[contessa machiaveli]

franco was much aligned, as far as i'm concerned he was a pragmatist and in many ways was somewhat humanitarian. spain was a haven for jewish children who were smuggled over the pyrenees by nuns during WW2. history is very complicated and not everything is picasso's guernica.

[PJ-Comix]

Maybe on a personal level Franco wasn't all that bad but remember, it was under his leadership that Spain remained the economic basket case of Europe. Franco was basically a reactionary and was happy to keep Spain economically poor as long as that meant preserving Spain as some sort of backward society. Although it kept Spain quaint for the tourists, it was hell on the people who had to suffer through all those years of poor economic times. I would have had more respect for Franco if, after WWII, he decided to retire and turned the country over to a constitutional democracy. Instead the Spaniards had to wait until Franco kicked the bucket.