Sicily provided the Allies with their first opportunity to occupy any part of Axis home territory. By a startling political turn, the new régime upset one of the few positive benefits of the old. Mussolini, alone among rulers of Italy, had mastered the Mafia. The American occupation régime was largely staffed by mafiosi, whose excellent Italian fitted them for the task and whose cover was good; they soon had Sicily back under the corrupt domination of their secret society.

—M.R.D. Foot, Resistance, (London: Biteback Publishing Ltd, 2016), 348.

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