"Franco won the Spanish Civil War in large part due to the support he received from Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. Truman supported United Nations resolutions in 1945 and 1946 keeping Franco’s Spain out of the world organization and canceling full diplomatic recognition of his regime, and under the President’s direction the 1947 Marshall Plan to rebuild war-ravaged Europe also excluded Spain. However, the U.S. tolerated the presence in Washington of lower-level Spanish diplomats, who hired well-connected lawyers and lobbyists and cultivated relations with the Catholic leaders, right-wing legislators such as Sen. Pat McCarran, Pentagon planners, and selected U.S. exporters. By the end of 1947, important members of Truman’s administration sought a new policy of military cooperation with Franco to counter the alleged Soviet threat to western Europe, and by early 1950 the Senate had voted to extend economic aid to Spain."
Ooops, the link:
http://www.albavolunteer.org/2...lliance-with-franco/
" British and French opposition kept Spain out of the nascent North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but in mid-1951 the U.S. began formal negotiations with Spain for a mutual defense agreement. The Pact of Madrid, signed in 1953, provided $1.4 billion in U.S. military and economic aid to Spain over the next 10 years in return for naval and air bases for American forces."
As a result my hometown started hosting since July 1957 facilities providing operational support for SAC Boeing B-47 Stratojet alert force dispersal. Zaragoza was under SAC's 65th Air Division. Support continued for B-47 operations until 1 July 1964, when Zaragoza AB was placed on standby status with the withdrawal of the B-47 from active service.
https://jetpilotoverseas.wordp...air-base-spain-1957/
This message was last edited by the player at 03:49, Mon 21 Nov 2016.
