Word: franco
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Defensive Russians. Waiting for U.N. action were these major issues: the proposed admission to U.N. of Israel; the question of diplomatic relations with Franco Spain*; the Dutch-Indonesian dispute; and the disposition of the former Italian colonies. In the Political Committee, the Russians promptly made a grab for partial control of the Italian colonies. The U.S. (backed by Britain) wanted to give part of Eritrea to Ethiopia, proposed giving Britain U.N. trusteeship over Cyrenaica, and Italy trusteeship over Italian Somaliland. The U.S. and Britain, rasped Russia's Andrei Gromyko, were trying to divide up the colonies "as if they...
...reasons that have turned up in support of these pro-Franco suggestions have been wonderfully varied. Farley and Johnston think that Spain would eventually make a fine market for U.S. goods; they maintain that "Spain has always paid its debts." Marshall wanted to keep Spain from going Communist, a noble motive. But the most frequent argument, and the one which Franco himself is now pushing, is that Spain could be a valuable military "bulwark" in case of war with Russia. It is no better an argument than the others...
James A. Farley and Eric Johnston have been steadily asking for government loans and direct ERP relief to Spain since the beginning of last year. In October, 1948, Senator Chan Gurney, head of the Senate Armed Services-Committee, demanded a military alliance with Franco. At the same time Secretary Marshall stated that we would be willing to allow Spain to join the UN. The State Department has been quictly but steadily permitting private banks to loan Franco money...
...short-range bombing attack and exceptionally tough to supply; the Pyrenees are a poor barrier against airborne invasion, and nowhere near as impregnable as the Spanish like to think. Spain is fundamentally an unattractive place from which to flight a European war. There is no military justification for supporting Franco...
...political case is harder to argue. It is true that U.S. aid will unquestionably keep Spain safely anti-Communist. But the threat of Communism in Spain is pretty weak. For Spain remains, despite the blurbs of Franco, Farley, and "Life" magazine, a complete military dictatorship. Whether this dictatorship is more or less strict than it was ten years ago is not the issue. Franco's army of 400,000 men keeps "order," and the General is supported by a single recognized political party. Serious opposition is promptly and inevitably imprisoned or liquidated. All of which adds up to Fascism...