Arrigo Petacco (7 August 1929 – 3 April 2018) was an Italian writer, historian and journalist.

Petacco was special envoy, editor-in-chief and executive director of La Nazione and La Storia Illustrata, and author of the homonymous monthly television program on the RAI.

[1] He began his journalistic career at Il Lavoro, a newspaper published in Genoa, directed by Sandro Pertini.

Prolific historical writer, experienced journalist, he wrote several film plots[2] and made numerous television programs, especially for RAI, the Italian main public service broadcaster.

In his career as a journalist has interviewed some of the protagonists of the Second World War.