Franco with Eisenhower in 1959.
Francisco Franco died at age 82, ending his long dictatorship and bringing the country back to the path of democracy.Franco, in spite of his long reign, remains one of the most enigmatic of 20th Century figures Often cited to be a fascist, he was not, but he was certainly a fascist fellow traveler in the 1940s, and Spain's true Fascists, the Falangists, were consolidated under his rule and had no choice but to follow them, even though he very occasionally suppressed them. He supported the Axis in much of World War Two while managing to avoid actually having Spain become a full blown combatant. German submarines had refuge at Spanish ports for a time, and early in the Battle of Britain the Luftwaffe used northern Spain for launching aircraft on Great Britain1 Fascistic Spanish troops fought as a German foreign legion.2 Always savvy to political winds, he began to draw away from the Axis late war. He might be best compared to Petain in his political alignment, but even that is imperfect.
A monarchist at heart, he restored the Spanish monarchy late in his rule, but even at that he did not ever release power. Death brought that.
Franco's rule commenced with the Spanish Civil War, which he was not originally the right wing military head of. The war itself was basically a military revolt against an incoming Communist regime. Franco fought the war well, but it also maximized violence in some notable ways. Approximately 420,000 Spaniards were killed by way of extrajudicial killings during the Civil War, and in state executions immediately following its end in 1939, a remarkable figure given that Republican combat deaths were about 110,000, and Nationalist about 90,000. Killings tapered off thereafter and into the 50s. His rule emphasized Spanish nationalism and traditionalism, enforcing by force of law.
Economically, his policies were murky, and for some time the country adopted autarky, which was the economic theory favored by the Nazis, and which didn't work out for them either. Economic disaster resulted in reform.
Like France, Spain attempted to retain its empire post World War Two, but Franco was forced to yield to the times. When France yielded to Moroccan independence, Spain largely did as well, but retained some holdings. Spain fought a war with Morocco to hold on to the Spanish Sahara, but in 1975 it ultimately ceded to Moroccan wishes. Spain,under Franco, provided bases to the OAS in its effort to retain French control of Algeria.
Unlike most of the far right dictators of the European 20th Century, Franco always retained a bit of a following in certain sectors of the US, and still does. In some circles he was viewed as the only alternative to Spanish communism, and in fact, in terms of the Spanish Civil War, that might actually be right. That wouldn't excuse the nature of his rule, however.3
Others, more alarmingly, are currently attracted to his politics. A Wyoming Hageman intern, for example, resigned his position when he was found to be a follower of Francoist websites, although he later successfully reemerged as a Turning Point USA figure at the University of Wyoming, brining the late Charlie Kirk to the campus.. Some figures on the Illiberal Democracy, National Conservative, side of the GOP are very close to being Francoist in their views. Indeed, absent the economic aspects of it, Francoism is nearly the model of how certain Illiberal Democrats imagine Western nations should be run.
This is one of those things I can actually remember from 1975 and place the date on. For some reason, on this date, I was traveling with my father in our 1973 Mercury Comet. I think we were going to Cheyenne. The radio news broke in continually with updates on Franco's physical decline.4
A report by the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee confirmed that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had tried twice to assassinate Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, and once to tried to poison Congo Premier Patrice Lumumba. It also confirmed that the CIA had supplied aid to insurgentes who later assassinated South Vietnam's President Ngo Dinh Diem and Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo.
However, it also confirmed that "No foreign leaders were killed as a result of assassination plots initiated by officials of the United States", which is good I guess, but it wasn't for want of trying in the case of Castro. Diem and Lumumba were in fact both assassinated, but not by the US, in spite of the ongoing belief that the US actively participated in Diem's assassination.
Dr. Heinrich Schuetz was sentenced to ten years in prison after being convicted of war crimes in Munich, West Germany. In 1942 as an SS colonel he had injected bacteria into eleven Catholic priests at Dachau.
Footnotes:
1. Churchill has his diplomats quietly approach the Spanish government and informed them that the UK was aware of where the Luftwaffe plains taking off in northern Spain were coming from, and that the UK would bomb the airbases if it didn't stop. It stopped.
2. The unit started off as an outright Spanish contribution to the German effort in the USSR, but after the Allies complained, troops in the Spanish Army were ordered to return home to Spain or resign. Those who resigned remained behind as a unit in the German SS.
3. My mother, who was well aware of the Spanish Communist sacrilegious desecration of Catholic churches, took the position that Franco was Spain's only choice against Communism. My father took the much more nuanced view that whichever side won, the Spanish were going to lose.
In the US, the Republicans were generally seen, in the Great Depression, as liberal democrats, which they largely were not. As the war progressed, the Republicans became more communistic as Spanish Communists, with support from Moscow, presumed victory and began to purge the rival forces on the left. American leftists famously contributed the Abraham Lincoln Brigade of volunteers to the Republican cause, some of whom were American Communists. In the pre Cold War era, the full nature of Communism was not really very well understood in the US.
In Europe, in contrast, the war drew volunteers to both sides. Both Irish and English mercenaries volunteered, for example, to serve under Franco.
4. The fact that it was a Thursday means my father took a very rare off day from work. What I think we were doing is going to Warren Air Force Base so we could pick up uniforms for the Civil Air Patrol. When we were there I recall a supply sergeant gave my father a USAF "Dumbo Collar" OG-107 Field Jacket. My father unsarcastically loved it and wore it as a winter outdoors coat for the rest of his life.
I was 13 years old.
The next time I would be on Warren AFB would be when I was 17. I had applied for admission to the Air Force Academy and was required to go there for a physical. My father likely drove me down as I probably wouldn't have driven to Cheyenne as a 17 year old. I can recall when I checked in the Air Force medic noted my name and told me he had the same first name, albeit in Spanish.
As I was also an applicant to the U.S. Military Academy (and the Naval Academy) I took an Army physical at the local Army National Guard armory.
I obviously didn't get in, which I'm glad about, I think.
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