face-to-face with Benito Mussolini and asked him to explain why he had given the order to invade Ethiopia, this was Il Duce’s response:
“The answer is that we did it for civilization, We did it for the same reason that yourselves fought the Civil War and for the same reason that you had to conquer the American Indian.”
“A dozen questions leaped to my mind. The parallel of our American Civil War was certainly obscure and it was difficult to think of Haille Selassie and Sitting Bull in the same breath. But I was not here to argue or protest too much, but to get at the truth as nearly as I could. Was there a better case for Ethiopia than we had heard?”
“Our plans for Ethiopia? Willingly. First, medicine. A great man once said that the greatest excuse for colonization is medicine. We are improving the [health] conditions of the people in every way. The people themselves are tranquil now. They are pleased with the new order of government that we have instituted and the improvements that we are putting under way.”
