The pretext for such measures would have been a false flag attempted assassination of prime minister Aldo Moro by paratroop colonel Roberto Podesto, who would subsequently allege that he was ordered to do so by the PCI.
[2] In response to this incident, it was planned to deport the political cadres of the PCI to a secret base in Sardinia, the premises also used by the Italian Gladio network at Capo Marrargiu.
The secret was badly guarded, since as early as summer rumors of a coup were circulating during the difficult negotiations that led to the formation of Aldo Moro's government (26 June–17 July).
The coup plans were investigated in 1967, when the journalist Eugenio Scalfari and Lino Jannuzzi uncovered the attempt in the Italian news magazine L'Espresso in May 1967 based on revelations from mafioso and KGB informant Nicola Gentile.
[5] The Financial Times posed the possibility that the paper coup was simply used as a way to sway coalition talks between Christian Democracy and the PSI.