Posted on 04/18/2018 9:35:42 AM PDT by ThinkingBuddha
Few figures of the 20th Century have been as relentlessly maligned as Francisco Franco Bahamonde, who ruled as Spain’s Caudillo (supreme leader) from 1939 until his death in 1975. Franco’s death was celebrated with vulgar, vindictive glee in the obituary columns of Establishment publications that had treated the passing of Communist mass murderers with respectful solemnity.
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
Spain was also safe-haven for Jews fleeing from occupied Europe. Again occasionally Franco would say some things that could have been construed as anti-semitic, but that was done with the intention of keeping the Nazis at bay.
Thank you for posting.
Gibraltar was a very key piece of real estate. If Franco would have thrown with Hitler and sealed off the Mediterranean, with the help of the Luftwaffe, the war in Europe would have been much different.
This is and has been an issue of interest of me for some time. Read some balanced Spanish written accounts of Franco and you get a much more even balanced view of him. Not perfect but better than the alternative.
I am passionate enough to say that Americans Canadians and British that went to kill his soldiers don’t deserve any honors. They willfully chose to fight essentially on the behalf of the Soviets against the legitimate government of Spain, and thus, were terrorists in my mind.
His sin was being on the right. Same goes for Pinochet. Another maligned political figure of old is Oliver Cromwell, maligned by royalists.
Yes, but the historical account of Geurnica is often very biased by those that wrote it.
Yes, he could have joined with Hitler but chose wisely.
Reminds me of when I rented “Pan’s Labyrinth”, I turned it off halfway through because it was the old tired “Franco Bad, Communists Good” crap.
I would take Franco Spain over limp wristed terrorist appeasing Spain of today.
Under those same conditions, FDR was also an anti-Semite. He often cursed the Jewish lobby.
Plus the movie was so disgusting and stupid, as well as pro-communist.
dictartorship is only acceptable if the dictator is a communist..
Franco was a pretty sly fox. He always gave the impression of being friendly toward the Nazis who had after all helped him fight against the Soviet backed Republicans who wanted to establish a socialist dictatorship, buuuut at the same time he would never actually commit to doing anything significant to help the Nazis and would not get involved in the war.
After meeting with Franco and trying to get him to jump on board with the Axis, Hitler came away from the meeting saying he would rather have several teeth extracted than have to negotiate with Franco again. Spain had been backwards and the civil war left it significantly damaged. Spain was in no condition to start trading punches with America and the British Empire. Once the war was over, he was very cooperative with Britain and America against the Commies. Like Pinochet, he left his country in far better shape than he found it.
Franco's Spain defeated Communism on the battlefield, which remains unique in Europe, and Spain remained neutral in WWII, so, well done!
Quite agree.
Yeah he did didn’t he. The Commintern was heavily involved in this.
Good point. Just another reason I guess I don’t think FDR is all that great.
Good post. Concur you on both Franco and Pinochet.
I would love to read a good account of Franco. I know Farewell Catalonia is a insightful Orwell account but I am looking for something more overall.
Yeah, I must have read it 20 years ago, so don’t recall who wrote it. I am cheap, so get most of my reading materials from the local library.
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.