The great Henry Kissinger, who did not believe in the Transition but helped Juan Carlos I achieve it

“It was very comprehensive and practical advice. was saying: Don’t go too fast or make any more concessions Charles Powell, director of the Elcano Royal Institute and the author of a book called Kissinger and Spain, explains to this newspaper: “Choose from what is necessary and do not call an election until you are sure you can win.” The role of the head of American diplomacy in the Spanish Transition. In that cable, for example, he advised the country to rely on demographic experts to know what it really thinks and adjust the pace of implementing the democratic initiative.

But Kissinger had an obsession: communism. He wanted to exclude it from the Spanish Parliament to maintain its illegality. Time would remove its causeand this legalization will become one of the keys to a peaceful transition in Spain.

Almighty Kisser

Henry Kissinger (Fürth, Germany, 1923) died this Thursday at the age of 100. He was a professor of History at Harvard. National Security Advisor (1969-1975) and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1973-1977) in the Administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. For the first and only time in history, the overlap of these two positions turned him into a very powerful entity, a kind of second president.

With this power, he committed horrific war crimes (indiscriminate bombings of civilians in Cambodia, or supporting coups in Chile or Argentina with tens of thousands of dead or missing). Despite everything, he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his contributions to ending the Vietnam War.

Kissinger is known for his “realist” positions on American foreign policy: crude interests above all ideological issues and the use of force to defend them.

Kissinger and the Spanish Crossing

His time in power coincided with the final phase of the Spanish dictatorship and the transition to democracy. Did this make the process easier or harder? “He had little faith in the Transitionnor about the ability of the Spanish to govern themselves, because he had an extensive historical knowledge of both 19th-century Europe and the Civil War,” Powell explains. He admired the culture, the literature, or the Spanish empire, but, as he once noted, the ability of the Spanish people to live together. He said he didn’t trust him.

Kissinger is a The charitable vision of the Franco regime: It was an authoritarian regime, yes, but it was a regime that allowed for impressive socioeconomic development. And he was a firm ally of the United States.

Despite this vision, Secretary of State Kissinger was co-responsible for a movement that would play a key role years later. He helped plan a trip for Juan Carlos I to appear before the entire United States Congress, Senate, and House of Representatives. It was June 1976. The king spoke about democracy in Spain for the first time and promised to develop it. It receives praise from editorials in major media outlets such as the Washington Post or the New York Times. Upon his return to Spain, President Carlos Arias fired Navarro and appointed Adolfo Suárez, recalls Powell, who is also the author of The American Friend (Galaxia Gutenberg, 2011), writing about transatlantic relations.

Reduce Worker Commissions

In the second half of the 20th century, relations between the USA and Spain were shaped around the military bases signed by Franco in 1953. political tools of the dictatorship to obtain economic funds and political support from Washington. However, after the definitive text was signed in 1970, the issue was removed from bilateral relations and turned more to the political dimension. Kissinger visited Spain eight times between 1970 and 1976. He was concerned about the reemergence of communism on the Peninsula, as it had in Italy or was threatening to emerge in France. He distrusted both Spanish and Portuguese socialist parties.

But he had a good adviser in Spain: Ambassador Wells Stabler, one of the few career diplomats Kissinger respected and dared to contradict him. Speaking fluent Spanish and meeting with political actors in turbulent Spain, Stabler argued that support should be given to the socialist party to control the communists. An Atlanticist, democratic, moderate PSOE. Having witnessed the rise of communists in Italy or, to a lesser extent, France, Kissinger was distrustful, believing the socialists to be weak and poorly organized. During his last trip to Spain, Kissinger told then-Foreign Minister José María de Areiza: “Go slowly.”

I was particularly obsessed The Rise of Workers’ CommissionsFor PCE’s support. To counter this, Washington supported the UGT. Powell says Kissinger even organized a meeting between representatives of the largest union confederation, the AFL-CIO, and Juan Carlos I.

Kissinger and Western Sahara

Stabler even wanted to speed up the process. Transfer of powers from ailing Franco to Prince Juan CarlosSomething Kissinger would stop. Kissinger sent him a very harsh telegram, saying that under no circumstances would he support this transition of power: we had to wait for the dictator to die.

Kissinger was also a key player in the 1975 “handover” of Western Sahara by Spain to Morocco and Mauritania. Tripartite Agreement, King II. It ended the conflict sparked by the Green March organized by Hasan: tens of thousands of civilians and camouflaged soldiers. It entered the 53rd province of Spain, first peacefully, then with blood and fire. “The myth that Kissinger conspired to organize this is not true,” says Powell. “What is certain is that neither he nor Juan Carlos ever believed in the viability of an independent state in Western Sahara and wanted Morocco to protect it because it was an ally in the region for the United States.”