Letter from Spain

At worst, the Great Vacillation could undo the good that was accomplished by the defeat of the Republicans (let us call them what they liked to call themselves) in 1939. The agonizing indecisiveness of Francisco Franco is sapping the justification from his leadership: until one day his countrymen, even those of kindred philosophical commitment, may abominate him as an impostor, whose franchise long since expired, and whose continued power derives from the fact, simply, that he has the power to exercise power; nothing more.

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 the righteousness of his cause, that were required to wrest Spain from the hands of the visionaries, ideologues, Marxists, and nihilists that were imposing upon her, in the thirties, a regime so grotesque as to do violence to the Spanish soul, to deny, even, Spain’s historical identity. He saved the day—but he did not, like Cincinnatus, thereupon return to his plow.

About the Author

William F. Buckley Jr.

William F. Buckley Jr. founded National Review magazine in 1955.

Featured Tags

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

World War II

At worst, the Great Vacillation could undo the good that was accomplished by the defeat of the Republicans (let us call them what they liked to call themselves) in 1939. The agonizing indecisiveness of Francisco Franco is sapping the justification from his leadership: until one day his countrymen, even those of kindred philosophical commitment, may abominate him as an impostor, whose franchise long since expired, and whose continued power derives from the fact, simply, that he has the power to exercise power; nothing more.

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 the righteousness of his cause, that were required to wrest Spain from the hands of the visionaries, ideologues, Marxists, and nihilists that were imposing upon her, in the thirties, a regime so grotesque as to do violence to the Spanish soul, to deny, even, Spain’s historical identity. He saved the day—but he did not, like Cincinnatus, thereupon return to his plow.