“We had to remain neutral”: the Roosevelts and the Issue of Aid to The Spanish Republic during the Civil War (1936-1939)
Keywords:
Aid, Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Spanish Civil War, Neutrality
Abstract
This paper analyses what kind of support was offered by Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt to aid civilians and the Republican Government during the Spanish Civil War (1936 -1939), considering the decision that the US Government had taken to follow a policy of neutrality during the conflict. Although the only type of collaboration that was allowed by the neutrality legislation was humanitarian relief, the Roosevelts were not always neutral and, although late, on their own account they tried to help the Republican government with other supplies which were needed. We focus our attention on the Roosevelts’ different views and the rapprochement of positions that converged with their empathy towards the legitimate Republican government. All in all, this paper addresses some of their statements, initiatives, and actions, as well as their official inaction at certain crucial events to shed some light on the impact of their decisions not only on a critical moment of Spanish history, but also on the United States and on the international context.Downloads
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References
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Traina, R. P. (1968). American Diplomacy and the Spanish Civil War. Indiana University Press.
Truman, H. S. (1955). Memoirs. Vol.1: 1945, Year of Decisions. Doubleday and Company, Inc.
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Valaik, J. D. (1967). Catholics, Neutrality, and the Spanish Embargo, 1937-1939. The Journal of American History, 54 (1) (June), 73-85.
Viñas, Á. (2006). La soledad de la República. Crítica.
Viñas, Á. (2019). ¿Quién quiso la guerra civil? Historia de una conspiración. Crítica.
Welles, S. (1944). The Time for Decision. Harper and Brothers.
Winfield, Betty Houchin. (1990). The Legacy of Eleanor Roosevelt. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 20 (4), Modern First Ladies White House Organization, 699-706.
Azaña Díaz, M. (1978). Memorias de guerra. Grijalbo.
Beasley, M. (1986). Eleanor Roosevelt's Vision of Journalism: A Communications Medium for Women. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 16 (1), The Media and the Presidency (Winter, 1986), 66-75.
Bosch Sánchez, A. (2012). Miedo a la democracia: Estados Unidos ante la Segunda República y la Guerra Civil española. Crítica.
Bosch Sánchez, A. (2013). Entre la democracia y la neutralidad: Estados Unidos ante la Guerra Civil española, Ayer 90/2013 (2),167-187.
Botero, R. (2001). Ambivalent Embrace. America’s Troubled Relations with Spain from the Revolutionary War to the Cold War. Greenwood.
Bowers, C. (1954). My Mission to Spain: Watching the Rehearsal for World War II. Simon and Schuster.
Chapman, M. E. (2011). Arguing Americanism. Franco lobbyists, Roosevelt’s Foreign Policy and the Spanish Civil War. The Kent State University Press.
Cook, B. W. (1999). Eleanor Roosevelt. Vol. 2: The Defining Years, 1933–1938. Penguin Books.
Dallek, R. (1981). F.D.R. & American Foreign Policy 1932-1945. Oxford University Press.
Duroselle, J. B. (1965). Política exterior de los Estados Unidos. Fondo de Cultura Económica.
Freidel, F. (1990). Franklin D. Roosevelt: His Rendez-Vous with Destiny. Little Brown & Company.
Hull, C. (1948). The Memoirs of Cordell Hull. Macmillan.
Hunt, J. G. (1995). The Essential Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Gramercy Books.
Ickes, H. (1954). The Secret Diary of Harold Ickes. Vol. 2: The Inside Struggle 1936-1939. Simon and Schuster.
Jackson, G. (2005). La II República española, el New Deal y la Guerra Civil. En Lorenzo Delgado y María Dolores Elizalde (Eds.). España y Estados Unidos en el siglo XX (112-123). Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas.
Lash, J. P. (1995). Eleanor Roosevelt and Franklin. Smithmark.
Little, D. (1985). Malevolent Neutrality. The United States, Great Britain, and the Origin of the Spanish Civil War. Cornell Univ. Press.
Maul, D. (2016). The Politics of Neutrality: The American Friends Service Committee and the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939. European Review of History 23/1-2, 82-100.
Moradiellos, E. (2004). 1936. Los mitos de la Guerra Civil. Ediciones Península.
Orduña Prada, M. (2021). Humanitarismo católico estadounidense ante la Guerra Civil Española: America Spanish Relief Fund y Hildreth Melère. Aportes, nº105 (1/2021), 175-199.
Padelford, N. J. (1937). The International Non-Intervention Agreement and the Spanish Civil War. The American Journal of International Law, 31 (4) (Oct.), 578-603.
Petrus, G. (2015). La ayuda humanitaria en la Guerra Civil española (1936-1939). Comares.
Preston, P. (2000). La guerra civil española, Liberduplex.
Rey García, M. (1996). Fernando de los Ríos y Juan F. de Cárdenas: dos Embajadores para la guerra de España (1936-1939). REDEN. Revista Española de Estudios Norteamericanos (Alcalá de Henares) (11), 129-149.
Rodríguez Lago, José Ramón (2016). Las redes católicas entre España y los Estados Unidos de América (1919-1939). En Juan Carlos Mercado (Ed.). Historical Links between Spain and North America. Universidad de Alcalá, Biblioteca Benjamin Franklin, 75-84.
Roosevelt, E. (1949). This I Remember. Da Capo Press.
Roosevelt, E. (1992). The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt. Da Capo Press.
Tierney, D. (2004). Franklin D. Roosevelt and Covert Aid to the Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-39, Journal of Contemporary History, 39, (3) (Jul.), 299-313.
Tierney, D. (2007). FDR and the Spanish Civil War. Neutrality and Commitment in the Struggle that Divided America. Duke University Press.
Thomàs Andreu, J. M. (2007). Roosevelt y Franco. De la Guerra Civil española a Pearl Harbor. Edhasa.
Thomàs Andreu, J. M. (2020). La larga sombra de la Guerra Civil: España y las grandes potencias (1939–1953). Dictatorships & Democracies. Journal of History and Culture 8: 11–26, https://dx.doi.org/10.7238/dd.v0i8.3171
Traina, R. P. (1968). American Diplomacy and the Spanish Civil War. Indiana University Press.
Truman, H. S. (1955). Memoirs. Vol.1: 1945, Year of Decisions. Doubleday and Company, Inc.
United States Bureau of Census (1975). Historical Statistics of The United States, Colonial Times to 1975. Bicentennial Edition. Washington, D. C.: U. S. Government Printing Office.
Valaik, J. D. (1967). Catholics, Neutrality, and the Spanish Embargo, 1937-1939. The Journal of American History, 54 (1) (June), 73-85.
Viñas, Á. (2006). La soledad de la República. Crítica.
Viñas, Á. (2019). ¿Quién quiso la guerra civil? Historia de una conspiración. Crítica.
Welles, S. (1944). The Time for Decision. Harper and Brothers.
Winfield, Betty Houchin. (1990). The Legacy of Eleanor Roosevelt. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 20 (4), Modern First Ladies White House Organization, 699-706.
Published
2024-11-30
How to Cite
Arroyo Vázquez, M. L. (2024). “We had to remain neutral”: the Roosevelts and the Issue of Aid to The Spanish Republic during the Civil War (1936-1939). Cuadernos De Historia De España, (91). https://doi.org/10.34096/che.n91.15763
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