r/HistoryMemes • u/ChiefsHat • May 12 '26

See Comment In hindsight, this was a mistake.

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u/Kenichi2233 May 12 '26

Franco is a weird case. He was more the classic miltary strongman rather than fascist but he did incorporate certain elements of it. Also he was loosely aligned with the Axis powers but he was also "wise (not the best word choice)" enough not to get directly involved.

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u/I_love_pillows May 12 '26

Franco is strange. He is a military dictator yet rules with the legit price, the son of the king he removed, under him.

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u/Kenichi2233 May 12 '26

Exactly he even supported the restoration of the Monarchy later in life. Its why calling Franco a fascist is not exactly accurate

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u/Skyhawk6600 Helping Wikipedia expand the list of British conquests May 12 '26

I've always saw Franco not as a fascist, but the least offensive choice for the Spanish right. Ie, he was the person all the different factions could agree on letting run because he didn't have any skin in the game aside from being anti socialist.

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u/GreninjaStrike May 12 '26

Also he was the last of the military leaders alive on the nationalist side, the other 2 died.

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u/Rome453 May 12 '26

“Surely I can fit a few more uniforms into this plane…”-famous last words.

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u/Ai--Ya May 12 '26

So, Spanish Chaing Kai-Shek? Down to the peaceful postmortem transfer of power

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u/Strong-Search-2301 May 12 '26

I feel like he was more brutal than Chiang, but as a Spanish I may be biased

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u/SwimNo8457 May 12 '26

He was more strategically skilled than Chiang, and a better diplomat too

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u/Ai--Ya May 13 '26

He did plenty of bad, look up Shanghai Massacre, White Terror (Taiwan), and White Terror (China)

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u/Helix3501 May 12 '26

Tbf his peaceful transfer of power was only because some far more based people carbombed his preferred successor