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.