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In the 1970s, the Italian Communist Party (PCI) spearheaded Eurocommunism, a movement at the heart of which Western European Communist parties expressed their commitment to democratic principles and distanced themselves from Moscow. Far from reassuring American leaders, these developments nurtured their fears. For American Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, these so-called moderate, responsible Communists were actually “more dangerous”, since they were more likely to be democratically elected to positions of political power than their hard-line Leninist counterparts: hence the fierce opposition to any kind of “historical compromise” between the Italian Communist Party and Christian democracy. Following Jimmy Carter’s inauguration as president in January 1977, the Carter government’s attitude relaxed somewhat, before reverting anew to a more clear-cut form of opposition.