GUERRILLAS
IN THE
SPANISH CIVIL WAR
by Barton Whaley
Research Program on Problems of International
Communication and Security*
In all the work that they, the
partlzans did, they brought added
danger and bad luck to the people
that sheltered them and worked
with them.
—Hemingway,
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Center for International Studies
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts
September 1969
The Research for this paper was sponsored by the Advanced Research
Project Agency of the Department of Defense under ARPA order #427 and
monitored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)
https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/703755.pdf
PREFACE
This monograph is a companion to three other books by myself:
Guerrilla Communications (multilithed, 1966), Soviet Intervention in the
Spanish Civil War (draft, 19^5), and Hemingway and the Spanish Civil Wa:-
(draft, I967). It is the detailed version of one of the case studies
utilized in the first work. It is written in conjunction with the Research
Program on Problems of International Communication and Security sponsored
by the Advanced Research Projects of the Department of Defense under
contract No. 920F-9717 and monitored by the Air Force Office of Scientific
Research (AFOSR) under contract AF U9 (638)-1227.
Among the plethora of primary documents, rapportage, and memoirs of
the Spanish Civil War, few have recorded data on guerrilla operations and
none give it extended treatment. Even the dozen or so excellent major
studies of the Spanish Civil War that have appeared since 1955, while
brightly illuminating many of the controversial problems and questions of
the period, give little or no attention to its guerrilla aspect.
Except for some tantalizing passing remarks in memoirs published in
the igSO's and l^O's, it is only during the present decade that enough
evidence has accumulated to permit a coherent account. Since 1956 the
Russians have permitted gradual release of some new material on limited
aspects of their participation, including the guerrilla aspect.
These specific references by Russian and other Communists to guerrilla operations in
Spain have been part of the de-Stalinization process, particularly that
part concerned with the "rehabilitation" ox" the. "Spaniards," that is, the
East European Communist veterans of the Spanish Civil War whom Stalin had
vilified and purged after World War II. The more recent (19^^) extension
of these rehabilitations to include those few "chekists" (NKVD personnel)
who attempted to mitigate the horrors of Stalinist purges has probably
given impetus to the current admissions of the clandestine role of the NKVD
in Spain. However, a more direct cause has perhaps been the recent Soviet
attacks on some of the guerrilla warfare theories of "Che" Guevara.
Except, possibly, the recent memoir by Soviet Colonel Starinov,
which I have seen only in translated excerpts.
Due to my exclusive reliance on the weak published literature, this
study, in its present form, should be judged as a preliminary effort only.
To pave the way for future research of a more definitive nature, I have
supplied two aides: first, a bibliography that is also a check-list of all
relevant references found by mc and, second, a biographical appendix that
includes all known living eyewitness sources.
My appreciation is due Professor William B. Watson of M.I.T. for suggesting the line of investigation of reasons why the senior Loyalist officials did not develop a guerrilla warfare policy. I wish particularly to thank the Swiss political journalist Dr. Ernst Halperin for callinc to my attention the material on Abraham Guillen, the important article by Colonel Enrique Lister on post-Civil War guerrilla operations in Spain, for discussing his recollections of his interview in 1963 with General Alberto Bayo inCuba, and for his several critical comments regarding both facts and interpretations. For suggestions concerning the organization and focus of this paper, I am indebted to Professor Ithiel de Sola Pool of M.I.T. I also profited from brief discussions with Professor Noam Chomsky of M.I.T. and Mr. Eric Hobsbawm. For the examples of counterinsurgency policies in Greco-Roman antiquity I am thankful to Mr. T. F. Carney. Mrs. (now Dr.) Rosemary Rogers kindly helped with translations of the material by Ernst Kantorowicz.
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