Franco's Friends

Book excerpt: Franco's Friends tells the little-known true story of how MI6 orchestrated the coup that brought General Franco to power in Spain in 1936, leading to the Spanish civil war and 40 years of right-wing dictatorship. It has long been known that a British plane took Franco from the Canaries to Morocco at the start of his coup. What is not known is the importance of his role and the extent of the involvement of the British intelligenceservices. Based on previously unknown material from the National Archives, Imperial War Museum, the British Library and private archives, this is one of the great previously untold stories of the Second World War, revealing how Britain made a dubious but difficult moral choice that would have repercussions on the outcome of the Second World War.