\"Italian General\" Nino Pasti Hand Signed Photograph & Envelope For Sale

Up for sale Italian General Nino Pasti Signed Photograph & Envelope.

ES-174

ROME,

May 20—For years, Nino Pasti, a general in the Italian air force, sat in the

highest councils of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, sifting secrets and

providing advice. Today, he is a candidate , for the Senate on the ComImunist

Party slate. General Pasti, who retired seven years ago with four stars. is

running as an independent on the party's ticket. But, in an interview, he left

no doubt of his admiration for the party. his worry about trends within the

Atlantic alliance and his lack of concern about any agIgressive intentions of

the Soviet Union. “It was gradual,” said the 67‐year‐old general, who works at home in a small

office with pictures of American generals and the flags of alliance mem Ihers.

“The decision to run on the Communist ticket was not taken suddenly. I have

been working in the party since my retirement and my views coincide with the

party. In my opinion, the Italian Communists are reliable and democratic. And I believe

they do not want to destroy the ‘alliance, but to see both it and the Warsaw

Pact decrease in strength together.” military manner, is the highestranking

former officer of the Italian armed forces to run with the Communist Party. His

military record was distinguished his assignments important, and his links to

the alliance close. He was deputy chief of the general staff of the air force

from 1958 to 1960, when he ,became the inspector general of the armed forces.

From 1963 to 1966, he served in Washington as the Italian member of the

alliance's Military Committee, one of the most sensitive in the organization.

Then, from 1966 to 1968, he served as Deputy Supreme Allied Cornmender in

Europe for nuclear affairs, first in Paris and then in Brussels. General Pasti,

who speaks good English; said there should be no worry about his past access to

military secrets. “I saw material marked secret,” he said, “but it wasn't all

that sensitive. There are not that many secrets around anyway. Much of what I

read eventually turned up in the newspapers.” In campaigning, he said, he would

stress several themes. Among them, he added, would be the need for better

control by Parliament over military spending to “avoid another Lockheed

scandal.” Also, he said, he would argue for changes in the alliance so it will

“promote detente rather than try to obstruct it.” In his view, Atlantic

estimates of Soviet strength are exaggerated and the result is that member

nations are spending too much in trying to match what is estimated to be Soviet

power today. The Communist Party has pledged itself to maintain Italy's

membership in the Atlantic Alliance, a pledge that has not persuaded Secretary

of State Henry A. Kissinger and others in the organization to stop worrying. General

Pasti, a former pilot who was a prisoner of the British during World War II.

said he did not believe that everything about the Soviet Union was right and

just. Like the Italian Communist Party, he was opposed to the invasion of

Czechoslovakia by Soviet tanks in 1968. The Communist Party has often asked

nonmembers to run as independents, partly to bolster its prestige and give the

appearance of a broader base. The system is used primarily by the Communists,

who include on their independent list this time. Altiero Spinelli, a member of

the Common Market's policy‐making

Commission. as well f.s several prominent Roman Catholic laymen.