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http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1204.htmlOne of the most durable, canny and empirical of modern dictators, Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teodulo Franco y Bahamonde became master of Spain as a result of a military conspiracy, a dash of luck, timely help from foreign corporations, the influence of the Roman Catholic hierarchy and crucial armed assistance from Hitler and Mussolini.
He became dictator in 1939 in the culmination of a three-year civil war. He was aided in winning the war by the internal weaknesses of the incumbent Government, principally its inability to achieve political unity among its disparate parties and factions.
Although the Government put up a valiant defense, it had fatal difficulty in buying arms abroad. Its armed forces, moreover, were beset by the same sort of disunity that hobbled the Cabinet.
At the close of his long and sternly authoritarian rule, Generalissimo Franco could look back on 36 years of an imposed stability that rested on a policy of suppression of fundamental democratic rights. But it was also a stability that gave Spain a rising standard of living, industrial growth and an important alliance with the United States.
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