CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, August 19, 2019

Civil War? Thinking about the unthinkable

Commenting on America’s on-going political turmoil, Professor Angelo Codevilla’s recent article: "Igniting a Civil War," makes reference to the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) which brings to mind the famous saying by the Spanish-American philosopher, George Santayana (1863-1952), "Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it."

Recall, the Spanish Civil War was between the Socialist, central government in Madrid ( which had become totally inept at maintaining law and order) versus law and order traditionalists who had the support of the Catholic Church, large landowners, much of the Middle Class, and those who longed for a return of the monarchy.

Spain’s Marxist-Leninist intellectual elites and the poor peasants who toiled for the large landowners wanted certain regions of Spain to break away from the government in Madrid and form separate Communist states within Spain. When the demands of the Communists were not met, they turned to violence: burning churches, killing priests, raping nuns, and killing thousands of innocent people.

Should civil war break out, Great Britain "claimed" it would be neutral; however, British intelligence identified General Francisco Franco Bahamunde (1892-1975) as the military officer who, post-civil war, would likely to be able to restore order in Spain and leave Great Britain in control of Gibraltar, which was essential to Britain’s continued access to the oil of the eastern Mediterranean for the Royal Navy, and for access to the Black Sea and to Russia’s Crimea.

The Socialist government in Madrid re-assigned General Franco to a remote outpost in the Canary Islands. But, just as the turmoil inside Spain was coming to a head, British intelligence secretly flew Franco to Spanish Morocco, which is less than 20 miles from the Spanish mainland. On arrival, General Franco rallied the Spanish Army forces in Morocco against the Communist rebels and against the Socialist government that had "exiled" him to the Canary Islands.

The Communist-led rebels and the existing Socialist government merged in Madrid. They were known as the Republicans, albeit quite the opposite of the American definition of Republican.

With air transportation provided by Germany and Italy, General Franco’s forces were flown from Morocco to mainland Spain. The war between so-called Republicans and Franco’s Nationalists was set to begin.

The July, 1939, assassination of the right-wing leader, Calvo Sotelo, triggered Spain into a civil war that morphed into a proxy war between Communist Russia vs. National Socialist (Nazi) Germany and Fascist Italy. The low estimate of the death toll is: 435,000.

We leave it to the reader to see any parallels or contrasts between the former Obama Administration and its stay-behind Deep State bureaucrats, the left-leaning Media, the violent acts being carried out by left-wing activists in America’s larger cities, the open-borders movement, and the anti-Deep State reforms of the Trump Administration.

Are we approaching a time when the far-left demands by the Democratic Party’s presidential candidates and the conservative values of America’s Middle Class and blue-collar workers in fly-over land come into such conflict that the civil war feared by Professor Codevilla becomes reality?

Instead, pray we continue to use honest elections to resolve our political differences. But, again, as George Santayana wrote," Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it."

©2019. William Hamilton.

William Hamilton, is a laureate of the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame, the Nebraska Aviation Hall of Fame, the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame, and the Oklahoma University Army ROTC Wall of Fame. Dr. Hamilton is the author of Formula for Failure in Vietnam: The Folly of Limited Warfare, McFarland Books, (2019). For pre-publication orders: Toll free: (800) 253-2187 "Central View," can also be seen at: www.central-view.com.

Dr. Hamilton can be contacted at:

Email: william@central-view.com