[DieHard the Hunter]

> The few surviving veterans are quick to point out that they fought fascists, but “fascist” in the Communist lexicon of the 1930s was applied to everyone from Franklin Roosevelt to Leon Trotsky to Francisco Franco.

Francisco Franco’s allies were Hitler and Mussolini. In my books, the Communists in Spain were on the right side for a change.

[mkjessup]

Francisco Franco’s allies were Hitler and Mussolini. In my books, the Communists in Spain were on the right side for a change.

I'll bet you miss ol' Uncle Joe don't ya?

[ccmay]

Francisco Franco’s allies were Hitler and Mussolini. In my books, the Communists in Spain were on the right side for a change.

And then Molotov and von Ribbentrop had a little meeting, and poof! the useful idiots were on Hitler's side after all.

-ccm

[FreedomPoster]

Neither were. There were a few “good guys” on the side of the Republicans, and they got purged out by the Stalinists. See my previous.

[Thrownatbirth]

In my books, the Communists in Spain were on the right side for a change.

I used to argue the nacionales side with hippies in Torremolinos bars when Franco was still around. Wise choice in those days.

My point was always that Nazi and Fascist support of the Nationalists had been over-emphasized by history. The Nationalists had the backing other other countries as well as the Catholic Church. With the support of the Pope, the conservative Nationalists represented the popular will among the Spanish people. The Loyalists, on the other hand, imported anarchists worldwide.

Put that in your sangria. :-)

[muawiyah]

Franco, alas, was merely the commanding general in the Spanish army. The Commies in the government decided to assassinate him and attempted to do so. Presumably this was on the orders of Joseph Stalin. He commited an act of self-defense.

Unless you evaluate that whole experience in terms of the crimes the Commies in the Spanish Republic intended to commit nothing else makes any sense.

Put it this way, the Germans and Italians probably did the correct thing for that one time and supported Franco. It's noteworthy that by the middle of WWII (American time) Franco had repositioned Spain such that it was no longer counted as useful support by the Nazis. Franco also appointed a pro-English prime minister.

In the end Spain was spared the full horrors of what became WWII; their Jews were not taken to the camps; they avoided a national "gulag" that'd probably killed off several times the half million who supposedly died in the Civil War.

I'd say that on the whole Franco enabled Spain to get the best possible outcome out of a bad lot.

That doesn't mean he was a nice guy ~ but the people he faced were far worse.

[driftless2]

"the right side"

You can't be serious. Two horrible opposing ideologies were fighting each other, that's all. The least worst side won. Franco was no saint, but it would have been far worse for Spain if the commies had won. At the same time the war was going on, Stalin was busy with his show trials and mass executions which totaled in the millions. This is just right after his policy of exterminating millions of Ukrainians through starvation by collectivization.

If the commies would have won, they'd still be uncovering the buried mass graves. As it was the Spanish Civil War killed about one million Spaniards.

[Little Ray]

Neah. There were no “right” sides in Spain, except maybe the Royalists, but Franco was better than the alternative.