France, the Allies and Franco's Spain, 1943--1948

The end of the Second World War in Europe meant that the appearance of new security arrangements coincided with the arrival of transformed states. Emerging from the collaborationist Vichy era, rebuilding from the devastation of war, and facing the development of the Western bloc behind the United States and, to a lesser extent, Great Britain, France was one such country. The question of relations with Franco's Spain engaged the various forces that in the aftermath of the Liberation were in the process of rebuilding France as a democracy at home and as a power with influence and prestige abroad.; Prominent Government officials argued that maintaining relations with Spain would be beneficial for France's own economic reconstruction and its re-emergence as an equal western ally. By contrast, those who were determined anti-fascists, particularly those from left-wing organizations of the internal Resistance, were set on developing a new policy fashioned by the experience of defeating fascism in war. They were opposed to any sort of diplomatic or economic relationship with Franco's Spain. Over the course of 1944--1945, these two visions competed, until the Government attempted to reconcile them in a new policy, from 1946 to 1948.; Chapter One examines the wartime relations of the French government-in-exile with Spain. Chapter Two is a study of the Resistance position from Liberation in August, 1944 through 1945. Chapters Three and Four focus on the Government's various attempts to create a policy which appeased domestic opinion while not isolating France from its western Allies, initiatives which resulted in the closure of the Franco-Spanish border. Finally, Chapter Five assesses French relations with the Spanish opposition and the 1948 decision to end sanctions against Spain.; The experience of war and resistance did not offer the French one single legacy. Rather, different visions of France and its role in postwar Europe competed. The effort to reconcile domestic and international concerns, however, faced even greater constraints imposed by the onset of the Cold War and by France's position within the Western Alliance. The history of French relations with Franco's Spain in this period highlights the narrow boundaries within which policy could be made in postwar Europe.