Roosevelt and Franco During the Second World War: From the Spanish Civil War to Pearl Harbor

During the Second World War, the Spanish Civil War and diplomacy with Franco's Spain were issues that generated considerable controversy and tension within the Roosevelt Administration and in public opinion in the United States. At the same time, the Franco regime's stance fluctuated between disdain for a "Jewish-Masonic democracy" and a reliance on U.S. goods after 1939. This book examines the internal controversies of the Roosevelt Administration in connection with Spain, the role of the President in these controversies, and the foundations of the policy that was followed from the outbreak of the Civil War until the launching of Operation Torch in 1942. Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Cordell Hull, Sumner Welles, Henry Morgenthau, Harold Ickes, and ambassadors Claude Bowers and Alexander W. Weddell became the leading players in this fascinating tale, along with Franco and his brother-in-law Ramon Serrano Suner, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Joan Maria Thomas offers important insights into the personal and political relations between these figures, reexamining them in light of recent research and helping to reconsider some of the received wisdom that has marked the historiography of the period.