Franco and World War Two
Franco's traditional image has been as a canny neutral in the struggle between the Allied and Axis powers. But in 1940 his aspirations for an African empire drew him to within an ace of war with Britain.
In October 1944, Francisco Franco, right-wing dictator of Spain and sometime associate of the Axis, took one step towards ensuring the survival of his regime in the post-war world without Hitler and Mussolini. He wrote to his Ambassador in London, the Duke of Alba, asking him to communicate a message 'faithfully and with the utmost frankness to our good friend, the British Prime Minister'. Franco wanted Winston Churchill to know that Spain was ready to join 'in the future concert of Western Europe' and act along with Britain to defend 'a devastated Continent' against 'the insidious might of Bolshevism'. The ardently monarchist Duke of Alba, who was no friend of Franco or Francoism, proceeded to point out to the British what a chance Franco had given them. For, in their reply, the British could state, in confidence, that neither Franco nor his regime could hope to prosper, or even endure, in the post-war continental order. Certainly, Churchill had no reservations about declining Franco's offer of an anti-Russian alliance.
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