"Valle de los Caídos in Spain." "The Valley of the Fallen. have preserved this massive monument." "General Franco called the uprising against ... a crusade." "A fight for Christian civilisation." "Others called it fascism" "It was for nearly 3 years the world's moral arena. there is no hint of reconciliation" "This huge tomb for Franco's men republican prisoners of war." "Before this altar of Christian piety and Francoist victory ... José Antonio." "The great dome celebrates the victorious nationalist almost as a celestial host. now deeply part of the Spanish language or hate. and his heart was monarchist." "and died a dictator." "The contradictions of Franco are part of the heart of Spain itself. that Franco was a cautious and even reluctant conspirator which began the civil war." "But he became Europe's longest ruling dictator of our century." "The archetype of dominant endurance." "Spain was still a proud imperial power." "Franco was a child when that empire dissolved." "The American wars lost Cuba and the Philippines. and also a knock for the young Franco." "He had wanted to follow his father and brother into the Spanish navy." "that was cut back." "it had to be the unglamorous and rather disgruntled army. the army was his education. ... or probably both." "but it still clung desperately and bitterly to its last vestige of glory abroad." "Spain sought to erase its humiliations far away by redoubling its military dominance. party politics meant very little." "or vaguely hostile. was "patria" ... the fatherland." "Francisco Franco flew very high and very fast." "major and colonel." "he was a general. a much wounded and scarred hero" "General Millán Astray." "Millán Astray was the founder of this disciplined and brutal elite of the Spanish army." "The Foreign Legion was used to suppress the Asturias rebellion against the republican government in 1934." "This was the regiment's first military use at home." "and Franco advised on the conduct of the operation. and served under the republic." "As such he represented Spain at the funeral of the English King George V at Windsor in January 1936." "Franco himself was personally and politically a monarchist." "He supported the restoration of the Spanish king who had fallen from power four years earlier." "Few people know that Francisco Franco once nudged his fame to the movie business." "After the war he wrote a feature film under a pseudonym." "which reveals his contempt for democratic politics." "The script follows the lives of three brothers." "It's a situation not unlike Franco's own family." "His younger brother Ramón was a republican." "who wants to be a republican politician about using his inheritance for a political career." "Their mother has agreed to share out the estate." "than for us." "The film's breathless commentary goes on to describe the five years of Spain's fragile democracy." "at least." "Destruction of traditional values." "Communist revolution." "These were the catchwords with which the insurgent generals rallied most of Spain's middle class against the republic." "Petra Roman de Bondia was a young girl from a conservative family in Salamanca." "I thought the military uprising would bring an improvement in every sense." "and what we thought" "Franco and his army were going to defend the family and order." "We thought that the rising would change everything." "We never imagined that it would be such a long war. the Spanish republic had not just been a new order. and now some people wanted to put the clock back." "Tomas Garicano Goñi was a young army officer." "I think that most of our hopes were fundamentally negative." "That is to say we wanted to stop certain things. which did so much harm to both management and workforce." "We wanted to do away with religious persecution. but also any teaching by the religious orders." "We wanted really to return to a more traditional Spanish way of life." "which this republican government had failed to bring." "The social upheavals of the republic had led to a progressive breakdown of law and order." "peasants hungry to own ... seized it. and others feared for their lives." "so we had to head for the hills. which was the rising against the republic." "Franco had begun with curious discretion." "He had joined the army coup in Morocco with expressly limited aims and crushing the revolution." "or any crusade hint darkly about foreign influences assailing traditional values." "What was surprising to some was that his proclamation concluded with the unexpectedly democratic slogans equality." "was the absolute order of their priority." "The first army decrees gave instant comfort to its middle class supporters ... that was fairly easy." "All the land the republican reforms had shared out was to go back to the owners." "Trade unions were banned." "So were all political parties of the popular front." "But first the army had to face the fact that its initial coup had failed." "Armed working class resistance had defeated the army rising in five key cities." "Spain was divided. and nearly half the rest of Spain." "And the nationalist command was split." "and in the south ..." "Franco with his Army of Africa." "The nationalists original plan had been to install" "General Sanjurjo as commander in chief" "But he died in a plane crash as he left Portugal to take command in Spain." "It left a difficult gap." "the rebel generals gathered for a meeting in Salamanca." "A strong lobby for Franco was gaining ground." "All but one voted in favour of a single commander in chief." "The sole objection was from Miguel Cabanellas." "who had been temporarily appointed leader of the military junta." "Franco was proposed." "all but Cabanellas agreed." "The decision was delayed." "What was desperately needed was a man who all under arms on the insurgents side would support." "Already the insurgents were split with differences." "There was the old peninsula army." "Spanish units and Moors. and columns of monarchists and traditionalists" "All these armed factions had conflicting expectations of their leader." "Franco seemed to satisfy the factions." "He was the man in the middle." "His reputation as a soldier ensured him popular support." "and this was immediately reinforced by events. the advance of General Franco's columns from the west overcome the resistance who's retreat is on Madrid rather than Toledo. the brave and bearded commander." "The victory at Toledo inflated Franco's prestige. his supporters were planning higher office for him. but head of the government." "Some of his colleagues were doubtful. "Head of State"." "Franco was granted all powers at least for the duration of the war." "My personal reaction to Franco's appointment was one of relief." "Nationalist soldiers were saying:" "A single command wins a war." "Split command loses a war." "Franco's appointment was unquestioned." "There wasn't anyone else who could hold a candle to him." "It was a source of great relief all round." "The army generals who appointed Franco as head of government may not have realised they were establishing a personal dictatorship." "Many different groups had supported their rising." "who had supported the right-wing parliamentary coalition CEDA before the war who sought the restoration of King Alfonso." "mainly from Navarre." "There were also called traditionalists. and fought for their regional rights. ... outlawed by the republic. but called for a radical social revolution." "was fully aware of the wide complexity of the various factions." "He had successfully negotiated the support of both the Carlists and the Falange for the plot." "Mola spoke to and later joined Franco's government. and he asked me: "What do you think will happen when the war ends." "I said there will be a problem with all the different political interests." "He said: "I'm pleased to hear you say that"." "When the war is over it will be necessary to have some sort of constitution and parliament." "there was no question of a parliament." "The army decree gave all powers of the new state to him. twice in his first proclamation." "his own political ideology was a mystery." "Did he have a political theory? but I called him:" ""The Sphinx without a secret"." "but there was no secret." "He was silent on many subjects because he had no opinion on them. an instinctive defender of capitalism." "he prepared his program." "No working class trade unions." "but land for landowners." "no democracy." "the working class opposition could be wiped out forever." "These aims of the Spanish right could only be secured by repression." "working class resistance was physically extinguished by advancing nationalist columns." "Franco himself continued the purge. dunking bits of bread and biscuits into it." "and was classifying them." "others on a chair." "I asked an adjutant:" "What were those files which General Franco had?" "They were the death sentences." "and the others for division." "It was something done quite calmly." "For him it was simply a military matter." "There were few critics of these methods in the nationalist zone." "Franco's supporters were united in the common cause of defeating the republic." "there was much dispute." "the Falange. had tried to present a doctrine of seductive simplicity." "The Falange's fascism was disguised by revolutionary jargon." "Narciso Perales was one of its first members." "which wanted to carry out profound changes in the Spanish society of those times." "Changes which are still necessary today." "José Antonio proclaimed a doctrine which resolved opposing doctrines in society." "It upheld spiritual values and belief in the fatherland it aimed for a social revolution. so the division of giving the land to those who work it would come true." "Banks would be nationalised because it was considered unjust that the savings of all the Spanish people should be controlled by a few who dominated the economy of the country." "The Falange's leadership was predominantly middle class or aristocratic young men. staunchly anti-Marxist." "Raimundo Fernandez Cuesta later became secretary general of the Falange" "We discussed whether we should wear any distinctive clothing. the same colour of the proletariat's overalls." "It was the same for the flag." "It was black and red because that was the flag of the anarchist trade unions" "We wanted ours to be similar." "traditionally used by the communists." "José Antonio said: "I don't see why we shouldn't claim it ourselves." "Give the word "comrade" a different meaning." "the Falange never became a mass fascist party with large working class membership." "Unlike what had happened in Germany and Italy fascism had not taken root in Spain before the war." "the economic conditions were very different." "Spain was still economically in the nineteenth century." "The groups that might have been attracted by fascism ... or just non-existent." "There was no large petty bourgeoisie or defeat in a world war." "The middle class was reassured that the dominant presence of the army would protect them from revolution." "While the working class had suffered no disappointment that might provoke them to find an alternative to socialist or anarchist ideals." "after the February elections conservative youth had begun to defect to the radical alternative." "people flocked to the Falange." "It was a demonstration of allegiance to the nationalist cause." "It became a safe haven for anybody who's background was suspiciously leftist." "a life jacket." "viewed the Falange's populist and violent image with distaste. but I could never join them because I didn't consider them to be virtuous in the Christian sense of the term." "I did not think that the Falangists were Christians." "I did not think they acted in a way that I considered to be correct." "And I never liked them." "There was a phobia against Falangism in my family partly because and we all belonged to the CEDA." "The greatest contrast to the Falange was the Carlists." "The deeply traditionalist group based in Navarre." "almost mediaeval past." "and our king." "This was the traditional slogan of Carlism. and the government of the state." "we were in favour of regional rights. which had from time to time been united by a common cause of Spanish nationality." "Franco was no fool." "He recognised the potential danger of disunity in the nationalist camp." "Ramón Serrano Suñer he gave the job of devising a formula for uniting the factions. which were bound to debilitate the nascent state." "This was Franco's view." "I think he was right." "He sought to establish and maintain a certain order and discipline in the rearguard. things could get out of hand and could affect as happened in the republican zone." "The Falange was in trouble." "José Antonio had been killed in a republican jail. and the organisation was riddled with ideological and personal schism." "Manuel Hedilla was confirmed as leader." "was unimaginative and ineffective." "He was easy meat for Franco." "as head of state declared the Falange and the Carlists would be unified in one national movement under his own direction. although this sentence was commuted to life imprisonment." "By bringing the red beret-ed Carlists and the blue shirted Falange" "Franco assured the triumph and the unity of his supporters." "The man who claimed to support the restoration of the monarchy had made himself a dictator." "True supporters of the king like Eugenio Vegas Latapie were outraged. wasn't so much a state as a dictatorship." "A dictatorship run exclusively by him. that the difference between laws and decrees in Franco's regime and laws from the other." "Everything was the exclusive wish of the Generalissimo. but it was cloaked in symbols and ritual of fascism. as an up-to-date alternative to the politics of class struggle. was a superficially attractive doctrine. with a facade of modern political ideology." "Franco saw his task as blending the conflicting elements of the new Spain by maintaining the traditional values of the old." "The charismatic fascist leader José Antonio Primo de Rivera was gone ... shot in a republican jail." "Franco assumed his mantle." "One could say Franco misrepresented José Antonio. and he silenced and buried anything that threatened them." "José Antonio had argued for the revolutionary upheaval his name was carved in the stone of Burgos Cathedral." "Every church in Spain carried this potent legend." "Thus the Falange revolution became absorbed within the symbolism of Spain's deepest reaction ... the church." "And Franco presided. but the radical aspirations of his brand of fascism were laid to rest." "What José Antonio had predicted before the war came true. to the restoration of a conservative bourgeois mediocrity there is such a generous sample in Spain. with the choreographic figures of the blue shirts. but deep down this wasn't the case. but with a facade and certain details from totalitarian regimes" "to be found elsewhere in Europe. he found an enthusiastic champion in the church." "both ideologically and physically." "There was never any doubt as to where the church would stand now. turned a blind eye to the same on the nationalist side." "the Bishop of Salamanca declared that the military rebellion was a crusade." "It didn't seem to matter that it was being fought whose religious symbol but the sword." "The church's endorsement was reinforced by a letter from Spanish bishops to Catholics all over the world." "the war was between the spiritual crusade and the materialism of Russian Soviets." "This letter was published two weeks after the rebels conquered the Basque country. served with the Basque Republican Army." "the defence of the Catholic faith was far from the same thing as Franco's crusade." "They had seen the wartime republic as a cause of freedom for Basque regionalism. the Pope eventually recognised the Franco regime in the summer of 1937." "He later sent a nuncio to represent him in Burgos." "many Spaniards believed that Franco's campaign and Rome's approval was a great reinforcement to the devout." "A very moving experience for me was my meeting with my younger brother who was later killed on the northern front." "He'd asked for leave to come and see me." "I wanted to see you because I wanted to ask you something. even if the church doesn't give us an official place in the register?" "if they fought with that spirit in the name of God and the motherland." "Then God would give them a place among the martyrs in heaven." "even sanctification was well rewarded." "Religious education in state schools was again authorised;" "church property was exempt from taxes;" "civil marriage and divorce outlawed." "National Catholic." "Propaganda films carried the message to the faithful." "to be seen. the backbone of Franco's army were the catholic peasants of Spain's agricultural heartland. and the church." "They were frightened too by stories of forced collectivization was guaranteed against ruinous fluctuation." "was secure." "the peasants had no doubt as they had done before it." "During the republic we supported the right." "We had to support them because they were under attack." "but after we were free." "We could go home any time." "Before we couldn't even go out. reassured by the nationalist regime's maintenance of traditional values embodied in the church." "Their faith was their dignity." "I believe that with the church there was respect." "We respected each other more." "Without religion there could be no respect ... that's what I think." "they just bury you like a dog." "but I've always been for it." "and my brother was going to go to the front my father said I should go in his place." "he went off too." "The nationalist propaganda films as distinct from the modern anomalies of the republic." "The contrast between the position of women was extraordinary." "The republicans had emancipated women;" "divorce was legalized;" "discriminatory laws abolished." "some women even went to the front to fight. were revered in a subsidiary role." "Pilar Primo de Rivera was the sister of José Antonio" "She had been trapped in republican Madrid at the start of the war. because our catholic way of life meant we could not accept it. orderly and effective." "There was a reason for everything." "and a jumble of weird ideas." "That is the truth." "she set up a special woman's section of the Falange ... the fascist party. in the infirmary;" "in the washroom;" "in the hospitals." "But our view was always that the woman's most important mission and her real place ... at home." "So we defended the integrity of the family." "particularly and can't look after themselves." "the woman could apply herself but without taking that too far. and give due priority to the defence of the family." "it will be a man who is entrusted to direct the mission of women within the national movement." "The nationalist propaganda emphasized domestic aspects of the regime. ... with a little help from her father. the propaganda cameras show the charitable work of the nationalists in the captured republican towns." "Winter Help ... doled out bread." "the rebels held most of the food producing regions of Spain. and taunting the increasingly hungry republicans." "The enforced unity and morale of the nationalists seemed in stark contrast to the dejected squabbling that had beset the republic even before the war." "Everything on the radio boasted of victory we were strong." "That's what we all felt at that time." "We were the ones with God on our side." "All the soldiers carried a small piece of material with the image of Jesus' heart." "It was thought that God was helping us because ... it had to be." "Nazi Germany and Italy had formerly recognised the rebel regime during the siege of Madrid." "From the first day they had been supplying more and more military aid. took the salute at the recognition ceremony and Christianity in Europe." ""marks the peak of life in this world"." "follow his Axis allies too far down the path of fascism." "follow them into the Second World War. he could not have carried on the war. nearly two billion pounds in today's money (1982)." "But the Germans were not altruistic." "They needed a steady flow of minerals for their own Nazi war machine." "They suggested taking over Spanish mines. he agreed to a German majority shareholding of five mining companies." "The fact of this odd triangular relationship was that Franco's Spain was much closer in temperament to Italy. thereby to remove the well-founded suspicion that his was merely a conservative reactionary regime." "They were only marginally successful. but only one piece of legislation of Franco's new state reflected the revolutionary fascist influence of Italy." "A labour charter setting up corporate trade unions. it faithfully reflected the traditional forces of conservative Spain. but only one of them had any connection with the prewar revolutionary Falange. including Pedro Sainz Rodríguez" "but he took great care that the military men who went to the government would not take it over. but a government of the Falange and the traditionalists." "the Falange was just a sort of loin cloth of his personal dictatorship." "The genuine Falangists and traditionalists were prepared to do anything for the sake of their cause." "So Franco could trust neither." "Thus the true party people were replaced with psuedo-Falangists and psuedo-traditionalists." "And even they were gradually pushed aside as Franco increasingly relied on the right-wing groups supported him until the end of his life." "We had absolute confidence in him." "The Falange wanted to run things and he sent them packing. and he got rid of him too." "He couldn't have cared less." "His attitude was: "I'm following the path I've set for myself"." "and that was that." "And that's what he did." "As his Minister of Public Order" "Franco appointed General Martínez Anido." "This mans reputation was based on his brutal repression of anarchists in Barcelona in the twenties. to strictly suppress any working class resistance. they were summarily dealt with." "a lawyer had escaped assassination squads in republican Madrid." "But he found justice was no fairer in the nationalist zone." "20 people would go in and the trial would take less than a quarter of an hour." "There wasn't even time for them to make statements ... nothing at all." "It was even worse than the executions without trial because it was making a mockery of justice." "which was not legal at all." "Franco insisted that only one in five people could be acquitted." "That was the highest proportion." "The nationalist passion for the unity of Spain meant stamping on all aspirations for autonomy in the traditionally distinctive regions of Catalonia and the Basque country." "the physical devastation was matched with the attempt to destroy the spirit of Basque nationalism." "The Basque language was prohibited." "Even the road signs were painted out. he announced the abolition of the region's home rule." "The decree proclaimed that Catalonia would now have the honour of being governed on an equal footing with the rest of Spain." "it became clear what that honour entailed. retrospectively made anyone who had been an active republican liable to prosecution." "It included anyone who resisted Franco during the war. even if it wasn't always carried out." "he was already rounding up and sending them to concentration camps." "And the war still had a year to run."