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remained, however, the prime minister himself. Even before the fascist
powers had begun to collapse he negotiated an arrangement with the
United States and Britain for the use of air bases in the Azores, thus
positioning himself as a friend of the soon-to-be-victorious democra-
cies. Portugal was able to slide away from its negative wartime image
with relative ease. It would be much harder for Spain to escape the
stigma of Nazi connections after 1945.
THE FRANCO REGIME: 1945-1975
As the world emerged from war Franco had already exercised nearly a
decade of dictatorship. Ahead of him lay 30 more years of ruling Spain
under the title of El Caudillo (the Leader), combining the functions of
chief of state, head of government, and commander in chief of the
armed forces. It was an absolute monarchy without a king, for those
who had expected a royal restoration remained frustrated until the very
last.
In the aftermath of its internal bloodletting Spain learned the price
paid by those who had lost—and by those who had won. For the
defeated Republicans there was exile, execution, imprisonment, or
vengeful repression. For the triumphant Nationalists there was isola-
tion, deprivation, cold, and hunger in an economy that failed to recover.
The ambitions of all the other right-wing parties were curbed, as the
Falange, founded by the martyred José Antonio Primo de Rivera, son
of the former dictator, was transformed into the National Movement, a
cult-like instrument for controlling thought and focusing adoration
upon the supreme leader. The army, the church, and the magnates,
“saved from communism,” enjoyed no real power—merely the privi-
lege of singing El Caudillo's praises. Franco, who had borrowed so much
else from his fascist allies, also learned the techniques of internal tyr-
anny, although only the methodology of state terrorism was new, for
his secret police drew upon a heritage well understood in Spanish
history.
The first half of the dictator's postwar regime, from approximately
1945 to 1960, was sustained at home by a combination of political pro-
paganda and morale-building fantasy. Under harsh censorship journal-
ists and broadcasters were restricted to endorsing the official line of
denouncing everything that lay outside the regime as “godless com-
munism.” At the same time Spaniards (especially students) were end-
lessly reminded of their country's great past and the deeds of bygone
heroes. Amidst faded pomp, Franco reenacted patriotic rituals, cele-
brated the approved forms of national culture, and crushed all manifes-
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