The Liberation of Madrid, 75 Years Later

If you're glad that Spain today is a constitutional monarchy rather than a failed ex-Communist republic like most of Eastern Europe, thank God that Francisco Franco won the Siege of Madrid, and therefore the Spanish Civil War, 75 years ago today. No, he wasn't nice. But niceness does not destroy illegitimate leftist republics, and the alternative was a Stalinist Spain bent on obliterating the Catholic Church. There is so much misinformation and propaganda about the Spanish Civil War, with many people, perhaps even including some conservatives and monarchists, imagining it to have been a struggle between "democracy" and "fascism" when actually the Republican coalition included many who were not at all democratic and the Nationalist coalition included many who were not at all fascist. Unlike all other 20th-century European "right-wing" dictators, Franco eventually restored his country's legitimate royal dynasty (though he certainly took his time), and he should get credit for that, as well as for saving Spain and her Church from Communism.
 
Viva el Rey Juan Carlos!