# César Vidal Manzanares

César Vidal Manzanares (born 9 May 1958, Madrid) is a Spanish author and radio host.

## Early life

Vidal was born in Madrid on 9 May 1958, in the Puente de Vallecas neighborhood. He attended secondary school at the Escuelas Pías de San Antón. Born into a Catholic family, he became a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses at the age of fifteen before later converting to evangelical Christianity. His brother is the jurist and writer, Gustavo Vidal Manzanares [es].

## Career

Vidal earned a PhD in law from Alfonso X El Sabio University and a degree in theology and philosophy from Logos University, where he is a member of the Board of Regents.
He is a member of the Executive Council of the Interamerican Institute for Democracy. Since 2015, he has been a member of the North American Academy of the Spanish Language.

### Radio

He hosted the radio show La Linterna [es] on Cadena COPE from 2004 to 2009. In 2009, he quit COPE to launch a radio station, esRadio [es], with Federico Jiménez Losantos. In 2013, he abandoned that project due to disagreements with a partner. Since 2014, he has hosted La Voz (The Voice), a radio program that broadcasts from the United States.

### Writing

He has written for numerous newspapers, including El Mundo, Diario 16, El Periódico de Aragón, and La Razón. He has published a series called Misterios de la Historia (Mysteries of History) in Libertad Digital.
Vidal has written more than 100 books, and several have been on bestseller lists and received historical and literary awards.
He specializes in historical studies on totalitarian regimes and the history of religions. His book El Holocausto (The Holocaust) is the first complete history of the Holocaust written by a Spaniard. His book Las Brigadas Internacionales (The International Brigades) has been described by American historian Stanley G. Payne as "the most complete book about the International Brigades published in any language." Payne also stated that La Guerra Que Ganó Franco (The War that Franco Won) "is the best military history of the Spanish Civil War in a single volume." In his books about the Spanish Civil War, Vidal used original Soviet sources to make claims about the role of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War and the Cold War. In Paracuellos-Katin: El Genocidio de la Izquierda (Paracuellos-Katin: The Genocide by the Left) and Checas de Madrid: Las cárceles republicanas al descubierto (Checas de Madrid: Republican Prisons Uncovered), Vidal estimated the number of people murdered during the Spanish Civil War by leftist groups. Among his studies on the history of religions, he has received praise for his trilogy on founders of religions: Jesus, el Judio (Jesus, the Jew); Buda, el Principe (Buddha, the Prince); and Mahoma, el Guia (Mohammed, the Guide). Vidal was the first to translate historical sources such as The Egyptian History of Manetho, The Gnostic Gospels of Nag Hammadi, The Complete Narrative of Ancient Egypt, and Komintern Documents into Spanish.

## Political views and criticism

Vidal is known for his far-right views on Islam, the Spanish Civil War, and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's administration. His detractors, including historians Ian Gibson and Ángel Viñas, accuse Vidal of lack of rigor and biased arguments. Vidal has been accused of misquoting historical sources and manipulating translations to support his own opinions.
For example, in his books about the Spanish Civil War (La Guerra que Ganó Franco, Checas de Madrid and Paracuellos-Katyn: El Genocidio de la Izquierda), he presents revisionist views of the conflict that conflict with mainstream historians, but are shared by fellow conservatives like Pío Moa and Ricardo de la Cierva. And on his radio show, Vidal has claimed that Islam and France have been Spain's main enemies throughout its history. He has also theorized that May 68 was "a CIA operation to destabilize general de Gaulle" ("una operación de la CIA para desestabilizar al general De Gaulle").
He believes Basque is a "primitive language" ("una lengua tan primitiva") and he is skeptical of the theory of evolution.

## Awards

* 2000: Cartagena's Historical Novel Award for La mandrágora de las doce lunas
* 2002: Las Lucas Biography Award for Lincoln
* 2004: Ediciones Martínez Roca's [es] Spirituality Award for El testamento del pescador (The Fisherman's Testament)
* 2004: Jaén Literary Award for El último tren a Zúrich (Last Train to Zurich)
* 2005: Premio de Novela Ciudad de Torrevieja for Los Hijos de la Luz (The Children of the Light)
* 2005: The Academy of Science, Technology, Education, and Humanities' (AICTEH) Social Sciences Award
* 2005: Silver Microphone (Micrófono de Plata)
* 2005: Antena de Oro
* 2005: HazteOir Award
* 2005: Catholic Childhood Commission (Comisión Católica Española de la Infancia; CCEI) Prize
* 2006: Premio de Novela Histórica Alfonso X El Sabio [es] for El fuego del cielo (The Fire from Heaven)
* 2006: Algaba Prize for Biography, Autobiography, Memoirs and Historical Investigations for Pablo, el judío de Tarso
* 2008: Asociación de Víctimas del Terrorismo Golden Pen Award (Pluma de Oro)
* 2008: Finis Terrae Heterodox Humanist Essay Prize (El premio Finis Terrae de Ensayo Humanista Heterodoxo) for El caso Lutero
* 2011: ADNE's Spaniard of the Year Award
* 2012: Awarded by the Israeli Embassy for bettering the relationship between Spain and Israel
* 2013: Order of the Torson's Golden Torso (Torsón de oro) Award
* 2021: Mexican Press Club
* 2022: Spanish Evangelical Publishers Association's Harold Kregel Award (Book of the Year) for Apóstol para las naciones