50 years since N20: US ambassador briefs Kissinger on the new “time of the transition”

Eduardo González On November 22, 1975, two days after the death of dictator Francisco Franco, Juan Carlos de Borbón was sworn in as King of Spain before the Francoist Cortes, pledging to “uphold and enforce the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom and the principles of the National Movement” of the regime. Five days later, on November 27, the anointing ceremony (the closest thing to a coronation in Spain) was held at the Parish Church of San Jerónimo el Real. At this event, unlike Franco's funeral on November 23, the international representation was somewhat more significant: Prince Bertil of Sweden, the Crown Prince of Morocco, Sidi Mohamed; Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, of the United Kingdom; Prince Rainier of Monaco, and the Prime Minister of Egypt, Mamdouh Salem. The president of France, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, and the president of Germany, Walter Scheel, were also present. One of the few leaders who attended both events was Nelson Rockefeller, Vice President of the United States under Gerald Ford. Ford had been the third and last American president to visit Spain during Franco's long dictatorship (Dwight D. Eisenhower visited in 1959 and Richard Nixon in 1970), but by then, the U.S. State Department had already begun to distance itself from the Caudillo, whose physical and mental decline was evident, to focus primarily on his successor, Juan Carlos de Borbón. In fact, during his two-day visit to Madrid, which began on May 31, 1975, Ford spent considerably more time with the then-prince than with Franco. On November 21, 1975, just one day after the dictator's death, the United States ambassador to Spain, Wells Stabler, sent a "confidential" cable to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, in which he gave a brief summary of his view of the situation. The text is among the so-called "Kissinger Cables," released years ago by WikiLeaks, which include more than 1.7 million US diplomatic documents from the period 1973-1976. Based on his observations as a member of the Vice President's delegation, Stabler asserted that the situation in Spain was "quite calm" and would likely remain so "during this transition period." "Spain had ample time to get used to the notion of Franco's dying," and therefore, "Madrid functions rather normally, although more slowly and the govt has decreed a complete closedown only for Saturday." After describing the “enormous lines” that “materialized to file past Franco’s bier,” with “scenes of emotion, particularly from Civil War veterans,” the ambassador stated that, “for the most part the citizenry wait patiently, chatting quietly, with little sign of emotion,” while the media “is all Franco” and concentrating “on even the most inconsequential aspects of his long life.” However, he cautioned, “once deep mourning is over, they will swing back to the question of the future under Juan Carlos.” The threat of the extreme right linked “to certain police elements” “I foresee no major troubles inmediately,” the ambassador assured Kissinger. “they would not likely occur unless events prove that Juan Carlos' good intentions were insufficient to overcome the venom of past hates, both left and right,” he continued. “The Spanish security services profess some understandable concern over the possibility, however remote, that left wing terrorists (ETA or FRAP) might break their current inaction by an attack on Juan Carlos personally. Obviously, if successful, this would throw the spanish political scene into turmoil,” he added. In Wells Stabler’s opinion, Juan Carlos had “a difficult road ahead, in which he will seek to move without pause, but without haste,” and, for this, “he has considerable support, first of all from the mood of the Spanish people, but also from the Church, the establishment aperturistas, and, at in a tacit sense at least, from the Military.” However, the ambassador noted a problem that “has become sharper: the threat from the right.” “There is entrenched opposition to apertura from the bunker and from violence-prone rightist groups who will have to be brought under control, and their links with certain police elements severed, if the transition is to prosper,” he warned. Therefore, in his view, the “threat to evolution, in the initial stages, is stronger on the far right than from the far left (the Communist Party and the violence-prone groups such as the FRAP),” but, “of course, the extreme left and extreme right, united in their opposition to democratic reforms, feed upon each other.” Juan Carlos’s first steps Among Juan Carlos’s immediate challenges, Stabler highlighted the need to “address two crucial appointments: the Primer Minister and the Presidency of the Cortes.” In the second case, the cable indicated that the outgoing president of the Cortes (and head of the Regency Council), the Falangist Alejandro Rodríguez de Valcárcel, had “mounted a campaign among regime elements” to be reappointed by the future king, but “the Prince inclines toward someone new, because otherwise he will have reappointed a man clearly identified with the past for a six-year term.” Regarding the Presidency of the Government, the ambassador believed that Franco’s last Prime Minister, Carlos Arias Navarro, possessed “some aperturista credentials and is clearly a transition figure that could be retained temporarily.” According to Stabler, “the Prince has inclined toward replacement, but there is no obvious frontrunner.” “He does not have an entirely free hand and the process of political brokering might even lead him to retain one but not the other,” he added. In fact, that is what happened: Arias Navarro remained at the head of the Government, and Rodríguez de Valcárcel was replaced by Torcuato Fernández-Miranda. “Beyond these decisions lies the complex issue of how to open up the political process,” the ambassador continued. “The Prince and his government will have a relatively short honeymoon in which to get the process underway in decent fashion,” he added. “The Spaniards will be watching their new king closely, as well as the Europeans for that matter,” Stabler warned, adding that the attendance of Giscard, Scheel, and Prince Felipe at the investiture ceremony suggested “an intention on the part of major european countries to give political evolution under Juan Carlos an initial boost.” In the ambassador’s view, the position taken by the United States in this situation had been “quite helpful” for its “interests, in both the long and short run.” “The fact that we have contacts with all the non-extremist groups, whether of the establishment or of the opposition, has not been missed. this action does more than mere words to emphaszie our support for an evolution toward a pluralist Spain that can be linked with Europe in meaningful ways,” the cable concluded.

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