Just so we're clear, I don't agree with Buchanan, and am not trying to defend him -- only really trying to be fair, and not distort what he actually said.
Here we are talking about Buchanan's chapter 5: "1935: Collapse of the Stresa Front," which begins with two quotes from Mussolini:
"Austria knows that she can count on us to defend her independence as a sovereign state." (1934)
Next fall I am going to invite Hitler to...make Austria German. In 1934 I could have beaten his army...today I cannot." (1937)
In chapter 5, Buchanan explains how Mussolini went from an ally of Britain and France opposed to Hitler's Germany in 1934, to an ally of Hitler in 1937 helping with his expansionist plans.
The critical meeting happened in June 1935 (page 151), where Antony Eden met with Mussolini to work out a deal -- call it "accommodation" or "appeasement."
In the meeting, Mussolini arrogantly insulted and berated Eden. As a result, now quoting Buchanan:
"After this verbal beating, the "tender sensibilities of Eden left him with the impression that Mussolini was 'a complete gangster,' the 'Anti-Christ,' a view which never left him."
"Eden felt personally insulted and humiliated. So enduring was the bad blood between him and Mussolini that when Eden was removed as foreign secretary by Neville Chamberlain, Rome rejoiced.
"After the Eden-Mussolini confrontation, the British press, to whom Eden was the personification of the new and higher League of Nations morality in international affairs, turned on Mussolini, mocking and assaulting him as the world's worst dictator. British socialists, Liberals, and Labour Party members all joined in heaping abuse on the Italian ruler.
"Rome-London relations went rapidly downhill, and in Geneva the League, led by Britain, threatened sanctions if the invasion of Abyssinia [what the Eden-Mussolini meeting covered] went ahead.
"Isolated, Mussolini decided he had to act quickly."
Soon after, Mussolini was firmly allied with Hitler's Germany.
Thanks! Great posts.