By Harmonica for Identity Dixie
I am an avid supporter of Francisco Franco, El Caudillo of Spain, from his great victory over the communists in 1939 to his death in 1975. Fearing what the Marxists would do to Spain, Franco, along with several other rightwing military figures, lead a revolt against the Spanish Republic, eventually establishing a conservative, traditionalist, and Christian state in its place. It is hard to overestimate how radical the Spanish Republic had become. It was the enemy of all forms of natural hierarchy – of parents over children, husband over wife, and, most especially, God over man. But, the problem with communism is that hierarchy is a fact of life, and without natural hierarchies, a society is only left with a social order managed by a small cabal of unethical politicians and corrupt bureaucrats.
The Spanish Republicans (communists) had a special hatred toward the hierarchy of God over man and viciously went after the greatest representation of that hierarchy in Spain – the Catholic Church. Churches were burned and Catholic art was destroyed. However, they went even further than this – they also dug up the bodies of priests, monks, and nuns and desecrated them. Not content to merely mock the dead, they also killed priests and even raped nuns. During one particularly brutal incident, a priest was castrated, his penis was stuffed in his mouth, and he was then crucified. This period stands as the most intense persecution of Christians at the hands of the demonic since the days of Pagan Rome. The Spanish Republic was evil incarnate, and Franco put an end to it.
Franco also deserves credit for keeping Spain out of World War II. Though he received help from both Hitler and Mussolini, Franco insisted on Spanish neutrality. And while many on the Dissident Right consider this as a betrayal, I take a different view. After three years of intense fighting in the Spanish Civil War, Spain was utterly exhausted. Civilian deaths included, around 500,000 Spaniards died in that three-year war. Such a massive death toll would make it difficult for any nation to fight another war so quickly, but Franco was in an especially difficult position as he had to also deal with the remnants of the Republic. Fighting another war immediately after winning the Spanish Civil War would have risked a revolt from the remaining Republican forces, and this time with the full backing of not only the Soviet Union, but also the Western Allies.
Finally, I doubt Spanish entry in World War II would have changed its outcome for the Axis. It would not have outright hurt Axis strategy, at least because it would have made it easier to cut off Allied supplies flowing into the Mediterranean, but even that would have been dependent upon the Spanish capturing Gibraltar (which would have been extremely difficult). More importantly, even beyond the massive loss of life Spain had just suffered, and the present threat of an internal communist revolt, Spain was not a great power and had not been for quite some time. I find it difficult to believe that Spain would have drastically altered the course of the war. And, when the Allies and Soviets won, they would have simply replaced Franco with a leftist government. Franco did what was best for Spain.
Franco also deserves credit for the “Spanish Miracle.” Apart from one relatively brief period after Columbus’ discovery of America, Spain has been considered a fairly poor country. Under Franco, the economy grew rapidly, and the life of the average Spaniard improved greatly. This is not to say that Franco was perfect. He trusted the monarchy far too much, which lead to Juan Carlos I undoing what Franco worked so hard to build – Franco should have stuck with installing a loyal military man as his successor. Overall, I believe Franco ranks as one of the few great titans of the West in the 20th century.
I also think that Franco serves as an excellent way to nudge normiecons to the Far Right, reasons for which I will lay out below.
No One Doubts the Brutality of the Spanish Republic
I will not delve into the crimes of the Spanish Republic, as I have already touched upon them above. But what is important to remember is that the Republicans were so brutally heinous that very few people will fully deny what happened. There are some, mostly anarchists, who have a rosy view of the Spanish Republic, but even they will try to place much of the blame of the Red Terror on Stalinist agents, whom they are still angry over for crushing the anarchist faction of the Republic. Contra to their claims, the record shows that the anarchist faction of the Spanish Republic was just as guilty as the Stalinists for the Red Terror. But those are just the anarchists, for the most part even leftists stick to the “both sides were guilty” narrative – the evidence is simply too overwhelming for a more vigorous defense of the Republic.
And, that gives us an opening to advocate for why Franco was needed – the Spanish Republic really was evil. Remember, the Left was able to get away with portraying the Weimar Republic as simply incompetent, they ignored the sheer degeneracy being openly promoted in Berlin. However, the Spanish Republic was so openly violent, that the Left doesn’t try to deny it, rather they paint Franco’s Nationalists as just as abhorrent. Because the Left must admit how bad the Spanish Republic was, we can use this disclosure to convey to the normiecons that it was either Franco or it was increased attacks on Christians, including rape, and eventually a Soviet Spain. From here, we can advocate that Franco was simply a man who made the best of a bad situation, and his tactics were necessary to save Spain from communism. In the 1930s, Spain was going to be ruled by either Franco or a Stalinist puppet, hammer this point home.
Franco Stayed Neutral in World War II and Later Became an American Ally
In addition to the reasons above, there is an additional advantage to Franco remaining neutral in World War II – it saved him from being marked as, “someone who tried to kill granddaddy.” I am not talking about having a nuanced view of Hitler, National Socialism, or discussing the utter insanity and depravity of 1920s Berlin; the problem with Hitler, in the eyes of normiecons, is that the Wehrmacht tried to “kill granddaddy.” Furthermore, for all the problems normiecons have, they are still linked to their families and want to honor them.
To illustrate my point, imagine talking to a Citizens’ Council member in 1960 about Hitler. Clearly, we aren’t dealing with a cultural coward, but he will likely not want to align himself with Hitler or anyone associated with Nazi Germany for one simple reason – it is personal to him. If he is young enough, he may have fought in Europe, but there also would be a near 100% chance he knew someone close to him that died in World War II. There is simply too much emotional attachment on the subject. And while it is true that there are very few people alive today that know someone who died during World War II, that emotion is still with us. There is a reason why the Nazification of the Klan did not begin until the late 1970s and did not really take off until the 1990s – the GI Generation began to die off and it became dominated by Feds, informants, and violent ne’er-do-wells.
Franco can avoid this baggage. By staying neutral during the war and later becoming an American ally, we are able to avoid making people feel like they are dishonoring their families and instead focusing on the core issue – the threat the Left poses to Christian civilization and how the Right must fight against it.
Franco Had Mainstream Rightwing Support
General Franco is an authentic national hero. It is generally conceded that he above others had the combination of talents, the perseverance, and the sense of righteousness of his cause, that were required to wrest Spain from the hands of the visionaries, ideologues, Marxists and nihilists that were imposing on her, in the thirties, a regime so grotesque as to do violence to the Spanish soul, to deny, even Spain’s historical identity.
William F. Buckley
There is a long history of conservatives praising Franco. Back in the 1950s, even the conservatives that wrote for National Review, someone like William F. Buckley, Jr., praised Franco. For all of Buckley’s problems, he did understand what was at stake. Had Franco failed to retake Spain, Spanish Catholics would have been under sever persecution by a band of sociopaths and Spain would be another Soviet satellite. Considering how this would have made the Soviet Union a serious Mediterranean power and would have opened up a second front for a future invasion of Western Europe, this threat could not be taken lightly.
Though Buckley was the most mainstream conservative voice to praise Franco, others did, too. L. Brent Bozell, Jr., Buckley’s brother-in-law, was so enamored with Franco’s Spain that he moved his family there, and after the social upheavals of the 1960s and early 1970s, especially Roe v. Wade, he began to consider the United States and the USSR as moral equals, and Christians could support neither. Francoist Spain was his ideal. Meanwhile, Representative Larry McDonald, a stalwart anti-communist, kept a framed picture of Franco on his wall.
Tell normiecons about this, let them know that far from being a “Mediterranean Hitler,” Franco was able to earn the praise of someone like Buckley. This points to a far more mainstream level of support that combats the Left’s mischaracterization of Franco as a fascist (in reality, he was a traditional authoritarian and monarchist, not a fascist). When Buckley died, the Left praised him for his efforts in neutering the Right, but this can be used for our purposes – if Buckley could praise Franco, Caudillo de España can’t be all that bad, right? And unlike his earlier support for segregation and his criticisms of Martin Luther King, Jr., Buckley never walked back his admiration for Franco. We can use this to our advantage to introduce normiecons to the authentic Right.
Francisco Franco was a hero, full stop. He accurately saw the rise of communism as the critical threat to everything he loved, and he stopped it. The very soul of Spain was at stake in 1936, and Franco, a man of almost unimaginable courage, defeated a great evil. It really is difficult to overestimate just how much the men behind the Spanish Republic hated both traditional Spain and Christianity. Franco later saved his country from more suffering by keeping Spain out of World War II, and would even later preside over a great economic boom. For that, the man deserves praise. But, he also serves as an introduction to the authentic Right and “Francopilling” normies can bring them to our side.
Few deny just how ungodly the Spanish Republic was and we can also avoid the “granddaddy” issue associated with fascist Europe. What’s more, even someone like Buckley could recognize Franco’s value.
¡Arriba España!
One thing that I am sure of, and which I can answer truthfully, is that whatever the contingencies that may arise here, wherever I am there will be no communism.
Francisco Franco