Modernizing a Friendly Tyrant: US Public Diplomacy and Sociopolitical Change in Francoist Spain
The United States’ attitude toward the Franco regime gradually shifted, from rejection and impelling of the international condemnation of the Spanish dictatorship during the immediate post-World War II period, to a rather wary acceptance. As the United States’ differences from the Soviet Union began being accentuated, some American policymakers—especially in the Pentagon—began to appreciate the value of the strategic enclave in the Iberian Peninsula and the dictatorship’s anticommunism. Thus, the gradual advance toward the Cold War facilitated the creation of closer ties—which only months before would have seemed totally contra natura—between the democratic regime in Washington and the Franco dictatorship. The bilateral accords signed in 1953 allowed the implantation of U.S military bases in Spain in exchange for economic aid, military hardware and technical assistance.1 The goal was to bring Spain in to the security system constructed in Europe to serve as a bulwark against any possible communist offensive. The Spanish authorities agreed to this foreign presence in exchange for international legitimization and financing for their crippled economy. They even went so far as to fantasize that the American aid would be the equivalent of what the Marshall Plan was for other European countries. However, neither the timing nor the objectives were equivalent: in the American power’s initial calculations, the aim was neither the modernization of the Iberian country nor a hypothetical democratizing process.
La Derecha tecnocrática.
Tras la II Guerra Mundial, las sociedades europeas experimentaron una serie de transformaciones de gran importancia: crecimiento economico extraordinario y sin precentes, consolidacion del Estado benefector, secularizacion religiosa, integracion europea, unido a un cierto escepticismo hacia las utopias sociopoliticas, lo que llevo a hablar del fin de las ideologias; todo lo cual favorecio la consolidacion de las elites tecnocraticas en el aparato estatal, tanto en paises con regimen politico liberal, como en los socialistas o autoritarios. Espana no escapo a ese signo de los tiempos. A partir de los anos sesenta, el pais iba a experimentar un proceso de modernizacion radical, bajo la egida de un regimen autoritario, cuyo proyecto politico evoluciono en un claro sentido tecnocratico. La nueva elite dirigente tuvo un papel de primer orden en ese proceso, siendo capaz de formular y resolver la conversion de la perspectiva contrarrevolucionaria tradicional en un conservadurismo renovado, centrado en factores de desarrollo economico, perfeccionamiento tecnico y plena aceptacion del neocapitalismo.
Haiti: An Experiment in Pragmatism
Closer association in the world-area has brought strong and weak states into more practical contact. When a strong state assumes a protectorate over a weak one, it does not usually, unless ultimate annexation is planned, undertake radical social reconstruction, and the military element is likely to dominate the situation. The American occupation in Haiti adopted a policy of construction from the first, while disavowing annexation. Intervention occurred after the civil order had been broken down by chronic revolution and banditry, and after the collapse of the cultural system, which depends so largely on governmental functions. The first steps were the restoration of financial stability and the establishment of internal order. Haiti had begun its national career in 1804 with a population still mainly African, and the country had always remained in a state of isolation. The occupation, by establishing means of communication, has suppressed banditry and revolution. Health conditions, so bad as to interfere with economic efficiency, have been improved, and the economic system is in process of reconstruction. The Haitians have shown little capacity for disinterested public service. American experts are constructing the material basis of civilization, and, not having control of the schools or the courts, are compelled to exercise a certain degree of coercion. Since the outward forms of Haitian independence are maintained, the resulting situation is an anomalous one. The Occupation should continue until stable social order is established. Its justification must rest on practical rather than theoretical grounds.