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Good article. I was so disgusted by the honorary citizenship extended to these poseurs.
But somethng else should be added: "The Myth of the End of the Spanish Civil War." It's being revived right now by Zapatero, who is doing almost precisely the things that the left did prior to the Civil War, which essentially provoked it. I think we're going to see it again in our day, further complicated by the designs of the Muslims upon that country (ZP is already running around building mosques, so I guess we know who's side they'll be on). And, then as now, he has the support of all the literary twits out there, both Spanish and foreign.
FWIW Orwell touched on some of these themes in his non-fiction, mainly in letters.
He grew disillusioned by the rampant corruption and the seeming betrayal of whatever ideals these fighters were supposed to have.
IIRC though it was not ideological reasons that finally took him off the line, but being shot in the throat.
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I proudly defend Franco, who defeated the communists in Spain, and then declined to join the Axis in WW2.
Years ago, when in college, I proposed to do a research paper on the Spanish Civil War. The professor gently tried steering me towards some other subject, because, as he insisted, "There were never so many lies about any event [in Europe during the mid-20th century] than that event, and you'll be going around in circles. Everything about that war, on both sides, was lied about. There's nothing to 'research' but lies."
I did the paper anyway, and the professor was right. I came to the weak conclusion that it was a good thing Francisco Franco had won--the milder of two evils--but man, even 40 years after the event, the purely factual material was sparse, if not nonexistent.
Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia" is one of the great owrks of modern writing. It tells the story of the Communist betrayal of their "allies" and marks Orwell's loss of faith in socialism. Highly recommended. Spain is a terrific country (I have been their twice) and the Spaniards will get past their current government, no less than we outlasted the Clintons.
Bump for later reading. It's interesting how so much of the rhetoric of the Left never changes, and how so much of what passes for contemporary leftist thought can be traced right back to the world's most prolific mass murderer - Josef Stalin.
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Things don't change.
There is an excellent book on The Spanish Civil War, by Hugh Thomas, available from Simon & Schuster. This work is a comprehensive study of the many internal forces which rendered that country asunder, sixty years ago.
While some liberal teachers have popularized the notion that the Spanish Civil War was simply fought between democratic, socialist republicans and “fascist” militarists, in fact this is a limited romantic view, born of that era, with which the world attempted to clarify the conflict in order to deal with it, and hence reinforced it.
Nearer the on-scene truth is that heroes, villains, assassins, perpetrators of miniature holocausts, and a potpourri of conflicting political powers were at work during the war --- wrestling in a tangle of alliances forged and then broken.
For within Spain, in the years leading up to the July 1936 breakout of war, powerful idealistic political factions had built upon every conceivable culturally diverse heritage . There was little East vs. West, or North vs. South, or Left vs. Right. There was mostly You or Them vs. Us, in a land of Here vs. There -- quarrels rooted in the centuries.
Every group fermented under any perceived slight and allegedly oppressive action taken by some other group. In all, these groups existed as explosive ingredients, any combination of which could ignite the whole of them by mere friction at any seemingly minor event.
Add Melting Pot vs. Balkanization to the list of Guns vs. Butter...
The altar of cultural heritage is like nuclear power --- works both ways. I’d rather have government built with Lincoln Logs than with cultural match sticks.
Mike
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Some links to previous articles posted at Free Republic, mentioning the Spanish Civl War, or sounding like, in effect, the Spanish Civil War:
Robert D. Kaplan on global media danger, admirable character of US troops, role of American power, Robert D. Kaplan interviewed by Tucker Carlson, Dec. 11, 2004, posted to Free Republic, Dec. 12, 2004, by baseball_fan.
Second Officer Blasts Chavez Amid Protests--Country on "cliff's edge", by Pascal Fletcher, Feb. 8, 2002, posted to Free Republic, Feb. 8, 2002, by Cincinatus' Wife."Kaplan: If you go back to the 1920's and 1930's, the communist international stood for a lot of good things on paper. A lot of artists and writers went to Spain to fight against the regime there. If you ask them, they were fighting for workers' right, civil liberties, etc. It was all great sanctimonious commentary, but when you look behind the scenes, there wasn't much there and what was there was very bad. What I'm suggesting is if you look at the global media, not just America and Europe, but the Middle East and other third-world medias, you get a conglomerate, a wet blanket of sanctimony about peace, harmony, love, demilitarization. When you add it all up, will allow the worst thugocracies to emerge."
"CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Another Venezuelan military officer blasted President Hugo Chavez on Friday as a threat to democracy as the president's supporters and opponents staged rival protests for a second day.
A day after Air Force Colonel Pedro Soto lambasted Chavez as a "tyrant" and demanded that he resign, National Guard Captain Pedro Flores accused the president of endangering the country's democratic system through corruption and attacks on the Catholic Church, the media and "the rule of law".
"All this is carrying us to the cliff edge," Flores told reporters.
The overt discontent from inside the armed forces posed a headache for Chavez, a firebrand ex-paratrooper who is facing falling popularity, a crisis of economic confidence in his oil-rich nation and widespread criticism from home and abroad.
In a square in eastern Caracas on Friday, a small crowd of supporters of Soto and Flores held a noisy anti-government protest for a second day. At the other end of the city, followers of the president gathered outside the Miraflores palace to stage a counter-demonstration in favor of Chavez... [snip]
Flores, like Soto, accused Chavez of dragging the armed forces into politics and of trying to imitate Cuban president Fidel Castro. "At any moment, the president might try to become an exact copy of Fidel Castro, who is not exactly an object of devotion for us Venezuelans," the National Guard captain said.
Flores said he would present a written denunciation against Chavez to a human rights rapporteur from the Organization of American States (OAS) who was visiting Venezuela.
Chavez, who has stayed out of public sight since Soto's surprise outburst on Thursday, remained closeted on Friday in meetings with his ministers in the presidential palace.
In their criticism of the president, Soto and Flores echoed arguments used by Chavez' hard-line political opponents, who accuse him of trying to install a Cuban-style, authoritarian, leftist regime in Venezuela, the world's No. 4 oil exporter..." [snip]
New Hampshire to Honor Stalinists?, by William Norman Grigg, Feb. 20, 2001, The New American, posted to Free Republic, Feb. 20, 2001, by Arkancide Victim. The complete article:
"I thought the Cold War was over," protested New Hampshire state Senator Burton Cohen on February 12th after a ceremony intended to honor Granite State veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (ALB) was postponed pending a legislative hearing. Cohen and his associates apparently believed that Marxist assumptions have become so deeply embedded in our culture that an unabashedly pro-Communist display could be erected in the capitol building of the "Live Free or Die" state.
Last year the state legislature’s Joint Historical Committee voted to purchase a plaque displaying the names of 12 New Hampshire residents who enlisted in the Communist-controlled Brigade during the 1930s. The plaque contains a depiction of the Communist clenched-fist salute and an inscription that reads, in part: "You Are History, You Are Legend. 40,000 international volunteers came to the defense of the Spanish Republic when Franco, Hitler and Mussolini attacked. Among them were some 3,000 young Americans, the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, and nearly half of them lie buried in Spanish soil. Their dedication to freedom and democracy is an inspiration to future generations."
The plaque was to be unveiled on February 12th, to coincide with Lincoln’s birthday. However, after the Manchester Union-Leader publicized the planned event, "a coalition of legislators and veterans formed quickly, leading to the postponement announcement," reported the paper on February 19th. "The legislative leadership ordered the ceremony to be held up until a hearing could be held."
Cohen insisted that Brigade volunteers were motivated by "idealism" rather than "ideology." Ralph Rosen, a World War II Navy fighter pilot who referred to Senator Cohen as "Comrade Cohen" in a news conference, riposted that while some non-Communists enlisted out of a sense of perverted idealism, "the Abraham Lincoln Brigade was, from start to finish, a communist organization." Among the 12 New Hampshire ALB veterans whose names are listed on the plaque are Homer and Van Chase, whose mother Elba served as president of the state’s Communist Party.
Cohen and other supporters of the plaque dutifully recited the Soviet party line that the ALB was established to fight fascism, rather than to promote Communism. "The issue of ‘anti-Fascism’ proved to be a bonanza for the Comintern [Communist International] and for the Communist Party of the United States," Francis X. Gannon points out in his definitive Biographical Dictionary of the Left. "The strategy of fighting fascism through a united front naturally attracted the dedicated Communists and their inveterate fellow travellers. It also served as a magnet to attract the support of hundreds and even thousands of individuals who had never before joined – or joined with such enthusiasm – in Communist fronts."
New Hampshire state representative Tony Soltani points out that Americans who joined the Brigade "violated U.S. law and directly contravened U.S. foreign policy." While they defied U.S. law, they eagerly complied with the Kremlin’s mandates and readily submitted to Soviet discipline. "The ALB, as all other International Brigades in Spain, functioned under the domination and control of the Comintern [Communist International," reported the Subversive Activities Control Board in 1955. "Its members were subject to, and the recipients of, Communist discipline for political dissidence; a Political Commissar system organized under the leadership of Comintern agents Andre Marty and Luigi Longo, and dominated by Communists, functioned throughout the International Brigades, including the ALB, for the purpose of maintaining the political reliability of troops from the Communist viewpoint and of dispensing Communist indoctrination.... ALB members recruited Americans in Spain to be Soviet agents and were trained by Soviet personnel there and so functioned."
Celebrating Red Atrocities
According to Cohen, the plaque would provide a "history lesson" and offer inspiration for young people: "The courage demonstrated by these brave Americans should stand as a role model for young generations to come." A brief history lesson regarding the Spanish "civil war" – in fact, a Soviet-led effort to communize the Iberian peninsula – is certainly called for, and it would of necessity highlight the unfathomable anti-Christian atrocities committed by the "Republicans," with the ALG’s enthusiastic involvement.
In 1934, the Spanish left, under the leadership of Francisco Largo Caballero (who called himself the "Spanish Lenin"), decided to forsake "evolutionary" progress in favor of a violent rebellion. Within two years Spain’s political culture had disintegrated into near-anarchy, and a Soviet-constructed "Popular Front" was preparing to conduct a reign of terror. It was at this point – with the nation in mortal peril of descending into Communism – that Franco mounted the coup. For the Left, support for the "Republican" – that is, Communist – faction in the conflict became a grand crusade, one that was motivated not by a desire to establish "democracy" or freedom in Spain but rather to annihilate that nation’s Christian institutions and culture.
The Spanish "Republicans," like Communist insurrectionaries everywhere, focused their wrath on "soft targets." Under Communist leadership, writes British historian Alan Lloyd, "gangs of revolutionaries roamed the country burning churches, torturing and murdering clerics, [and] wantonly terrorizing the bourgeoisie and the upper classes. In a little over a month, an estimated 75,000 people would [meet] a senseless death at the hands of promiscuous and ignorant killers...." Historian Erik Ritter von Kuehnelt-Leddihn reports that Spanish Communists butchered at least 6,000 priests, friars, and nuns. Some of the nuns, he recalls, were "publicly undressed, raped, slaughtered, and exhibited on a butcher’s hook."
Kuehnelt-Leddihn, a war correspondent assigned to Spain during the "civil war," recalls a visit he made to the city of Huesca, which endured a two-year siege conducted by the Communists. Since the "forces of progress, democracy, and enlightenment could not take Huesca, they vented their spleen on the dead," he wrote. "The vulgarities, the obscenities — the corpses torn out of their graves and assembled in obscene postures — left an unforgettable impression; they were appalling witness to the noble spirit so enthusiastically supported by the American and British left" – and which Cohen seeks to commend as an example to New Hampshire’s youth.
It is also worth noting that during World War II, Franco frustrated the efforts of Hitler to seize Gibraltar, which would have made it possible for the Axis to seal off the Mediterranean. While he rebuffed Hitler’s efforts to entice Spain into joining with the Axis, Franco’s government issued tens of thousands of passports to European Jews. While FDR’s government was turning away Jewish refugees, "whole trainloads of [Jews] were welcome in Spain," observes Kuhneldt-Leddihn, making Franco’s government "the greatest protector of Jews" during World War II.
By way of contrast, Josef Stalin’s government, which organized, equipped, and directed the Abraham Lincoln brigade, entered into the infamous non-aggression pact with Hitler in 1939 – and the same international "anti-fascist" Popular Front suddenly became "isolationists" and allies of Hitler. The Soviet-Nazi gang rape of Poland essentially made the Holocaust possible. In 1944, while Franco was saving Jews, the Soviets (who had deployed the Red Army outside of Warsaw) were allowing their erstwhile Nazi co-conspirators to mop up potential Jewish resistance in Poland.
Such is the legacy of the "idealists" Cohen and his associates seek to celebrate in Concord’s State House.
bookmarked to read later
I read the article with interest but was disappointed to see Schwartz end his piece by waxing poetic about the Spaniards who fought for the Republic. To this day, no one in western intellectual circles will admit that the REAL heroes of "La Revolucion" were FRANCO and his people, who put a stop to the sweeping tide of Communism and ended the killing spree of the Republicans who were indiscriminately slaughtering Royalists and Catholics in huge numbers, young and old alike. He was, and is now, relentlessly vilified because he accepted the assistance of Hitler and Mussolini in this enterprise, only after Britain and the US refused to aid his efforts. Even though he never participated in any act of aggression beyond Spanish borders after he secured victory, leftist western intellectuals could never forgive the fact that he actually prevailed against their nefarious Communist designs.
But I guess his efforts were only a holding action, given that the Spanish people of today are no better than the worst stinkpots of other skunks of Socialist Europe. Exhibit A is Zapatero and his ilk.
The Spanish Civil War is probably the most misrepresented event of the 20th century. It is usually portrayed as a conflict between "democracy" and "fascism," but it was in fact a conflict between authoritarian, conservative Catholic monarchism and totalitarian communism (notwithstanding the anarchist presence).
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meanwhile the peasants endure the fashions of their leaders and "intellectuals".
Let's start a rumor he was gay.
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Franco ping