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##### November 20, 1975 OBITUARY ## Out of the Crucible of Civil War, Franco's Iron Hand Forged a Modern Spain ##### By ALDEN WHITMAN One of the most durable, canny and empirical of modern dictators, Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teodulo Franco y Bahamonde became master of Spain as a result of a military conspiracy, a dash of luck, timely help from foreign corporations, the influence of the Roman Catholic hierarchy and crucial armed assistance from Hitler and Mussolini. He became dictator in 1939 in the culmination of a three-year civil war. He was aided in winning the war by the internal weaknesses of the incumbent Government, principally its inability to achieve political unity among its disparate parties and factions. Although the Government put up a valiant defense, it had fatal difficulty in buying arms abroad. Its armed forces, moreover, were beset by the same sort of disunity that hobbled the Cabinet. At the close of his long and sternly authoritarian rule, Generalissimo Franco could look back on 36 years of an imposed stability that rested on a policy of suppression of fundamental democratic rights. But it was also a stability that gave Spain a rising standard of living, industrial growth and an important alliance with the United States. His regime, exceedingly harsh at the outset, was moderated somewhat from the middle of the nineteen-fifties into a condition of relative calm that persisted to the end of his rule. Contributing to this was the memory of the Civil War, a renewal of which none of his organized opponents wanted to provoke. There were outbursts against Franco--from the Basque nationalists, from among students--but these were put down. 5 Terrorists Executed One of the last such episodes, which revealed an increasing impatience with Franco, occurred in September, 1975, when five convicted terrorists were executed despite protests from most of Western Europe and appeals for clemency from Pope Paul VI. The Vatican statement symbolized an about-face for the church, which for most of Franco's years had endorsed his policies. In the last five years, however, the church had been increasingly murmurous toward him. The incident pointed up, moreover, a crumbling of support for Franco among some of his hitherto strong supporters. The church, members of the Falange, monarchists and the financial-industrial community were all restive for an orderly transfer of power from the hands of an aging ruler. Coming to power after victory in a civil war that had devastated Spain, Franco clinched his grip on an impoverished and backward country by systematic terror. Then, by clever diplomacy, he took Spain through World War II as a nonbelligerent while averring his attachment to the Fascist powers. Exercising patience, he waited out years of international ostracism after the war, from which he was rescued by a United States decision in 1950 to acquire military bases in the country as a move in the cold war with the Soviet Union. Now esteemed by the West, he was able in 1955 to have his nation admitted to the United Nations, which had expressly barred Spain in 1946 in a resolution asserting that "in origin, nature, structure and general conduct, the Franco regime is a Fascist regime patterned on, and established largely as a result of aid received from Hitler's Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Fascist Italy." After his diplomatic resurrection, Franco began to loosen the rigors of dictatorship. Foreign investment was encouraged, tourism was promoted, wage levels inched upward. By 1962 per capita income for the nation's 33 million people reached $300 a year and then quadrupled by 1972. Most authoritarian restrictions remained. There was no press freedom; no trade unions were permitted; only one political party was allowed; the armed forces were omnipresent. The technique of his rule up to 1969 was to spread power among rival factions--big business and its technocrats, landowners, the church, the Falange, the army--and to control their respective gains and losses of strength. He was thus the indispensable arbiter of all major decisions. In late 1969, however, Franco briefly tipped the balance in a Cabinet reshuffle that gave business and finance, through the technocrats and Opus Dei, a Catholic lay group, an advantage. The changes displaced the Falange as a powerful political force. The Falange, which had earlier been absorbed into the National Movement was Franco's mass bulwark in the Civil War and afterward. Four years later, when Franco was 80, he relinquished some of his administrative duties by naming a faithful aide, Adm. Luis Carrero Blanco, as Premier. His uneasy regime came to a violent end in December, 1973, when he was assassinated in an ambush attributed to Basque separatists. Evincing renewed firmness, Franco named Carlos Arias Navarro, the Interior Minister, as Premier. A fresh round of repression began and was further fueled in 1974 by the winds of the Portuguese revolution. Part of Franco's problem was that Spain's relative economic boom engendered a libertarian backlash. Tourism brought in not only vital foreign exchange but also tourists who personified the rewards of the democratic countries from which they came. In addition, almost a million Spaniards went abroad to work in the sixties. They sent home cash and brought home rudimentary ideas of democratic freedoms and worker-controlled trade unions. Product of 19th Century Franco was very much the product of 19th-century Spain and the tradition that sons of military officers should follow the father's profession. He was born Dec. 4, 1892, at El Ferrol, on the Galician coast, the son of Nicolas Franco, a naval officer, and Pilar Bahamonde Franco. It is widely believed, although skirted officially, that Sephardic Jews were among his ancestors. Franco was ticketed for a naval career, but, because of the loss of the navy in the Spanish- American War, there were no examinations for the Academia de Marina in 1907. So instead he entered the Academia de Infanteria in Toledo, from which he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the army in 1910. Posted to North Africa in 1912, he took part in engagements against rebellious tribesmen and became in rapid succession the youngest captain, major, colonel and general in the army. He developed a reputation for personal valor, for exacting discipline and for excellence as an organizer. He was deputy commander of the Spanish Foreign Legion from 1920 to 1923 and commander in chief from then until 1927. He was credited with master- minding the final defeat of the Riff chieftain, Abd-el-Krim. During 1926 Franco studied at the Ecole Militaire in France under Marshal Henri-Philippe Petain, with whom he struck up a warm friendship. Returning to Spain, he was director of the Academia General Militar at Saragossa from 1927 until 1931. In that year the incompetent monarchy of King Alfonso XIII fell. He fled the country and a republic was established. The Saragossa academy was dissolved on the ground that it was promonarchist and Franco was posted to the Balearic Islands as captain- general. He was brought back in 1933, when the Spanish Republic moved to the right, and he was entrusted, in 1934, with the suppression of the Asturian miners' revolt. The following year he was named chief of the army general staff. In February, 1936, Spain elected a Popular Front government, which was dominated by moderates and Socialists. The Communists held only 17 of 473 seats in the Cortes, or parliament, and the party's membership throughout the country was estimated at less than 10,000. Later, Communist influence in the Government rose, but the party never dominated the regime. As soon as the election returns were posted, a generals' plot against the Republic took shape and was led by Gen. Jose Sanjurjo, in exile in Portugal since the failure of a previous conspiracy in 1932. He visited Germany in February, 1936, and saw Adm. Wilhelm Canaris, chief of German military intelligence. According to "the Spanish Civil War" by Hugh Thomas: "While Sanjurjo did not actually make any purchases of arms (since he supposed that his conspiracy would be immediately successful) he presumably assured himself that German military aid, if it should be necessary to secure the success of the rising, would be contemplated by Canaris at least." In addition to General Sanjurjo, other principal plotters were Gen. Emilio Mola Vidal, Gen. Jose Enrique Varela Iglesias, and Gen. Gonzalo Queipo de Llano. Also taking part was Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, the Falangist leader and son of Gen. Miguel Primo de Rivera, the former dictator. Franco, after some initial hesitation, joined the conspiracy. Between March and July 18, 1936, the day of the rising, the plotters perfected their plans. A private British plane was hired that carried Franco from the Canaries to Teutan in Spanish Morocco, where he was to take command of Moorish and Spanish troops. Meantime, according to "The Spanish Republic and the Civil War" by Prof. Gabriel Jackson, "the American colonel who headed the Telephone Company had placed private lines at the disposal of the Madrid plotters for their conversations with Generals Mola and Franco." Goering Is Consulted Once in Morocco, Franco had to get his troops to Spain, and he accepted the offer of Johannes Bernhardt, a Nazi businessman, to supply Junker transports. Of this incident Professor Jackson wrote: "On July 21 General Franco accepted Bernhardt's offer. The latter interviewed Hitler on July 26 at Bayreuth, where the Chancellor was attending the Wagner Festival. "After consultation with Hermann Goering, chief of the German Air Force, Hitler authorized the immediate dispatch of some 20 JU-52 heavy transports. They were to be flown, unarmed, by German crews. As of July 28 these planes had established an air ferry between Teutan and Seville. . . . By Aug. 5 the Insurgents were thus able to place some 15,000 troops in Seville despite the Republican naval blockade." At the same time Mussolini also began to commit planes and men to the conspirators, and the flow of this support continued throughout the Civil War. Munitions and men were also sent to Franco's forces in great quantities by Hitler. From the outset the rebels received important support from some elements of American business. The American-owned Vacuum Oil Company in Tangier, for example, refused to sell to Republican ships, according to Professor Jackson. And the Texas Oil Company, his book asserts, supplied gasoline on credit to Franco until the war's end. The plotters had expected a quick success, but the first days of their revolt were disappointing. Indeed, it seemed for a time that they might fail. They had set themselves up as a Nationalist Government at Burgos in the monarchist heartland of Castile in northern Spain, but General Sanjurjo died when his plane, reportedly overloaded with suitcases of his dress uniforms, crashed on take-off in Portugal. General Mola also died in a plane crash, and Gen. Manuel Goded was captured and executed by the Spanish Government. New Title Bestowed All three outranked Franco, but as a result of their deaths he became the Nationalist leader and was so invested in October, 1936. At that time he also received the title of Generalissimo of the Army. His regime was quickly recognized by Germany and Italy. The Civil War lasted two years and 254 days before the fall of Madrid to the Franco forces on March 28, 1939. The conflict was waged on both sides with great ferocity, but Franco's side had the preponderance of foreign aid. The Spanish Government, for its part, was able to get some arms from France and the Soviet Union. Despite repeated requests, it received none from the United States. Individual Americans, with men from other nations, fought for the Government in the International Brigades, and the Government cause was the emotional rallying point for thousands of anti-Fascists the world over. Some of these, however, became disillusioned after witnessing the factionalism and terror among the groups, including the Communists, that supported the Government. In the war one of history's most publicized experiments in calculated terror occurred. That was the bombing of Guernica on market day, April 26, 1937, by the Nazi Condor Legion. It was a Basque town without defenses and without military significance. The aviators, in complicity with the Nationalist command, first dropped high-explosive bombs on the townspeople, then machine-gunned them in flight and finally fired the town with incendiary bombs. A total of 1,654 persons were killed and 889 wounded in raids lasting 2 hours 45 minutes. When the fighting ended in 1939, Franco ordered shot nearly all captured Republican officers, and his prisons contained thousands of so-called "Reds," many of whom were also executed. The United States recognized the new Government on April 1, 1939, and the same month Franco signed the anti-Comintern Pact, formally allying Spain with Germany, Italy and Japan. Pope Pius XII, at about the same time, commended Franco for having brought "mercy and justice" to his country. World War II, which began in the fall of 1939, put Franco in a difficult position. His sympathies were with Hitler and Mussolini, but his nation was too desolated to join the fighting. Key details of Franco's relations with Berlin and Rome came to light with the release of captured enemy documents after the war. Some of these documents, published by the State Department in 1946 under the title "The Spanish Government and the Axis," revealed his plans to enter the war against the Allies at an opportune moment and to obtain Gibraltar and French Morocco for his prizes. 'Identity of Views' When Hitler conquered France in the spring of 1940, Franco sent him this message: "In the moment when the German armies under your leadership are bringing the greatest battle of history victoriously to an end, I should like to deliver to you the expression of my enthusiasm and admiration as well as that of my people. . ." Hitler thereupon awarded Franco the cross of the Order of the German Eagle. Meeting with Mussolini in Italy in February, 1941, Franco affirmed an "identity of views" between Spain and Italy. Later that month he wrote Hitler: "I consider as you do yourself that the destiny of history has united you with myself and with the Duce in an indissoluble way." However, he resisted German demands to use Spain as a stopping point on military flights to Africa. But he did permit German tankers to use Spanish coastal waters in the refueling of submarines, and he relayed to the Axis information of Allied convoys passing through the Strait of Gibraltar. He also helped recruit the Spanish Blue Division, which joined German troops in the Soviet Union. In the meantime, Franco was hedging his bets. A British-Spanish trade accord was signed in March, 1940, which was extended to other Allied powers. The dictator made it plain that he was a nonbelligerent. Shortly after the American troop landings in North Africa in November, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt told Franco that the Allies harbored no aggressive intentions toward Spain. In reply, Franco cited the "relations of friendship which unite our people and which should be preserved." He also removed his brother-in-law, Ramon Serrano Suner, an avowed Axis man, as Foreign Minister. When the fortunes of the Axis declined, Franco's vigilant neutrality increased, although he made at least one effort to promote peace between Germany and Britain so that the two countries could undertake "common action" against "the Bolshevik danger." After the war, nonetheless, the Allies put Franco temporarily beyond the pale, and the United States and many other nations withdrew their ambassadors or ministers from Madrid, but kept a charge d'affaires there. The diplomatic boycott of Franco Spain ended in fact if not in name in November, 1950--a consequence of the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union, in which Spain occupied a geographically important place. $62.5-Million Loan Several months before the boycott was lifted, Congress approved a $62.5-million loan to Spain. And in February, 1951, Stanton Griffis became the United States Ambassador to Madrid. That July the late Adm. Forrest P. Sherman opened talks with Franco about a defense agreement. Franco realized that this was a turning point for his country, and in January, 1952, he told the Council of the Realm: "Thanks both to God and the tenacity of Spaniards, the sun of our hopes begins to shine in the world." Later that year he declared "Spain is now sought after by those who in years past scorned our offer to cooperate against Communism." A formal agreement with the United States on bases was concluded in September, 1953. Under it Spain gave this country the right to use "a number of Spanish air and naval bases for the defense of Western Europe and the Mediterranean." The Unites States agreed to put up $226-million to implement the accord. In 10 years the United States poured into Spain more than $1.5-billion in economic assistance and more than $500-million in military help. The pact was renewed in 1963, and again in 1970. Spain's isolation from world affairs came to a ceremonial end in 1955, when she was admitted to United Nations membership. This entrance into the community of nations was further signalized in December, 1959, when President Eisenhower went to Madrid to confer with Franco. As the dictator aged, he began to prepare for a succession. After seeming to favor Don Juan, son of Alfonso XIII, who fled the throne in 1931, he finally settled on Juan Carlos, Don Juan's son. In presenting him to the Cortes in 1969, Franco said: "Conscious of any responsibility before God and history and taking into account the qualities to be found in the person of Prince Juan Carlos de Borbon who has been perfectly trained to take up the high mission to which he might be called, I have decided to propose him to the nation as my successor." The Cortes obediently endorsed the Prince, who then swore loyalty to Franco. For all the pervasiveness of his power, the Caudillo, "by the Grace of God," and Generalissimo of the Armies of Land, Sea and Air, and Chief of State for life, was among the least majestic of modern rulers. Standing but 5 feet 3 inches tall, Franco looked gnomish even in this general's gold- trimmed, olive drab uniform with red silk sash. Unlike Hitler or Mussolini, he never harangued multitudes or stirred them to fervor. He spoke publicly no more than three or four times a year, in a high voice with a slight lisp. His face was so expressionless that when he gave his annual New Year's Eve address on television, the state network showed him for only a few minutes and flashed newsreel clips against his narration the rest of the time. On ceremonial occasions he adopted an august role. Riding in his black Rolls-Royce, which carried the national coat of arms in place of license plates, he was preceded by an open car filled with burly red-bereted bodyguards and his route was flanked by policemen stationed 10 yards apart. He demanded the homage reserved for royalty, walking under a canopy, for example, at religious rites. Wednesday Audiences His round, mustached face was immobile and his brown eyes were appraising and chill. This hauteur was evident at his Wednesday audiences for Spanish and foreign civilians and Spanish military men. Strictly according to protocol, they approached Franco, singly or in groups. There was a brief formal greeting and that was all. Remote in his personality, the dictator nonetheless appeared often in public. He attended openings of everything from theaters to industrial exhibits. On these occasions, he waved in his stiff, almost timid manner and forced a smile here and there; but there seemed to be almost no rapport between him and the population. Crowds regarded him as more of an institution than as a person. Franco lived and worked at El Pardo, a former royal hunting lodge on the outskirts of Madrid. His spacious office was furnished with Aubusson carpets, velvet draperies and gilt- inlaid furniture. The photographs on the walls changed over the years. Once there were inscribed portraits of Hitler and Mussolini; later there was one of President Eisenhower, and that was replaced by one of Pope Paul VI. Franco's ormolu-mounted desk and a nearby table were piled with reports and memorandums, virtually all of them unread. "When the piles become too high," he once told Prince Juan Carlos, "I have everything taken out from the bottom and burned." Franco was reported to have chuckled at his own remark. He was, however, enormously well-informed, for he listened to his ministers and subordinates and visitors, and he read newspapers with care. Some of this listening was done at semimonthly Cabinet meetings, over which he presided with great imperturbability. These sessions began at 9 A.M. and often continued all day and through the night, for they dealt not only with major matters but also with such trivia as a medal for a minor civil servant. Ministers might argue or step outside for a smoke (Franco forbade smoking in his presence), but the dictator was never known to get up from his chair or to relax the stiffness of his posture. Nor did he often interrupt his ministers or decide questions precipitously. Franco was celebrated for his secretiveness. "Not even his collar knows what he is thinking," an associate once remarked. Thus, it was difficult to read his mind, and it was not uncommon for a subordinate, even a minister, to leave an audience convinced that he had made a splendid impression and the next morning to receive a letter from Franco thanking him for his services and informing him that he had been replaced. Flattered in News Media Franco was much flattered by the controlled press, radio and television. It was not unusual for him to be ranked above Augustus, Charles V and Napoleon. About 50 towns caught the spirit of this sycophancy and added his name. He also had constructed a Pharaonic tomb, in which he wanted to be buried. Called the Valley of the Fallen and dedicated to the Civil War dead, it is situated close to the Escorial, near Madrid. Carved out of living rock, the interior is a basilica, one of the world's largest, and is surmounted by a cross 500 feet tall. Franco took a detailed interest in its construction, which covered 15 years and cost millions. Irreverent Spaniards called it "Franco's folly," but it became a major tourist attraction. An avid sportsman, the dictator liked to shoot mountain goats, deer, rabbits and partridges. His bag of these birds sometimes reached 300 a day. Franco's cruelty was that of the centurion, impersonal and efficient. Once, inspecting troops as a colonel of the Spanish Foreign Legion, he had food thrown in his face by a legionnaire protesting its quality. It spattered his uniform, but his facial expression did not change, nor did he say a word. He merely took out his handkerchief, wiped off the food and continued the inspection. Returning to his office, he calmly called an officer, pointed out the offender and said: "Take that soldier out and execute him." He exhibited the same methodical cruelty in 1934 when he imported legionnaires and Moors to crush an Asturian miners' uprising. At least 2,000 miners were rounded up and executed, many of them in the Oviedo bullring. Some officers reportedly sought to halt the slaughter, but Franco sent word that the officers must continue or face execution themselves. Virtually a Teetotaler Franco's home life was simple. He dined with his family as often as possible, and lightly to keep his girth down. He was virtually a teetotaler, limiting himself to a glass of wine or beer at a meal. There was no hint of personal scandal in his private life. He had married Carmen Polo y Martinez Valdes, a young woman of good Asturian family, in 1923. If Franco felt any reaction to criticism or had any self-doubt, it was not observable. Indeed, he had a Moslem-like fatalism, the "maktoob" ("It is written") of the Moroccan rifleman. Horses were shot beneath him. Once a bullet struck a flask from which he was drinking. Leading an assault in 1916, he was shot through the abdomen, but recovered uneventfully. In 1961, the barrel of his gun exploded in his left hand as he was shooting pigeons, but his hand was saved. A similar fatalism, or impassivity, seemed to attend Franco in moments of domestic tension as, for example, when five convicted Basque terrorists were executed in September, 1975. Although the Vatican and most Western European countries protested or asked for clemency, he had the sentences carried out. The executions also led to speeches at the United Nations and to threatened economic sanctions by the Common Market. The regime, however, did not appear to be swayed.
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