On 29 September 1943, when Badoglio and Eisenhower signed the so-called <long armistice> in Malta,  a subject that is very close to Vittorio Emanuele III's heart is also addressed: obtaining the Anglo-American "yes" on Dino Grandi's return home from exile in Portugal (where he had taken refuge to escape the hunt by the Nazis for his role in the fall of Mussolini) and his appointment as Foreign Minister of the Badoglio government. The recipient of the message supporting this request, sent by the Minister of the Royal House Pietro Acquarone for account of the King, is the American general Maxwell Taylor. He is present in the Allied delegation in Malta and is well known by the Italian royal house because he had participated, in September 1943, in the ill-fated secret mission to Rome shortly before the signing of the armistice. Taylor turns the request to Eisenhower but the latter rejects it because he considers Grandi too compromised with the fascist regime, despite his role in the fall of Mussolini. Furthermore, the Americans bet on other characters: on Carlo Sforza (then exiled in America) and above all on Palmiro Togliatti, who had taken refuge in Moscow and had asked – through Stalin – to be repatriated. Return, that of Togliatti, which will take place in Salerno in March '44.