Two of the 20th century’s well-known dictators died in 1975, 40 years ago.
Chiang Kai-Shek, leader of Nationalist China, was 87 when he passed away on April 5, 1975, while Francisco Franco, the caudillo of Spain, was almost 83 when he succumbed to illness on Nov. 20, 1975.
Chiang Kai-shek was the Chinese military and political leader who led the Kuomintang (the KMT, or Chinese Nationalist Party) for five decades and was head of state of mainland China between 1928 and 1949, when his forces fled the mainland to the island of Taiwan.
Chiang began his military training in 1906 and, leading a regiment in Shanghai, took part in the uprising in 1911 that overthrew the Qing Dynasty and established the Chinese republic under Sun Yat-sen.
After Sun's death in 1925, Chiang became leader of the KMT. He reunified most of China under a Nationalist government based in Nanjing and led the suppression of the Chinese Communist Party.
From 1931, though, he had to contend with a Japanese invasion, first in Manchuria, and after 1937, in the rest of the country.
Though Japan was defeated in 1945, civil war broke out between the KMT and the Communists, who had grown in strength during the war. In 1949, the Communists were victorious, establishing the People’s Republic of China, and Chiang and the remaining KMT forces fled to Taiwan.
There he established a government in exile, which Chiang led for the next quarter-century, and where he imposed martial law. He insisted that his remained the legitimate government of China, though eventually most countries recognized the government in Beijing.
After his death, Taiwan was governed by his son, Chiang Ching-kuo, who began to liberalize the political system in the mid-1980s. The generalissimo’s memory is rarely invoked by current political parties, including the Kuomintang.
Francisco Franco in 1907 entered the Infantry Academy and rose rapidly through the ranks; by 1926 he was the youngest general in Spain.
A military dictatorship condoned by King Alfonso XIII governed Spain from 1923 to 1931, but the king was deposed and a republic declared. The country entered a period of uncertainty and disorder.
In 1935 Franco became army chief of staff. When a Popular Front coalition, including Communists, won the elections in February 1936, he and other military leaders began discussing a coup.
On July 18, 1936, military officers launched an uprising. The ensuing Spanish Civil War would last three traumatic years, killing at least half a million people, and devastating the country.
Franco secured the backing of the Catholic Church, and dissolved all political parties other than the fascist Falange. He also acquired massive military assistance from fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.
The Republic received support from the Soviet Union and the Communist-led International Brigades, but was eventually worn down. Madrid surrendered in March 1939, ending the conflict.
Though he sympathized with the Axis powers, Franco largely stayed out of the Second World War, perhaps because Hitler refused to guarantee Spain a giant chunk of the French Empire in Africa following the French defeat in 1940.
However, Franco did send some 50,000 volunteers, the Blue Division, to fight alongside the Germans on the Soviet front.
Following the war,Spain faced diplomatic and economic isolation, but that began to lessen during the Cold War. As well, political repression within the country diminished.
In 1947 Franco had declared that a king would succeed him, and in 1969 he chose Prince Juan Carlos, the grandson of King Alfonso XIII.
The new monarch dismantled the authoritarian state created by Franco and legalized political parties. The first post-Franco elections were held in 1977. In 2007, the Spanish government removed statues, street names and memorials associated with the Franco regime.
Since the deaths of the two rulers, both Taiwan and Spain have become functioning democracies, and have left their days of military rule and dictatorship behind them.
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