But as of yesterday, Francisco Franco's brother-in-law / foreign minister is no longer still alive.
Ramon Serrano Suner, a Spanish minister under dictator General Francisco Franco who negotiated a "non-belligerency" pact with Hitler, died on Monday aged 101Imagine that, a man lived for more than a century and the one thing we remember about him is that he appeased evil.
Oh wait, here is a news story from the year 2041:
Jimmy Carter, a former President of the United States who negotiated a "non-belligerency" pact with North Korea, died on Monday aged 117.Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at September 02, 2003 07:01 AM
I think this is slightly unfair to the Spanish. They certainly weren't in a position to fight Hitler, and were in a position to do a great deal of harm to the Allies with little risk - capture Gibraltar, close the straits, hand over their jews and any allied personnel who escaped from France - but they did none of these.
Hitler personally negotiated with Franco to try and bring him on side - playing on support given during the Civil War - but Franco was so adept at avoiding these overtures that Hitler gave it up, declaring he'd rather have his teeth pulled than bargain with Franco again (this story is in Churchill's memoires).
So "appeasement" is not correct.
Posted by: parallel on September 3, 2003 06:04 AM