Word: jordana
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Obviously not a convert to Spanish Republicanism, he nevertheless repudiates in most emphatic and explicit tones the entire administration of the Caudillo and would substitute for it a constitutional monarchy. As forceful as his dislike of Franco is Hoare's hearty endorsement of Count Francisco Jordana, who was for two years Franco's Minister for Foreign Affairs. He credits the success of the North African invasion operations partly to Jordana's co-operative and discreet attitude--"pro-Ally to the core...
...little less sly, and Hitler and Mussolini a little less stupid, Spain would have joined the Axis, Sir Samuel believes. It was largely luck that Spain stayed out and pretended to be neutral-luck, plus Allied economic bait, plus the sympathies of a few Spaniards, notably Count Francisco Gomez Jordana, for two years (1942-44) Franco's Minister for Foreign Affairs...
...Questions. Jordana replaced Franco's brother-in-law, Serrano Suñer, a fanatical Falangist, a few weeks before the North African invasion. It was a happy freak of fortune, says Sir Samuel, that Franco chose this time to oust his ambitious brother-in-law. Had Serrano Suñer remained in office, the invasion might have miscarried. The Gibraltar airfield could have been crippled "in less than a half hour." Gibraltar bay, which had been filling with ships for days, was almost as vulnerable. Jordana was "pro-Ally to the core," discreetly looked the other way, asked...
Like former U.S. Ambassador Carlton J. H. Hayes (Wartime Mission in Spain), Sir Samuel speaks warmly and gratefully of Jordana, who died in August 1944. Unlike Hayes, who apparently considered Franco a "cautious" if annoying politician, he rips the "little Generalissimo" up & down: "Fat, smug, self-complacent . . . convinced that all his actions are inspired from heaven . . . the chief cause of a Spain divided within itself and isolated from the civilized world...
Last fortnight, Spain's Foreign Minister Count Francisco Gomez Jordana made a more open attempt to bring about peace between the Axis and the Anglo-American Allies. Pointedly referring to the worldwide danger of the "revolutionary communistic idea," he offered Spain as a mediator. Gomez Jordana also said: "The Holy See, which labors with such love for the welfare of humanity, and those nations the war has spared, will be able without doubt to facilitate the advent of peace and collaborate in the preparation of treaties...