FRANCO: THE MAN WHO CHEATED THE ODDS. PART II.

…Stalin had reliable information that Generalissimo Franco was on his way out. There were millions of progressive men and women in Spain, who were profoundly dissatisfied and offended by the regime of this Hitler’s stooge. One of these days, Herr Franco would be assassinated.

Yes, Franco was clever. In 1947, to appease America, he had introduced the so-called Law of Succession, which would “officially” restore monarchy in Spain on the day of his death. But as Comrade Stalin’s legal experts had assured him, it could well be argued that all Franco’s pronouncements should be declared null and void after the fall of his regime, just as the laws of Nazi Germany had been abrogated at the end of the Third Reich. No more kings in Spain, thank you.

As soon as Spain got rid of her fascist dictator, Dolores Ibarruri would be returning to Madrid. With Soviet help she had a great chance, in the subsequent “democratic” elections, to become President of Spain. Artem must realize that Ibarruri’s success was practically a foregone conclusion, because it was so categorically vital to the Soviet interests. Moscow had already spent millions of its Spanish dollars, and was prepared to spend many millions more, to ensure it.

When La Passionaria becomes Head of State in Spain, Artem by virtue of his marriage to Amaya should be superbly positioned to establish a powerful personal presence in Spain. It would be then his job to ensure a continued mutually-beneficial relationship between the two nations, and to thwart any attempts by Western agents to make Spain deviate from the course of unflinching friendship and cooperation with the USSR.

In other words, it would be insane to trust our Spanish Comrade Dolores in anything, but Stalin would rely on Artem to safeguard the Soviet interests in Spain and, having the vast resources of the Soviet superpower behind him, to take control in the country.

...My father complied. How could he ever say no to Comrade Stalin?

…But Franco did not comply.

The reason why Stalin’s grand strategy in Spain did not work was that Franco’s much-decorated persona had become one of the most prized possessions of the post-war Western civilization. His physical survival received a top priority among Western intelligence communities, particularly, with the recently established Central Intelligence Agency of the United States. All Stalin’s active and potential agents in a one hundred mile radius of the Caudillo had been efficiently liquidated, or replaced, along with Franco’s own loyal bodyguards, by specially-trained commandos in the US service. For this very reason one of Stalin’s most reliable assassins, the legendary Kim Philby, for instance, was never allowed to get close to the Spanish dictator after the war, despite his previously cultivated personal ties to Franco, a cause of great pain for Philby’s wounded pride.

…In other words, among the loud salvos of public brouhaha over Turkey, and Greece, where the Russians had absolutely no interest in, or the slightest control of, the local communist insurgency, the real Cold-War Battle of Europe, taking place in Spain, was quietly fought, and quietly won by the West.