Save Franco's hungry Spain: the U.S. press and dollar and vitamin diplomacy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51349/veg.2025.2.18Keywords:
spanish famine, francoism, World War II, international relations, american pressAbstract
The post-war Spanish famine became the ideal framework for the United States to confront its international relations with Franco, knowing its economic weakness and commercial dependence. Using the U.S. press of the time as an original source, we aim to show that American society was aware of the situation of hunger and misery in Spain, that its public opinion had a significant impact on the image of the Spanish dictatorship and the international policy of its own government towards it, and to venture the idea that the existence of a famine in Spain was a key factor in maintaining the Franco regime from a North American international perspective during the crucial years of the World War and the post-European War.
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