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.
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.
Agreed regarding Franco and Pinochet. I’m not sure I’d agree with Oliver Cromwell, though: That guy persecuted a whole lot of Catholics if I recall correctly. Besides, at least one libertarian actually made a speech that condemned Cromwell and his Glorious Revolution, and did I mention he was a libertarian (ie, NOT a royalist by any stretch)?
https://misesuk.org/2016/09/08/how-glorious-was-the-glorious-revolution/
I’m with you on the first two. Pinochet and Franco were not ideal but they were fighting totalitarian communists. Thus, taking hard measures was understandable. Cromwell and the Puritan Roundheads who backed him were tyrannical religious fanatics who don’t have the excuse of fighting against a regime anywhere near as vile and murderous as a communist government.