Mussolini considered a buffoon a bumbling brute a tyrant overshadowed by Adolf Hitler is the man who dragged Italy into World War II as one of historys most famous dictators and one of the most derided In April 1945 the day before Hitlers suicide his body was displayed in public in a Milan square He his mistress and others leading the fascists had been executed by Italian partisans

They called him Il Duce Since his march on Rome in 1922 Mussolini had governed Italy with billy clubs nationalist slogans and largescale public works He had become the model for dictators in the 1930s Among his pupils was Adolf Hitler With Hitlers help Mussolini planned to turn Italy into one of the worlds superpowers But his downfall was approaching