Description
Book SynopsisPublished in association with the Canada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies. "Churchill and Spain" examines why 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, and to what extent Churchill's wartime policies enabled Franco to remain in control of Spain. 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 Freedom of Information Act -- and the wartime papers of Churchill and Samuel Hoare, Britain's special envoy to Madrid, to investigate this important aspect of Spanish and British history. The book 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. This book, originally published to great acclaim in 2005, and published now for the first time as a paperback, is essential reading for scholars and students of European twentieth-century history, as well as all those interested in Churchill's international role in the Second World War.
Trade Review"A fascinating study of Churchill and of the dire impact of personal relationships on high politics." -- Times Literary Supplement
"An important addition to Churchill studies." -- Sir Martin Gilbert
"Deserves to be widely read for it's historical accuracy as well as for it's contemporary relevance." Tribune, December 2008
Table of ContentsPrologue; In the Hour of Britain's Need, 1940; Spain, a Balancing Country, 1941; Ambiguous Assurances, 1942; Franco Toughs It Out, January - October 1943; The Wolfram War, November - December 1943; Churchill Intervenes I, January - September, 1944; Churchill Intervenes II, October - December, 1944; A Wringing of Hands, January - July, 1945; Epilogue: Hoare versus Churchill over Spain; Bibliography; Index.
