The Abraham Lincoln Brigade’s role in the Spanish Civil War

The surviving members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade returned to America as heroes of the free world, attemping halt fascism and to protect democracy world wide. Many of the survivers went on to enlist in WWII. However it’s ‘funny’(inverted commas) that many Lincolns returned to America to find themselves black-listed during the McCarthy period, galvanized as ‘Reds.’ Some were not allowed to enlist in WWII because of this label. This seems ironic considering that these men and women fought for democracy yet the country labeling them as ‘reds’ allowed the spread of fascism when they could have done little and prevented it.

A small revolt, beginning with Franco in Morocco quickly turned into a large scale civil war. These rebels called themselves the Council of National Defense, or Nationalist. At first the republican government was able to maintain its strength and hold down the rebellion. Due to foreign support from Hitler’s Nazis Germany and Italy’s fascist dictator Benito Mussolini the rebel army rapidly grew strength. Fascist Italy sent 70,000 soldiers to fight for the Nationalists and Germany supplied modern weaponry such as planes, tanks, and submarines. The republican forces did not receive foreign support in this magnitude. The Soviet Union and few other countries supplied little help but most countries including the United States opted to remain neutral. This lack of support was the reason the republic was unable to defend itself against this strong fascist rebellion.

In July of 1937 the Abraham Lincoln Brigade moved to it’s next battle in the town of Brunete. This battle, too was one of the most important in which the Lincoln Brigade had fought in. In this battle they fought along side of the George Washington battalion. The large number of casualties in this battle and the death of the commander Oliver Law caused the two battalions to be unified into one. The objective of capturing the town of Brunete was to divide the rebel armies attacking Madrid. Showing the major weakness of the republican army, one of the soldiers of the Lincoln-Washington brigade reported “We were winning the battle of Brunete until the German planes began to bomb us. Brunete was just flattened...” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,395359,00.html). The battle of Brunete was successful in delaying the Nationalists but in the long run the republic and the International Brigade was unable to prevent the rebels from taking Madrid.

The newly elected government failed to suffice the poor who were still hungry and landless, and a large economic crisis developed in Spain scaring people of all political sides. A significant amount of conservatives still remained powerful because of their socio-economic status. They included the supporters of the monarchy, the Catholic church and the military led by four or five conservative generals such as Franco. The rejection of the monarchy and the Catholic church add

Some topics in this essay:
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