Posted on 11/20/2013 6:41:01 PM PST by annalex
Testament of Francisco Franco , Head of State, read by the Head of Government D. Carlos Arias Navarro on November 20, 1975 on television.
Spaniards:
The hour has reached when my life is to be held before the Almighty and to receive His final judgment, and I ask God to welcome me into His benign presence, because I wanted to live and die as a Catholic. In the name of Christ it has been my honor and my constant desire to be faithful son of the Church, within which I will die. I apologize to all, as with all my heart I forgive those who are known as my enemies even though I never had them as such. I believe and have had no other desire than the future of Spain, which I love until the last moment and I promised to serve until the last breath of my life, which I know is near. I want to thank all who have worked with enthusiasm, dedication and selflessness in the great enterprise of making a united Spain, great and free.
For the love I feel for our country, I ask you to persevere in unity and peace and render to the future King of Spain, Don Juan Carlos de Bourbon, the same affection and loyalty that I have provided and lend it, at all times, the same support for collaboration that you've had.
Do not forget that the enemies of Spain and of Christian civilization are alert. Watch yourselves, and for that submit all your personal interest to the supreme interests of the country and the Spanish people.
Do not slacken in achieving social justice and culture for all men of Spain and make it your primary goal.
Keep the unity of the lands of Spain, highlighting the rich diversity of its regions as a source of the strength of the unity of the country.
I would, in my last moment, join the names of God and of Spain in my embrace and cry out for the last time, at the dawn of my death:
Spain! Long live Spain!
Francisco Franco. Madrid, November 20, 1975
Your father is a wise man. Send him my warmest regards and stop swearing.
All: I'll return to this thread later, I had a medical emergency; all ended well.
I'd rather not, thanks.
In fact, this was one of the very few wars when the Reds were beaten on the battlefield. Franco should be remembered alongside Reagan, Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II as one who defeated communism.
Francoism is not national socialism and Spain prospered under Franco.
You're probably thinking of socialism, not national socialism, which was Adolf Hitler's ideology. Spain turned to socialism after Franco's death.
As a monarchist I generally despise dictatorships but Franco is an exception: he defeated Communism in his country and restored the Spanish monarchy, even though Prince Xavier of Bourbon-Parma would have been a better choice. Francoism proves the thesis, often heard in regards to the Civil War in Russia, that a popular right wing movement (such as the White Movement in Russia, which did not intend to restore the Romanov Dynasty and failed) cannot succeed unless it is monarchistic.
Mugging itself does not convert a liberal. Observe the American Left that are treated horribly by the likes of Clinton and Obama, and come back licking the hand that beats them. Some do, but I suspect a degree of intellect and character is needed; we see that in the American neocons, some Soviet dissidents from communist background, and in Orwell.
Further, a liberal streak usually remains in the converts.
She sure can, but will she?
Note that both the Nationalists in Spain and the Whites in Russia were popular movements; popular support should not be equated with electoral victories.
Agreed. Koreans fought to a draw, with our help and the Viet Nam and Chinese lost with our help. Kennedy betrayed the Cubans. I guess the. Greeks won, but quickly morphed into a socialist state. Franco stands alone in my eyes. Pinochet should get honorable mention. Franco was a brave SOB.
Indeed, and the Russians fought for him in the Civil War. As one White leader, general Skorodumov, colorfully said: "Isn't it all the same on what body part to hit the bolsheviks, on the snout, on the neck or on the heel; that is, -- in Russia, in Spain or in Japan. The important thing is, beat them so hard they forget their names. Wherever the the red snout shows up, there, whack!-- on the snout" (Russian Priests In Spanish Civil War, in Russian).
The Blue Division was, perhaps, a favor returned.
It was a long time after Franco was dead that one could safely say they opposed him.
The so-called “white terror” in Spain is generally understood to have ended in 1945, — that is, it lasted while the immediate existential threat to Spain lasted. I am glad people had a memory of it later. Spain under Franco was a dictatorship; dictatorships happen when a nation drives itself off the cliff with democratic means. Dictatorships are not democracy, just like a cancer treatment is not a day on the beach. It is typical for a nationalist dictatorship that leftism of any kind is treated like treason, for that is what it is, treason. Go give your father a big hug.
A dictatorship of the left, the right or ‘’center’’ is still a dictatorship. A dictatorship is the ego, the will and the lust for power by one man(or a group) to dominate, rule and to control a nation and it’s people. Franco was a thug, no different than his good buddy Adolph and different from Stalin in so much as Franco may have gone to church once and a while.I give my Dad a hug often but not because he worships Franco.
Wrong on so many levels.
Franco was never Hitler's 'buddy'; he took advantage of German aid and then left Hitler high and dry when he wanted recompense. Franco allowed volunteers to leave Spain to fight the soviets, but it wasn't a Spanish army effort.
The reds declared war on Spain; Franco (who did not initiate the war) fought back.
Franco wouldn’t even go after Gibraltar, for Hitler.
Sweetheart, you don't know what you are talking about. The man saved a country and taught all of us how to deal with a very real threat of the militant left today. There should be a monument to Franco in every town in the free world.
You might want to check your facts there.
The facts have been checked!
Newsweek, March 2, 1970: "...a respected U.S. rabbi has come forward with surprising evidence that tens of thousands of Jews were saved from Nazi ovens by the personal intervention of an unlikely protector. Spain's Generalissimo Franco, in so many other respects a wartime collaborator of Adolf Hitler. "I have absolute proof that Franco saved more than 60,000 Jews during World War II," says Rabbi Chaim Lipscitz of Brooklyn's Torah Vodaath and Mesitva rabbinical seminary.
In Resolutions of the War Emergency Conference of the World Jewish Congress, Atlantic City, New Jersey, November 26-30, 1944, page 15: "The War Emergency Conference extends its gratitude to the Holy See and to the Governments of Sweden, Switzerland, and Spain... for the protection they offered under difficult conditions to the persecuted Jews of Hungary..."
In the Congressional Record of January 24, 1950, Rep. Abraham Multer quotes a spokesman for the Joint Distribution Committee: "During the height of Hitler's blood baths, upwards of 60,000 Jews had been saved by the generosity of Spanish authorities
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