Another Look at Science in Spain Under Franco
DOI: 10.1063/1.4796773
Julio Gonzalo credits Francisco Franco with “a decisive victory over communism.” Franco overthrew spain’s democratically elected government that was supported by republicans and socialists; at that time, there were very few communists in the country. His victory in the civil war was achieved with the crucial military help of Nazi Germany (remember Guernica?) and Fascist Italy, and cost 600 000 lives. Of Franco’s opponents, 50 000 were executed after the war and 400 000 were exiled. But Gonzalo was right—although not in the way that he meant it—when he wrote that Franco’s victory was “decisive for his country and for Western Europe.” The evident reluctance of European democracies, primarily France and the United Kingdom, to confront that aggression and help spain’s legal government paved the way for Hitler’s strategy and the catastrophe of World War II.
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Alexander Tenenbaum, 1(tenenbaum@roma1.infn.it) University of Rome I, (“La Sapienza”).
