In the 1950 ' s 70 ' s fascism was almost nurtured in many European countries as a alternative to what was seen as the leftwing takeover of Europe . Spain , Greece , Turkey all had rightwing dictatorships that were supported and aided by the US government . Italy had its own extreme right wing movements , some of which engaged in a long running campaign of terrorism . At the end of WWII the mainly leftwing resistance movements of the war were also brutally suppressed , with Greece perhaps being the worst example . The British army used tanks and planes against the people that helped liberate Greece from the Nazi ' s and fought side by side with the police force and exNazi ' s against the resistance fighters that had been on their side only months beforehand . The Dekemvriana Greek , December events refers to a series of clashes fought during World War II in Athens from 3 December 1944 to 11 January 1945 between the Greek leftwing Resistance forces the EAMELAS , the KKE and the British Army supported by the Greek Government , the Cities Police and the farright Organization X of Georgios Grivas .