Castro on Franco
Castro also admits to some unexpected sympathies with a few enemies of the left: He wistfully recalls Francisco Franco, whom he describes as “honourable” for not bending to Washington’s will and breaking relations with Cuba. Just as Castro reaches back past his own birth to claim spiritual kinship with Marti and other independence leaders, he weaves the Spanish general into a broader tapestry of Cuban history. Franco was born in a town that sent troops to a Spanish battalion defeated by US troops in 1898. Castro speculates that perhaps Franco as a boy welcomed the beaten soldiers home and thus might have seen the Cuban Revolution as “Spain’s revenge.” In any case, Franco, a Galician like Castro’s father, was shrewd and stayed out of WWII, unlike the “stupid” war that Bush and Aznar got themselves into.
— Greg Grandin, The Nation, 8 July 2008
Mr. Cusack cites an article in a socialist magazine, quoting a Communist dictator, about the deceased dictator of Spain.
A ringing endorsement!(?)
Hey, if you don’t like a little bit of variety from time to time, don’t read this blog!
Hey, I think you misunderstand. I meant The Nation‘s and Castro’s endorsement of Franco, not your endorsement of The Nation and Franco.
I like variety. I even read The Nation now and again. And I like this blog because of its topical variety. So I guess I’ll keep reading it.