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Franco contacted Hitler directly. [43] German ministers were split on whether to support the Nationalists, and possibly become embroiled in a European war as a result. [43] Ultimately Hitler decided to support the Nationalists on 25 or 26 July, but was still wary of provoking a Europe-wide war. [3] [44]
In September 1939, World War II began. Franco had received important support from Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini during the Spanish Civil War, and he had signed the Anti-Comintern Pact. He made pro-Axis speeches, [162] while offering various kinds of support to Italy and Germany. His spokesman Antonio Tovar commented at a Paris conference ...
Hitler did not wish to disturb his relations with the Vichy French regime. The only concrete result was the signing of a secret agreement under which Franco was committed to entering the war at a date of his own choosing, and Hitler gave only vague guarantees that Spain would receive "territories in Africa".
Joe Biden said at the Oct. 22 debate that the U.S. "had a good relationship with Hitler before he, in fact, invaded Europe."
On 19 June 1940, Franco pressed along a message to Hitler saying he wanted to enter the war, but Hitler was annoyed at Franco's demand for the French colony of Cameroon, which had been German before World War I, and which Hitler was planning on taking back. [6] Hitler and Franco during Meeting at Hendaye (23 October 1940).
Despite Allied protests, Franco aided the Axis Powers by sending the Blue Division to the Soviet Union and seizing Tangier in 1940. Franco was a guilty party, with Hitler and Mussolini, in the conspiracy to wage war against those countries that later banded together as the United Nations.
The ambassador to Spain, Sir Henry Chilton, believed that a victory for Franco was in Britain's best interests and so worked to support the Nationalists. British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden publicly maintained the official policy of non-intervention but privately expressed his preference for a Nationalist victory.
Paul Preston wrote that "[o]ne of Franco's central beliefs was the "Jewish–masonic–Bolshevik conspiracy". He was convinced that Judaism was the ally of both American capitalism and Russian communism". [2] Public Jewish religious services, like Protestant services, had been forbidden since the Civil War. [3]