The Last Days of the Spanish Republic PDF
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THE LAST DAYS OF THE SPANISH REPUBLIC BY THE SAME AUTHOR The Coming of the Spanish Civil War The Triumph of Democracy in Spain The Politics of Revenge Franco: A Biography ¡Comrades! Portraits from the Spanish Civil War Doves of War: Four Women of Spain Juan Carlos: Steering Spain from Dictatorship to Democracy The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution and Revenge We Saw Spain Die: Foreign Correspondents in the Spanish Civil War The Spanish Holocaust: Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth-Century Spain The Last Stalinist PAUL PRESTON THE LAST DAYS OF THE SPANISH REPUBLIC WILLIAM COLLINS William Collins An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SEI 9GF www.WilliamCollinsBooks.com First published in Great Britain by William CoUins in 2016 135798642 Copyright © Paul Preston 2016 Paul Preston asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-0-00-816340-2 AU rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shaU not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives pic FSC C007454 FSC is a non-profit international organisation established to promote the responsible management of the world s forests. Products carrying the FSC label are independently certified to assure consumers that they come from forests that are managed to meet the social, economic and ecological needs of present or future generations, and other controUed sources. Find out more about HarperCoUins and the environment at www.harpercollins.co.uk/green For Lala Isla CONTENTS Acknowledgements ix 1 An Avoidable Tragedy 1 2 Resist to Survive 23 3 The Power of Exhaustion 39 4 The Quest for an Honourable Peace 65 5 Casado Sows the Wind 87 6 Negrin Abandoned 117 7 In the Kingdom of the Blind 141 8 On the Eve of Catastrophe 167 9 The Desertion of the Fleet 187 10 The Coup - the Stab in the Back 211 11 Casado’s Civil War 237 12 Casado Reaps the Whirlwind 263 Epilogue: Repent at Leisure? 299 Abbreviations 323 Notes 325 Bibliography 359 Illustration Credits 361 Index 377 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the course of preparing this book, I have had the good fortune to rely on the advice on various issues of the following friends and colleagues. Michael Alpert, Javier Cervera, Robert Coale, Alfonso Domingo, Luis Español Bouché, Xulio García Bilbao, Carmen Gonzalez Martinez, Fernando Hernández Sánchez, Eladi Mainar Cabanas, Ricardo Miralles, Enrique Moradiellos, Óscar Rodriguez Barreiro, Cristina Rodríguez Gutiérrez, Sandra Souto and Julián Vadillo. I am extremely grateful to the following friends for their help in the location of archival material. Laura Diaz Herrera for her invalu able help in Madrid and Ávila; Ángeles Egido León, José Manuel Vidal Zapater and Luis Vidal Zapater for permitting access to the unpublished memoirs of José Manuel Vidal Zapater; María Jesús González Hernández for help with the Causa General. Aurelio Martín Nájera as so often in the past was immensely generous in helping me with documents held in the Archivo Histórico of the Fundación Pablo Iglesias. Sir George Young and Lady Young kindly granted permission for the use of the papers of Sir George Young. My greatest debt is to Carmen Negrin and Sergio Millares Cantero for their unstinting assistance with both the papers and the photographs held in the Fundación Juan Negrin of Las Palmas. I also want to put on record my thanks to Jesús Navarro, Juan Carlos Escandell and José Ramón Valero Escandell for an unforget table day spent exploring ‘Posición Yuste’ (El Poblet), the houses at ‘Posición Dakar and the airfield (now a vineyard) of El Fondô in Monôver. Professor Valero Escandell also generously provided maps and photographs of the area of the Val de Vinalopó. X ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The gestation of this book, as with others in the past, was made especially rewarding thanks to my good fortune in being able to discuss many points of fact and of interpretation with my friends Helen Graham, Linda Palfreeman and Angel Viñas.
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