.. Franco meets with President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Posted on 07/04/2006 9:21:04 AM PDT by Lukasz
Well, they chose well.
To be exact he wrote 1984 after his experience with work for BBC.
It was his Homage to Catalonia that he wrote after his experience with Spanish Civil War.
He predicted the Perestroika and Piratization of Eastern Europe in Animal Farm
You might want to read "Homage to Catalonia", Orwell's account of the time he spent serving in an Anarcho-Syndicalist militia in the Spanish Civil War. Most of the parties on the Left and many on the Right had such militias, the one Orwell joined being Trotskyite.
In a chaotic situation and with no traditions of compromise or of a loyal opposition, every stripe of opinion armed themselves and threatened an appeal to arms if they lost at the ballot box.
The Civil War in Spain was only three years long but it was a horrific blood bath with different factions on both sides using the larger conflict to settle old scores over local, lingusitic, class and religious differences as well as politics.
Spain has (had) a long tradition of reform and reaction, "liberals" attempting to change things rapidly from above when given the opportunity and violent reaction and repression when the wheel would turn through a change of regime or ruler, foreign war or outside influences meddling in internal Spanish politics for their own reasons of state.
Franco was definitely not the worst of the leaders on the Right, he wasn't particularly bloody minded or ideological. He was a pragmatic traditionalist that kept Spain out of WW2, refusing to allow Hitler to drag Spain into it but allowing his own die hard fascists and anti-communists to serve as volunteers in the "Blue Division" under German command, thereby removing one potentially disruptive element from the domestic Spanish political landscape and placating the naziis at the same time.
He wasn't touchy feely, the regime had a hard hand with leftist elements, there were prison cells and firing squads for the irreconcilables of the Left and an active secret police to keep the lid on. On the other hand the economy recovered, there was enough to eat, Spain stayed out of other people's wars and the Left and Right weren't butchering one another's adherents as an intramural pastime. During the Civil War there were numberless incidents of one side or the other taking a town and shooting all the teachers and unionists then the other side retaking said town and pushing all the priests and nuns off a cliff.
Spain could have done much worse, at least Franco was competent. I think his career illustrates Jeanne Kirkpatrick's argument that reform is much more likely under authoritarian regimes than under totalitarian ones.
What's the real story? I thought I read something that while the painting was intended to show the horrors
of Nazis, et al, the subject itself was the damage done by the retreating "republicans".
Or is my memory a victim of attempted historical revisionism?
I don't have much knowledge about this issue either, however I think that there were no real "good guys" during the Spanish civil war. Probably Franco was better than commies but praising him Giertych only provokes anti-Polish Euro idiots. On the other hand they probably don't see anything wrong in praising commies and I wouldn't be surprised If they actually did that themselves.
Members of actual communist parties can sit in the pariliament, but to merely mention Franco is a problem?
Sorry; my point is that the EuroMPs will happily sit with the SLD and other European communist parties, but become outraged when a Polish MP just mentions Franco.
I lump Franco in with Pinochet. Both are not men for all seasons, but their rule was important to stem the rise of Communism. That having been said, their time has passed.
Martin Schultz is a maniacal socialist. Berlusconi compared Schultz (to his face) to a concentration camp guard.
They can call themselves what they want, but they are the inheritors of the PUWP. Wasn't the ex SLD President a member of the Martial Law Cabinet?
.. Franco meets with President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Francisco Franco was helpful to Jews fleeing the Nazis during WW2. They needed to have money but he was helpful. Rumors abound he had some Jewish heritage
Great photo! Those were the days
I believe they are not just anti-Polish, so anyway they would find excuse to attack us. If Franco wasn’t a fascist as they claim that he was, then I see nothing wrong to point them out this fact. Praising Franco, it is maybe too much but to CONDEMN Spanish leftist government from these years would be just perfect.
"Rumors abound he had some Jewish heritage".
It's not rumors but facts. General Franco was descendants of Medieval Spanish Jews who under the threat of persecution and death converted to Christianity.
Overall, General Franco did a tremendous job saving thousands of French Jews from deportation to Auschwicz. He also did not allow Hitler to take over Gibraltar straights and this was a tremendous help to allies in destroying Hitler.
In fact, Franco masterfully used Hitler help to defeat in 1930's Spanish Civil War pro-Soviet Spanish "Republicans", but during WWII, he refused to help Hitler when it mattered the most to Hitler. Here is a the website on a book "Hitler Stopped by Franco".
http://hitlerstoppedbyfranco.com/home.htm
Franco threw the commies out block by bloody block. Eventually, there was a peaceful transition to a democracy.
Churcill famously said that if he had to choose sides, he would have fought with Franco. Ike was also a big fan.
Franco gets a bad rap because he had to make a deal with the devil (Hitler) to fight the devil (Stalin) who was pillaging his country. He later told Hitler to pound sand.
The leftists hate him with a vengeance which should tell you all that you need to know.
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.