Foreign minister (r), and
Lester B. Pearson (l), in 1956 Martino was a prominent
Liberal politician. He was elected in 1948 to the
Chamber of Deputies, becoming briefly
Minister of Public Education in 1954, under
Christian Democrat Mario Scelba. In late 1954, Martino became
Minister of Foreign Affairs after the replacement of
Attilio Piccioni, involved in the
Montesi Affair. As Minister of Foreign Affairs, Martino promoted a better
European integration and
internationalism, first with the
Messina Conference in 1955. In 1956, he obtained the Italian acceptance to the
United Nations. In the same year Martino, along with
Halvard Lange from
Norway and
Lester Pearson from
Canada, became a "sage" of the
NATO, promoting its involvement in civil areas. Martino also attended the
Treaty of Rome in 1957, establishing the
European Economic Community.
Armoire's affair In 1956, the newspaper
La Repubblica published an article where Martino said that investigations on the
German war crimes in Italy during
World War II would have a negative impact on the
Germany's integration in Europe, like an internal disapprove of the NATO. In 1994, with discovery in a military base of an armoire with secret documents on Nazi war crimes in Italy, nickname "Armoire of Shame" ("
Armadio della Vergogna"), emerged that Martino blocked the investigations to avoid German isolation during
Cold War. ==Later life==