The Force of Myth

I waited for it with some apprehension: the fiftieth anniversary of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War on July 18. My apprehension was justified. The Times of London, anticipating the event, in its issue of the 16th reproduced the notorious article by its correspondent George Lowther Steer “describing” the destruction of the small Basque town of Guernica by Nazi bombers. This, after all, was how the myth began, or, perhaps more accurately, how it came to be accepted as “history.”

Faithful NR readers will recall Jeffrey Hart’s splendid piece “The Great Guernica Fraud,” in the issue dated January 5, 1973, and the follow-up of August 31 of that year, to which I made a minor contribution. It’s no good, Jeffrey. The myth is invincible. I don’t mind the Times reproducing Steer’s article. I do object to the presentation of it as historical fact, under a headline telling readers that this was “the worst outrage of the Spanish Civil War.”

BC

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Brian Crozier

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I waited for it with some apprehension: the fiftieth anniversary of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War on July 18. My apprehension was justified. The Times of London, anticipating the event, in its issue of the 16th reproduced the notorious article by its correspondent George Lowther Steer “describing” the destruction of the small Basque town of Guernica by Nazi bombers. This, after all, was how the myth began, or, perhaps more accurately, how it came to be accepted as “history.”

Faithful NR readers will recall Jeffrey Hart’s splendid piece “The Great Guernica Fraud,” in the issue dated January 5, 1973, and the follow-up of August 31 of that year, to which I made a minor contribution. It’s no good, Jeffrey. The myth is invincible. I don’t mind the Times reproducing Steer’s article. I do object to the presentation of it as historical fact, under a headline telling readers that this was “the worst outrage of the Spanish Civil War.”