That's 1976.  +Lefebvre wasn't even on their radar in 1972.

You may be right, but I kind of doubt it. He was on their radar throughout the council. Maybe not on the world's radar, but likely the Pope's.

He clearly speaks against Lefebrve in this Allocution:

Antipope Paul VI, Allocution to the Consistory of May 24, 1976 – Novus Ordo Watch

EDIT:  DOUBLE POST

I agree that this was what it was.  I do think that most people just don't realize it.  I know I didn't for a long time.

I don't think so.  SSPX was almost nothing in 1972, and posed no threat whatsoever.  I think people are imposing in hindsight what the SSPX later became onto that time period.  There were little enclaves of Traditional Catholicism all over the world, and this was viewed as one of them.

By 1972, the seminaries and convents were emptying out, Montini sat at his desk approving one request for laicization of priests after another ... and the devastation of V2 was unfolding.

I agree with the NO Watch take above.  Montini's intent was to spin the obvious devastation as the "smoke of Satan" ... rather than admitting that V2 was at fault, although that had in fact been his intention, so what was presented on the surface as a lament was really his exulting in the fact that he had gotten Satan into the Church.

Folks, for crying out loud. When are you gonna grasp this. Montini was referring to Lefebrve as being the smoke. He wasn't lamenting the BS that he implemented. He was chastising those that weren't getting with the program.

I agree that this was what it was.  I do think that most people just don't realize it.  I know I didn't for a long time.

Another example of govermental stupidity

https://cairnsnews.org/2024/04/20/killer-croc-to-be-removed-for-another-opportunity-to-eat-a-human/