Nationalism, Socialism, Marxism

[Speaker to Animals]

It was hardly an extermination, Franco killed something like 15,000 political opponents.

The alternative to Franco was a Stalinist regime.

Considering what Stalin, Beria and the NKVD were capable of, the Phalange was arguably self defence.

Again, the Phalange was not the Nazis, it was certainly fascist, but the point was not mass extermination.

Franco could see that the Nazis were so extreme that they would inevitably blow themselves up.

Thus why he declined to formally ally himself with them and rather kept Spain out of the war.

Hitler was enraged of course, cursing Franco up and down.

Franco simply knew that fighting the British, French and Americans, while invading the USSR, was suicidal.

That would seem to have been a mistake in hindsight.

[Smitty-48]

Spain was still quite fascist when I first went there.

With the ETA and the Basque it was still on a war footing at all times.

It's like one time we were drunk wandering around downtown Madrid and my buddy goes to pee in the bushes.

Bushes around the fence of a government building.

From across the street we could see the special forces guys closing on him on the other side of the fence.

Full black kit with NVG and MP5's

[Smitty-48]

We did actually get stopped periodically by the police demanding ID.

Soon as we showed NATO military ID however, they let us be.

Spanish cops, Spanish troops, they never really got the memo about democracy, they still operated like Franco.

Gypsies were still their big annoyance, they hate the Gypsies in Spain, they laid into the Gypsies with gusto.

Mind you, the Gypsies were annoying, don't let your guard down for even a moment, lest a Gypsy would rob you.

[Smitty-48]

It was hardly an extermination, Franco killed something like 15,000 political opponents.

The alternative to Franco was a Stalinist regime.

Considering what Stalin, Beria and the NKVD were capable of, the Phalange was arguably self defence.

Again, the Phalange was not the Nazis, it was certainly fascist, but the point was not mass extermination.

Franco could see that the Nazis were so extreme that they would inevitably blow themselves up.

Thus why he declined to formally ally himself with them and rather kept Spain out of the war.

Hitler was enraged of course, cursing Franco up and down.

Franco simply knew that fighting the British, French and Americans, while invading the USSR, was suicidal.

That would seem to have been a mistake in hindsight.

The Phalange was simply not out to fight some sort of global war for a post scarcity utopia.

They were tyrannical, but not so totalitarian.

The point was to defend the Church and the Monarchy from Communism and maintain order therein.

Fascism for Spain, but not actually in contravention of an Anglo-American hegemony.

[Smitty-48]

Franco was the original Pinochet. He deftly sidesteps the Second World War to become a key American ally.

Long before they join NATO, they provided a critical base for both SAC and the Navy.