Churchill and Spain: The Survival of the Franco Regime, 1940-1945 (Canada Blanch/Sussex Academic Studies on Contemporary Spain)

Product Description

Churchill and Spain examines why Francisco Franco’s regime was alone among Europe’s “Big Three” Fascist dictatorships in being able to survive beyond the end of the Second World War. Author Richard Wigg draws upon Foreign Office documents and reports, many of which remained secret until the 1990s or only became available in 2005 under the UK’s Freedom of Information Act. The author also uses the wartime papers of Winston Churchill and Samuel Hoare, Britain’s special envoy to Madrid, to investigate this important aspect of Spanish and British history. Churchill and Spain explores the political, economic, and diplomatic relations between Spain and Britain during the Second World War and explains how Churchill’s lenient policies towards Franco helped significantly in the survival of Franco’s regime after the war. In particular, this work demonstrates how the tolerance shown towards Spain’s wartime trading in wolfram allowed the rebuilding of the country’s gold reserves, which proved crucial in enabling Franco’s Spain to endure post-war international isolation. The book – originally published to great acclaim in 2005, and published now for the first time in paperback – is essential reading for scholars and students of European 20th-century history, as well as all those interested in Churchill’s international role in the Second World War.

Review

“A fascinating study of Churchill and of the dire impact of personal relationships on high politics.”  —TLS

“An important addition to Churchill studies.”  —Sir Martin Gilbert

“There is much more to say about this book—especially the flaccid failure of the Infante Don Juan and the complete inability of the Monarchists to challenge the Falange—but it stands as the defining text on the subject of cynicism in geopolitics and, while Churchill’s admirers will see his part in this blood-soaked history as an example of realism and the ruthless pursuit of national interests, others will see it as a cold-hearted betrayal of a great people whose misfortune was to be a small piece on the great European chessboard. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin, and Winston Churchill had a greater game to play and the Spaniards suffered and died while we looked away. That is the tragic story Richard Wigg tells so very well and it deserves to be widely read for its historical accuracy as well as for its contemporary relevance.”  —Tribune

About the Author

Richard Wigg was a foreign correspondent for the
Times for 27 years, and spent time in Europe, Latin America and Asia, including several years reporting from Madrid.