Thursday, November 20, 1975. Death of Franco.

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.

Last edition:

Sunday, November 18, 1975. The return of Eldridge Cleaver.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, 1980s, 1987, 2010s, 2018, Black Panther Party, Domestic Terrorism, Personalities

A Sunday Morning look at the Vietnamese Diaspora.

 

This is probably a coincidence.  This particular church has an associate pastor who is from Vietnam.  Indeed, he's the second Vietnamese priest to serve in the parish.  But this particular Mass comes up just after the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.

Prior to the Vietnam War, very view Vietnamese lived anywhere other than Vietnam.  Some lived in France, due to the French colonial association with the country.  When the French Indochinese War ended, some Vietnamese in fact relocated to France, with a small number of actually being Vietnamese who were in the French armed forces.  It wasn't a large number, however, like it would come to be with Algerians.

The end of the Vietnam War however was different.

Many Vietnamese fled because they legitimately feared Communism, putting the lie to the often stated proposition that the South Vietnamese didn't really care how the war ended.  Thousands did, and of those who did, most didn't make it out of Vietnam.

Over 2,000,000 Vietnamese now live in the US, with 60% of those having been born in Vietnam.  37% of them report themselves as being Buddhist, 36%  Christian and 23% aren’t affiliated with any religion. Vietnamese Americans are more than three times as likely as Asian Americans overall to identify as Buddhist (37% vs. 11%), but with Buddhism being the "native" religion of the country in American eyes, that numbers if surprisingly low.

Indeed, it gives some credibility to Dr. Geoffrey Shaw's assertion in his biography of murdered South Vietnamese President Ngô Đình Diệm that at the time of the his assassination Buddhism was in significant decline.

However it would also reflect that the American understanding isn't really all that correct.  While some regard Christianity as "introduced", the fact is that Buddhism is as a well, with it being Indian in origin.  Vietnam also has a folk religion which shares many common elements of other Asian "folk" religions, including devotion to ancestors.

Today in Vietnam Buddhists make a 13.3% of the total population, and Christians a declared 7.6% with 6.6% being Catholic.  Hoahao Buddhists  make up 1.4%, Caodaism followers 1% and followers of other religions including Hinduism, Islam, and the Baháʼí Faith, representing less than 0.2% of the population. Folk religion has experienced a revival since the 1980s, and it's widely believed that the official 7.6% of the population being Christian is in error, and actually over 10% of the population is Catholic.  The Catholic faith in Vietnam is so vibrant that it now supplies Priests to the United States, as the nation has a surplus of Priests itself.  Looked at this way, Buddhists and Christians are overrepresented in the United States in comparison to Vietnam, but it might actually present a more accurate make up of the Vietnamese religious makeup.

Or perhaps not.  One of the groups that most feared a Communist takeover in Vietnam were Catholics, and for good reasons.  Catholicism has always been antithetical to Communism and in many instances it was credited with being the only effective force on the Globe opposing it. Elsewhere in the same general region of the world, some credibly credit the CAtholic  Church for preventing mid 20th Century Australia from falling into Communism, something the far left in that country still strongly resents.  Catholics were well represented in the South Vietnamese government and military, and interestingly some of the leaders of its military converted to teh Faith during the war or even after it.  

Buddhism was introduced to Vietnam in the 2nd or 3d centuries BC, so its presence there is very old.  Christianity in Vietnam is mostly the story of Catholicism there, and was introduced by the Portuguese, not the French as is so commonly assumed.  Vietnam was never part of the Portuguese Empire, but its influence was very long, and very significant. The Vietnamese alphabet was developed by the Portuguese.

The Communist Vietnamese government has always been  hostile to religion in general and openly repressive against some. Catholic have notably been oppressed, and the native Cao Đài religion, which originated as late as 1926, was oppressed by both the Republic of Vietnam and Communist Vietnam.

France did of course have all sorts of influences on Vietnam due to its conquest of Indochina which commenced in 1858 and ran to 1885.  The very first Vietnamese refugees I met in the US spoke French as well and their native language, reflecting that they had been educated during the French colonial period. Today that number has dropped way off, with their being no need for French in daily life.  A much higher percentage of Vietnamese in Vietnam speak English today than French.  One of the very first refugees I met, who had been an engineer in  Vietnam, but who worked as a city mechanic in the US, struggled with English, but spoke French fluently.

At one time the Vietnamese Diaspora retained a close cultural connection with the defeated Republic of Vietnam and in some places, they still do.  Republic of Vietnam flags were prominent in some locations this past month in areas with large Vietnamese populations and they were displayed during commemorations of the fall of Saigon.  However, there are a not insignificant number of Vietnamese now who are post war immigrants, and whose association is not as strong or there at all.  The Republic of Vietnam itself is officially detested in Vietnam, and often open views about the Republic reflect the same.

Vietnamese in the US often express the hope that someday the separated people can be united somehow, something that's common for diaspora people.  But it won't come to be so.  As time moves on, the Vietnamese in the US will become more and more American, like Italian Americans are and Irish Americans, and less Vietnamese.  Part of that will occur through intermarriage, which is occuring in the US but which interestingly was not a common occurrence during the French occupation of Vietnam or the Vietnam War, with the cultural differences at the time simply being to vast for it to arise frequently.

April 21, 1975. The end at Xuân Lộc.

The ARVN, which had fought hard at Xuân Lộc, finally abandoned the city and retreated toward Saigon.

Thiệu in 1968.

President Thiệu resigned, leaving the government in the hands of Vice President Trần Văn Hương.

He was a career army officer who interestingly started off in the Việt Minh, in which he rose to be a district chief.  He left them, however when it became obvious they were Communist and were committing atrocities.  He enrolled in the French controlled Vietnamese governments Merchant Marine Academy but rejected a position on a ship when he discovered that the French owners were going to pay him less than his French colleagues.  He thereafter  transferred to the National Military Academy in Đà Lạt, graduating in 1949.  He was part of the junta that overthrew Ngô Đình Diệm in 1963, after having prevented a coup a few years earlier.  He was elected President in 1967 after the US insisted on democratic elections.  He was reelected in 1971, as the only candidate running, as opponents believed the polls would be rigged.  His resignation speech was a whopping two hours long, but did include the memorable lines,"I resign, but I do not desert."

He was a convert to Catholicism.

He died on September 29, 2001, in Boston.  In Hawaii to celebrate his 50th wedding anniversary with his wife Mai Anh, the September 11 attacks impacted him psychology and contributed to his death which occurred after his return to his home in Boston.

Kissinger bizarrely believed that his resignation would lead to a negotiation to save Saigon, which is something that apparently his successor, Dương Văn Minh, also believed would occur.

The last New Zealanders at their embassy in South Vietnam were evacuated from the country.

Last edition:

Saturday, April 19, 1975. The ARVN withdraws from Xuân Lộc.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, Army of the Republic of Vietnam, Battle of Xuân Lộc, Cambodia, Khemr Rouge, Marriage, North Vietnamese Army, South Korean Army, Vietnam, Vietnam War

Friday, October 7, 1910. The Baudette Fire.

Forest fires in Lake of the Woods County, Minnesota, destroyed sever towns and killed over 400 people.

Ngô Đình Nhu, South Vietnamese political figure, archivist and brother of President Ngo Dinh Diem, was born in Huế.  From a Catholic Vietnamese family, he adopted the ideology of personalism to create the Person Dignity Theory.  He went from being a bookish intellectual to a key figure in his brother's rise, and was executed along with him in 1963.

Last edition:

Wednesday, October 5, 1910. Madero begins his escape.

Labels: 1910, 1910s, Francisco I. Madero, Mexican Election of 1910, The Plan de San Luis Potosi