Italy
Vittorio Emanuele Orlando
1860–1952 Prime Minister of Italy, 1917–1919; head of the Italian delegation at Paris
Born in Palermo, Orlando was a professor of law before his election to the Chamber of Deputies in 1897. He was minister of justice (1907–1909 and from 1914) and of the interior from 1916. After the defeat at Caporetto in October 1917 he became prime minister; his government replaced General Luigi Cadorna with Armando Diaz and led the recovery to victory at Vittorio Veneto in 1918. At the Paris Peace Conference he and Foreign Minister Sidney Sonnino disagreed over keeping the Dalmatia promised in the London Pact of 1915 or pressing for Fiume (Rijeka); the conference granted neither. Orlando walked out on 24 April 1919, returned in May and left office in June. The episode fed the myth of a "mutilated victory". He died in Rome on 1 December 1952.