The Pete Quiñones Show Operation Gladio with Thomas777 - Complete
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Nov 4, 2025 Thomas777, a long-form podcaster and writer, delves deep into Operation Gladio and its Cold War intricacies. He explains how ideological frameworks influenced military tactics and highlights the controversial stay-behind networks. The discussion contrasts Gladio with Vietnam's Phoenix program, revealing moral complexities. Thomas also details Italy's unique political landscape and pivotal revelations by Giulio Andreotti that brought Gladio into the light. He argues for Gladio as an organic network rather than a singular shadow state, intertwining history with modern activism.
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Episode notes
Cold War Logic Reframes Morality
- The Cold War was an abnormal, perpetual combat condition that reframed moral and operational metrics.
- Treating Gladio as a horror story misses its logic as contingency planning inside a brutal ideological struggle.
Stay‑Behind Forces Were Contingency Planning
- NATO developed stay-behind networks to create an indigenous insurgency if Warsaw Pact overran Europe.
- Gladio emerged from allied planning to preserve resistance in depth, not from a single malevolent cabal.
Special Forces Recruit Cultural Fit
- Thomas777 recalls family friend Samuel Sarkeesian, an Armenian Special Forces pioneer who could blend into local populations.
- Sarkeesian exemplifies why early Special Forces recruited people with cultural-linguistic fit for stay-behind roles.
