Churchill on Franco and Hitler

Winston Churchill's respect for the work of 'Signor Mussolini' is well known, writing as late as 1939 that 'Up till a few years ago many people in Britain admired the work which the extraordinary man Signor Mussolini had done for his country. He had brought it out of incipient anarchy into a position of dignity and order which was admired even by those who regretted the suspension of Italian freedom.' It should not therefore come as much of a surprise that the imperialist gangster was also quite taken by the Spanish fascist dictator Franco and even Hitler himself (before WWII).

On February 23, 1939 he wrote of Franco:

'He now has the opportunity of becoming a great Spaniard of whom it may be written a hundred years hence: "He united his country and rebuilt its greatness. Apart from that he reconciled the past with the present, and broadened the life of the working people while preserving the faith and structure of the Spanish nation." Such an achievement would rank in history with the work of Ferdinand and Isabella and the glories of Charles V.'

Even after the Second World War and the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust had come out, Churchill remembered discussing Hitler in 1932, and noted:

'I admire men who stand up for their country in defeat, even though I am on the other side. He had a perfect right, to be a patriotic German if he chose. I always wanted England, Germany, and France to be friends.'