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    "title": "Report, Central Intelligence Agency, Spain, Situation Report 11",
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    "seq": 85,
    "pageIndex": 0,
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    "ocrText": "SECRET\nAPPENDIX D\nJulgim\nFrancisco FRANCO, Chief of State and Generalissimo of the Armed Forces, is the\ndominant figure in the Spanish Government. As one of the generals organizing the\nrebellion against the Republic in July 1936, Franco flew secretly from his command post\nin the Canary Islands to Spanish Morocco, where he was well known as an outstand-\ning officer in the Moroccan campaigns of the '20s and as Chief of Staff the previous\nyear. Under his leadership the forces in Morocco rose against the Government. He\npromptly crossed to the mainland with Moorish and Spanish troops. The military\nrevolt turning into protracted civil war, the importance of the armies under his com-\nmand and the deaths of several other generals cleared the way for his emergence\nas commander-in-chief of the Nationalist movement. The committee of generals\nwhich had been established by the Nationalists immediately after the outbreak\nof\nrebellion also conferred on him the powers of civil government, and on 1 October 1936\nhe signed for the first time in his capacity as Chief of State, a law establishing the new\nSpanish State.\nFranco's whole career had hitherto been purely military. Born on 4 December\n1892, he entered the Army in 1907, and by the time he was 24 had been promoted to\nMajor. His assignment to the Foreign Legion put him in command of the toughest\nmen in the Spanish Army. The reputation for ruthlessness and bravery under fire\nwhich he made in Morocco led to his promotion to Brigadier General in 1926, when he\nbecame the youngest officer of that rank. He served from 1927 to 1931 as Director of\nthe General Military Academy at Zaragoza. Although the Republican Government\nabolished the Academy and greatly reduced the officer ranks, Franco remained in active\nservice. His rightist political views were known, and when the 1933 elections brought\nto power a government hostile to the extreme Left, Gil Robles, the War Minister, called\nupon Franco to suppress the leftist uprising in the Asturias and subsequently made\nhim Chief of Staff. Immediately following the Popular Front victory in the general\nelections of 1936, the new Premier, fearful of Franco's anti-Republicanism, sent him as\na precautionary measure to the Canaries.\nAs Chief of State, Franco has been tenacious of power, cautious, skillful both\nin keeping the Army satisfied and in preventing the rise of rival leadership. He has\nseverely repressed all political parties, ruthlessly eliminating his active opponents. He\nsponsored the artificial growth of the Falange Party into the one medium of political\nlife in the state. Furthering conspicuously the selfish interests of the Army and the\nChurch, he has been less concerned to propitiate landholders and business men, de-\npending on their fear of civil strife to keep them in line while he has extended bureau-\ncratic control over all aspects of the national economy. Personally ignorant in eco-\nnomic matters, he has not hesitated to move further into the risks of one-man govern-\nment. His self-confidence is such that he asks and accepts little advice, often making\nimportant decisions without informing his Ministers.\n77\nSECRET"
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