page_title: Francisco Franco
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Francisco Franco / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Valle de los Caídos (Valley of the Fallen), located in the municipality of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain, is both a memorial and basilica conceived by Franco, who is buried within the mountain. Español: Vista frontal de la Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caídos y su basílica. El Escorial, Madrid, España. Français&#160;: Vue frontale de la Basilique Sainte-Croix del valle de los Caídos. L'Escurial, Madrid (Espagne).
context_page_description: Francisco Franco Bahamonde was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War and thereafter ruled over Spain from 1939 to 1975 as a dictator, assuming the title Caudillo. This period in Spanish history, from the Nationalist victory to Franco's death, is commonly known as Francoist Spain or the Francoist dictatorship.
  Born in Ferrol, Spain into an upper-class military family, Franco served in the Spanish Army as a cadet in the Toledo Infantry Academy from 1907 to 1910. While serving in Morocco, he rose through the ranks to become brigadier general in 1926, aged 33, becoming the youngest general in Spain. Two years later Franco became the director of the General Military Academy in Zaragoza. As a conservative and monarchist, Franco regretted the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of the Second Republic in 1931. He was devastated by the closing of his Academy, but nevertheless continued his service in the Republican Army. His career redoubled after the right-wing CEDA and PRR won the 1933 election empowering him to lead the suppression of the 1934 uprising in Asturias.
context_section_description: In Spain and abroad, the legacy of Franco remains controversial. The longevity of Franco's rule, his suppression of opposition, and the effective propaganda sustained through the years have made a detached evaluation difficult. For almost 40 years, Spaniards, and particularly children at school, were told that Divine Providence had sent Franco to save Spain from chaos, atheism, and poverty. Historian Stanley Payne described Franco as being the most significant figure to dominate Spain since Philip II, while Michael Seidman argued that Franco was the most successful counterrevolutionary leader of the 20th century.
  A highly controversial figure within Spain, Franco is seen as a divisive leader. Supporters credit him for keeping Spain neutral and uninvaded in World War II. They emphasize his strong anti-communist and nationalist views, economic policies, and opposition to socialism as major factors in Spain's post-war economic success and later international integration. Abroad he had support from Winston Churchill, Charles De Gaulle, Konrad Adenauer and many American Catholics, but was strongly opposed by the Roosevelt and Truman administrations.
  Conversely, critics on the left have denounced him as a tyrant responsible for thousands of deaths in years-long political repression, and have called him complicit in atrocities committed by Axis forces during World War II due to his support of Axis governments.
  When he died in 1975, the major parties of the left and the right agreed to follow the "Pact of Forgetting". To secure the transition to democracy, they agreed not to have investigations or prosecutions dealing with the civil war or Franco. The agreement effectively lapsed after 2000, the year the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory was founded and the public debate started. In 2006, a poll indicated that almost two-thirds of Spaniards favored a "fresh investigation into the war".
  The Oxford Living Dictionary uses Franco's regime as an example of fascism. However, most historians agree that although Franco and Spain under his rule adopted some trappings of fascism they are generally not considered to be fascist, at most describing the early totalitarian phase of his rule as a "fascistized dictatorship", or "semi-fascist regime".
  Franco served as a role model for several anti-communist dictators in South America. Augusto Pinochet is known to have admired Franco. Similarly, as recently as 2006, Franco supporters in Spain have honored Pinochet.
  In 2006, the BBC reported that Maciej Giertych, an MEP of the clerical-nationalist League of Polish Families, had expressed admiration for Franco, stating that the Spanish leader "guaranteed the maintenance of traditional values in Europe".
  Spaniards who suffered under Franco's rule have sought to remove memorials of his regime. Most government buildings and streets that were named after Franco during his rule have been reverted to their original names. Owing to Franco's human-rights record, the Spanish government in 2007 banned all official public references to the Franco regime and began the removal of all statues, street names and memorials associated with the regime, with the last statue reportedly being removed in 2008 in the city of Santander. Churches that retain plaques commemorating Franco and the victims of his Republican opponents may lose state aid. Since 1978, the national anthem of Spain, the Marcha Real, does not include lyrics introduced by Franco. Attempts to give the national anthem new lyrics have failed due to lack of consensus.
  In March 2006, the Permanent Commission of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe unanimously adopted a resolution "firmly" condemning the "multiple and serious violations" of human rights committed in Spain under the Francoist regime from 1939 to 1975. The resolution was at the initiative of Leo Brincat and of the historian Luis María de Puig, and was the first international official condemnation of the repression enacted by Franco's regime. The resolution also urged that historians (professional and amateur) be 
caption: Franco's body was removed from the monument of Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caídos, where it had lain since his funeral in 1975.
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