[annalex]

38 years ago today. Perhaps the only leader of 20th century Europe that steered his country well.

[annalex]

If you want to be on this right wing, monarchy, paleolibertarianism and nationalism ping list, but are not, please let me know. If you are on it and want to be off, also let me know. This ping list is not used for Catholic-Protestant debates; please refrain from them.

[Castlebar]

Franco was not a saint.

But he was fighting evil incarnate in a war that was forced on him when the monsters in the Azana government began the actual murder of the leaders of the opposition.

[Fast Moving Angel]

And he's still dead.

/Saturday Night Live

[JoeDetweiler]

I did not appreciate Franco until I read a bit about the history of Spain in the hundred or so years before he came to power....nothing but revolution....revolution....revolution. And then....stability.

[yarddog]

I have always sort of liked Franco. I know he played around with the Axis powers but it was a war between them and the Communists, and the Communists were the worse ones.

He did one thing which should enshrine his memory and that is he kept Spain out of WWII. When you are fighting Communists, you simply can’t play nice with them.

[annalex]

Officers of Russian All-Military Union in Spain, Kornilovzi (left to right):
V. Gurko, V. Boyarunas, M.Salnikov, A. Yeremchuk II. Tercio Donna Maria de Molina

[Fiji Hill]

Here's a song from the other side--from the Thaelmann Battalion, a unit in the International Brigades named for Communist Party of Germany chairman Ernst Thaelmann, who at the time was imprisoned in Buchenwald, where he would later be murdered.

Die Thaelmannkolonne (The Thaelmann Battalion)--Ernst Busch (1938)

[MattinNJ]

A hero of Western Civilization. He is hated by the left because he beat the snot out of the commies, town by town, block by block, and house by house. He gave safe haven to hundreds of thousands of Jews and welcomed Cubans fleeing Castro with open arms. Winston Churchill said if he was a Spaniard, he would fight for Franco.

[1010RD]

Look what national socialism has done for Spain or even Greece for that matter. Did Franco run Greece as well or is it just the same idea?

[FreedomPoster]

It’s worth mentioning that George Orwell fought on the opposite side from Franco with an anti-Soviet Marxist group, and was almost killed by the local Soviet-backed Communists, his “allies,” in a purge. He barely escaped Spain with his life.

His book of his time fighting in the Spanish Civil War, Homage to Catalonia, is a worthwhile read. At some level it is the story of a liberal getting mugged (not that he ever truly became a conservative), and in it you can see some of the roots of 1984 and Animal Farm.

[annalex]

Franco was described as strangely withdrawn, always deep in his own thoughts. Short of stature, with Arabic features, he was an uncommon figure of a hero and leader. His voice was soft, the gait -- kind of "domestic". He behaved as if an angel-protector stood behind him. Salvador Dali spoke of the Caudillo once, after a breakfast with him: "I come to the conclusion that he is a saint. He is a typical mystic in the tradition of Spanish mystics". (There Is No Europe Without The Falange, in Russian).

[annalex]

Not for weak nerves: a corpse of a Carmelite nun on display after torture in Barcelona. July 1936.

graphic content

[headsonpikes]

A tip of the hat to Salazar, as well.

The Portuguese could have done worse...in fact, they did, after Salazar was dead and they stupidly voted Commie.