Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Western Europe, Volume VII, Part 2

320. Letter From Chief of State Franco to President Eisenhower⁰

Madrid, March 18, 1960.

My Dear Mr. President: I avail myself of the occasion of the visit of my Minister of Foreign Affairs to the United States to send you through him my cordial greetings, still having in mind the very pleasant memory of your visit to our Country,¹ an unforgettable one for us and one in which the Spanish people had occasion to demonstrate affection and enthusiasm for your distinguished person and for the nation which you represent.

My Minister will undoubtedly have an opportunity to express to you how keenly we are following your efforts toward peace and toward ensuring for the world a happier future.

The responsibility which in these days falls upon the United States as the leader of the Western group of nations obliges us all to collaborate to the extent of our ability and knowledge in the great cause of the defense of Western civilization in the face of the progressive advances which communism is making.

This uneasiness which the Western world has been feeling during recent years has been felt by the Spanish nation for twenty-five years. The aims of general Russian policy are constant and invariable. The tactics and details may change, but not the direction. Already in 1935 the Soviets had revealed at the latest meeting of the Comintern the direction of the latter’s attacks and the aim toward which it was directing its activities: the constitution of a Moscow–Madrid Axis as an arrow aimed at the subversion of the Spanish-American peoples. Upon the failure of the Asturian Communist revolution of 1934, Communist subversion in Spain was planned for 1936 by the use of the new tactic of popular fronts.

Today, twenty-five years later, their attempts upon Spain having repeatedly failed, they have been seeking in Cuba a new Moscow–Habana Axis which, replacing the above-mentioned Axis and directed toward the Caribbean and Central America, has for its aim the subversion of all Hispanic America. This is proved by instructions which the Communists are giving their agents in Spain and which we in due course have brought to the knowledge of your Government through our Ambassador.

From the words which you have spoken upon returning from your trip to several South American countries,² I perceive the impression made upon you by the situation and the advance of communism in those nations. I therefore take the liberty of giving you my impression concerning so important and basic a question as the advance and progress of communism.

I consider that there are two campaigns which communism is waging and preparing against the West as its immediate target: the first is eminently political. It takes advantage of all the weaknesses and faults in the Western political systems, exploiting through the latter their difficulties, playing up their problems, and exploiting with propaganda the natural longings for social betterment and a rise in the living standards which the popular masses so desire. The great problem, as I see it, rests in the inability of the political systems themselves in many nations to meet such needs and protect themselves against Communist propaganda and its genuine advance. Both views require unity, authority, continuity, order, discipline, faith in the future, and effectiveness which, unfortunately, are not found in a large majority of the nations.

That which is possible in the great American democracy, because of its wealth, youth, and great economic and cultural development, does not have the same effectiveness in the underdeveloped or semi-developed nations, which are in the majority.

I take note of your offer of aid to the nations of the Western Hemisphere in order to facilitate the solution of their economic problems,³ but the heart of the problem lies in what they themselves do. Outside aid may facilitate and assist in that task, but it will always be only a part of the whole. It is the peoples themselves who must make the effort, and that cannot be achieved through civil strife, accompanied by domestic disorder and lack of discipline. Policy is not a caprice that peoples can decide on lightly, but a necessity, like a medicine needed by each patient in an illness.

This, which your Excellency with your vision of a great soldier will understand much better than others, is the root of the great lack of understanding from which we have been suffering.

The struggle with which Russia has confronted the West is not merely a military struggle. Its principal field is, rather, political and economic, in which other large states are working intensely, and it is studying the political and economic structures of the adversary and the means to combat and destroy them.

In the economic field a battle parallel to the political struggle is being readied which can greatly facilitate action in the political struggle. It is contained in the buildup of production in Russia and the satellite countries to flood, at the appointed hour, world markets in order to create a grave crisis with catastrophic results for the West. Their experts are working intensively toward that end, as can be seen by examining the five-year plans being carried out in all those countries.

In conclusion, General, I do not wish to tire you but to sound my note of alarm in these fields in which the West is so trusting, and which will in my opinion have a decisive effect on the fate of West in the future.

With best wishes for your health and that of your family, and for the success of your efforts as President, I remain,

Your cordial friend,

F. Franco⁴

0. Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman Files, International File. No classification marking. The source text is a Department of State translation. The letter was delivered to President Eisenhower by Foreign Minister Castiella on March 23; see Document 327. The source text bears the President’s initials.
1. See Document 318.
2. The President visited Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay February 23–March 3.
3. For text of President Eisenhower’s address to the Nation, February 21, in which he promised to work with the nations of South America to promote security and well-being in the Western Hemisphere, see Department of State Bulletin, March 7, 1960, pp. 351–353.
4. Printed from the English translation that indicates that Franco signed the original Spanish-language copy.