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
Both Heaven and Hell are absolute dictatorships. The difference between them is due to how the dictator uses his power.
So God is a dictator? Where do people like you come from?
So God is a dictator? Where do people like you come from?
“As long as you didn’t oppose him’’.. Do you see the irony in what you just said?
You think he asks for a vote among the angels before making a decision? Does he follow Earthly polling numbers? Is He subject to recall or impeachment by UN vote?
Stripped of modern negative connotations, the term "dictator" originally just meant somebody who ruled by personal authority, not answerable to any other authority.
It’s an illogical question. Being dictated to about anything isn’t living as a free people. ‘’There’s a history in all mens life’’. William L. Shirer lived in Berlin with his Austrian -born wife through the early years of the Nazi Party as an American newspaper correspondent. Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote one of the greatest exposes of the Soviet gulags in his novel “A Day In The Life Of Ivan Desonovich’’ having survived the gulags himself. Eric Maria Remark wrote his expose, “All Quiet On The Western Front’’ of the horrors of World War 1 based on his experience as a front line soldier. It landed him afoul of the Nazis and he fled Germany for the United States.
To listen to my Dad tell it, yes he did live under Franco(he’s 85). I told him “No Dad. You lived in America, not Franco’s Spain. “You couldn’t have known what it was like’’. And neither do you.
Humility is knowing one isn’t God. I can’t presume to know, as you do, what God does.
Have you read your Bible? So what happened to rebellious angels? What happened to Adam and Eve when they disobeyed instructions?
And in the US, we currently are dictated to as to what kind of health care plan we are allowed to have, what kind of light bulbs we can buy, and the flushing capacity of our toilets. How free do you feel?
Being "free", to me, means being able to make my own decisions as to how I light my home, plan for my health care, operate my business, and educate my children. Give me that, and I'll consider myself free even if a Franco is in charge politically. Take that away, and I will not consider myself free, even though I can vote.
The founders were well aware of the "tyranny of the majority".
I understand that any dictatorship brackets individual freedom through the will of the dictator and not democratically. I am not saying that is not a real difference. However, the importance of what is dictated is immense. Franco for example, dictated that Spain defeat Marxism, whereas Stalin dictated that USSR adopt Marxism; Marxism is the force most opposed to individual freedom. Franco dictated the Spain form a friendship with the United States. Stalin started a cold war with the United States; the United States is a country build on the presumption of individual freedom. Franco ensured Spain transition to a democratic monarchy. Stalin ensured that the USSR remains an anti-Russian dictatorship of a succession of secret service men. As you can plainly see, it depends very much what a dictator dictates.
Oh. I see. And Spain from 1936 to 1939 was volleyball tournament?
That is the Hollywood left version of events.
The communists made a coalition with the center left and ruled pin from February of 1936 and promptly began shuttering opposing media outlets and engaging in a medium intensity war of lynching and arson against the Spanish Church.
When the leader of the surviving opposition, Calvo Soleto, made a floor speech denouncing this campaign he was assassinated by the government "Assault Guards".
At that point the army (led by the exiled General Sanjuro) rose up; Sanjuro was killed the first day of the uprising in a plane crash and Franco - who did not plan the coup - took over the leadership of the most powerful and successful front of the uprising. he did not become its leader for several months.
You’re preaching to the choir my good man. There is also the ‘’tyranny of the minority’’ too. And that seems to be the situation we have now. Everyone from Limbaugh to Hannity and Palin are out there telling us the majority of the American people don’t believe in liberalism and the nanny state but G-damnit, it seems to be the way we’re going, isn’t it? How do I feel about being told about what light bulbs I’m to buy, the toilet, and health care? What I told an IRS auditor almost twenty years ago when I was told that I owed them because they didn’t take enough taxes out of the unemployment I was getting(talk about being kicked when you’re down) and what I’ll tell any government stooge: ‘’Go fuck yourself’’. They got their money of course but I let them know how I felt. I’m in the process of trying to get a firearms permit( I live in New Jersey and it’s tough) and if I can own a gun I’ll be more than willing to send some government goon to the Here After. I’m a student of history, particularly the fascist regimes of the last century. Always at the end of reading another tome on communism or a particular aspect of Nazism I would say to myself, “Thank God I live in the freedom of The United States’’. When I’m told I have to buy health insurance under penalty of the law then I no longer live in a free country and the history of the Third Reich and the tyranny of the former Soviet Union has been rendered mute and un-academic. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me ‘’PapaBear’’, feel free to keep in touch. Respectfully however my friend, don’t inquire of me again how I feel about what we’ve discussed here because I’m afraid I may say something that would get me in trouble and perhaps by extension yourself and I wouldn’t want that. I’m that angry.
My father was born in August of 1928 in East Newark, New Jersey and has lived in America all his life so figure it out. For the last time bub, fuck dictators of any and all kinds and those would waste the time venerating them.
The Spanish Civil War was called ‘’the dress rehearsal for WW2’’. What the Sam Hill are you getting at Poindexter? Are you some nitwit moral relativist who is going to try and play the ‘’The Allies were as bad as the Nazis’’ bs? Forget it pal, I’m not interested.
.Very true. Also irrelevant to the topic.
What the Sam Hill are you getting at Poindexter? Are you some nitwit moral relativist who is going to try and play the ‘’The Allies were as bad as the Nazis’’ bs?
Clearly it's still true that the party resorting to immature name-calling is the party that realizes that it is losing badly on the facts. I never made any statement of moral equivalence between the Allies and Nazis; I merely pointed out the embarrassing stupidity of claiming that any involvement in aerial bombing during wartime was a war crime.
Forget it pal, I’m not interested.
I'm your pal? Gee, thanks!
This is a discussion forum, not a youth for Obama rally. Watch your language, please.
Go back and read your own words. What I saw was you inferring moral equivalence. I’m not losing badly on any facts. Franco was a thug. He invited Hitler to send him the Condor Legion to bomb and kill his own people. That’s a fact. He repaid that help by sending The Blue Division to Russia to fight and die for Adolph Hitler. That’s a fact. The Spanish Civil War was just that- a civil war. Spaniard against Spaniard with outsiders enjoined in the fight. Forty years ago my high school English teacher had severed with The Lincoln Brigade. The Spanish Civil War was a war of politics with the many factions looking to be the one party in power. The Second World War was a war of naked aggression and conquest by Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan organ grinder monkey Benito Mussolini of Fascist Italy and his laughable army. It was a war the Axis powers had every intention of wining . It was a world wide conflagration and a six year cataclysm humanity barely survived. And it was a war that saw the German nation and its people commit the most horrific and monstrous crime in the history of man on this planet. And it was a war changed the world forever. A civil war in Spain doesn’t even come close to that. To me the whole affair looked like a cantina brawl between of bunch of macho Spanish thugs. And in my neck of the woods ‘’pal’’necessarily mean what you think it does. have a nice night.
Good decision both. The Republicans, by the way, were not "his own people", they were enemies of Spain. Wars are normally fought to win. Franco won by killing enough enemies. Good for Spain.
A civil war in Spain doesn’t even come close to that.
Indeed. Thanks to Franco's genius Spain survived the Civil War and stood out of the Second World War. Good for Spain.
Those who served in the Lincoln Brigades were useful idiots of the international left.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.