America's Vietnam War Fascist Ally 

I studied the Vietnam War and never had any idea that this took place. Thank you, Lord Felton

Mark, my father Argimiro García Granado, was Chief of the Spanish Medical Mission for two years and I can say that the reason Franco collaborated with Johnson was because of the crash of two Boeing B-52 Stratofortress in Palomares, in January 1966, so the President issued a secret invitation for collaboration and compensation for the accident of a humanitarian mission that Franco accepted. The mission was for 5 years and only medical.I have docs. to which serve as proof of the character of the mission. I am a follower of your channel and I remain at your disposal for what is offered. Best regards

There's also that when Johnson asked for Spain's assitance, Franco replied with a letter in which he warned Johnson about a guerrilla war in Vietnam and that it would be very dificult for the americans to win. Franco himself was a veteran of a guerrilla war in Morrocco in the 1920s, which shaped his brutal approach to war, and said in his letter than in guerrilla warfare it didn't matter the quality and quantity of the troops and guns, but at which point the americans where reading to destroy any oposition or manage to win the hearts of the population.

In august 18th of 1965 Franco responded in a letter to President Johnson that he would not send troops to Vietnam and suggested that he reach an agreement with Ho Chi Minh. In said letter el Caudillo pointed out the following: "I do not know Ho Chi Minh, but because of his history and his efforts to expel the Japanese, first, the Chinese later and the French later, we must give him credit as a patriot, who cannot be left indifferent by the annihilation of Ho Chi Minh. his country. And leaving aside his recognized character as a tough adversary, he could without a doubt be the man of this hour, the one that Vietnam needs." (Barbadilo, P., Eternamente Franco, pp. 259-260)

My uncle was treated for a wound that become infected in 1966 ( I think maybe 67) Its true they were very short of supplies but never turned anyone away The US and SV solders all somehow all 'found' extra supplies for the staff My uncle did confirm just much the solders and civilians respected these guys

You never cease to amaze us all. Your talent for digging up historical war stories is second to none. You keep it factual and entertaining without over dramatising the story.

The fact that this wasn't revealed until 2012 explains why I have never heard this. My father, a pilot who lost his life in a airplane after Vietnam and especially my step father who lost his life years later due to exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam never spoke of the Spanish being there. Thank you Dr Felton for always teaching me something new.

The United States and Spain signed a treaty of military assistance in 1953 that included opening large military bases (among them Rota) and was capped with a state visit by Eisenhower to Spain in 1959. I don't think the "neutrality" of Spain was much of a concern in 1965...

Had family on both sides of the civil war. My mother's grandfather was a Nationalist officer that was liaison officer with the Condor Legion. And my Tio's father was a survivor of two concentration camp including the one near the Valley of the Fallen.

Very interesting Dr. Felton. I served in Vietnam in 68-69 in Military Intelligence. I knew about the ROKs and the Aussies but since my area of responsibility did not concern hospitals, I never heard a peep about the Spanish being there. Good stuff.

As an Spanish follower, im so glad to see this. The blue division also had good relation with russian civilians. Better than the relations with the Germans. Thank you Mr . Felton

Franco wrote a letter to LBJ on the topic of Ho Chi Minh saying "we must give him credit for being a patriot who cannot be indifferent to the annihilation of his country", adding that "he could, without doubt, be the man of the hour needed by Vietnam". Around this time he also started to have friendly relations with Fidel Castro and Salvador Allende with Salvador Allende being offered an invite to Spain by Franco during 1972 despite their differences. There was also a photo of Franco meeting Saddam Hussein a few months before Franco would pass away. Lots of interesting stuff.

Top secret indeed! I was in the US Marine Corps in the 1970s, I didn't go to Vietnam but I knew men who did and this is the first I've heard of the Spanish being there. Australians and South Koreans yes, especially the South Koreans who the VC and NVA were absolutely terrified of. Another great video Doctor Felton!

Franco stayed neutral in WW2 because his close friend and German Admiral Canaris told him to stay well clear of an alliance with Hitler as he was nuts and going to lose the war and this was his advice early in the war b4 it started to go badly.

Another Great History lesson! Thank You. My father served 5 tours in Vietnam - passed away from Agent Orange cancer in 2008. He was a member of the US Army Special Forces and served across South Vietnam. He told us about the Spanish Unit and a lot of other such projects. ~ Be Safe out there folks. ~ Peace &Health to Us All.

No one expects the Spanish Intervention!

I remember an interview with some of those medics. One told how the locals apreciated them, and one day he was going for a walk a local friend told him to go back home without giving a reason. Later on that day, a mortar bombing of a local ARVN post (where he was gonna walk) happened. Other said how surprised he was to see US transport buses with windows covered in barbed wire; they were told that it was to prevent hand granades thrown into the bus. Another one said he became a fan of Chinese traditional medicine technique of acupunture since he tried it there.

Keep 'em coming Mark and keep on digging up these sort of things that none of us has ever heard of!

There's an old saying that politics makes for strange bedfellows. Franco kept Spain out of WWII even though he was friendly with Hitler. Yet Spain helped repatriate Allied servicemen trying to return home. Escaped POW's, lost soldiers, air crew who'd been shot down. One of the most famous ones was Chuck Yeager, who was shot down in Southern France. The French resistance got him to Spain where he was picked up and interred for several weeks until the U.S. Consulate could get him sent to England.

Me myself a severe case of history buffness and , someone who's nation is part of spain, didn't knew that. As a long time subscriber this is the type of content that makes me addicted to your channel and makes me, mr. Dr. respect you so much as a historian.

I love that i learn something new every time you upload Dr 👏 I genuinely hope you continue to bring us gems

My father was a part of a Canadian youth sports delegation to francoist spain when he was a kid. Interesting video.

I am always amazed at the stories that Mark comes up with. Some I have heard about and then there stories like this that are real eye openers.

Can you do a video about Poland next?

A follow up about the French's use of former Nazi war criminals as shocktroops during the Indochinese Wars and in Africa would be interesting, if there's even enough declassified information around it to make a video on.

The first step in the US losing the war in Vietnam was in 1945. When the US sided with France and it's desire to re-establish their colonial interests in Vietnam, that essentially put Ho Chi Mihn, an American allie during WWII, on the path to becomming a future American enemy. When the US backed Ngo Dinh Diem, South Vietnam's controversial and unpopular"Prime Minister" slash corrupt and incompetent dictator in South Vietnam's "border war"/civil war with Ho Chi Mihn's North Vietnam that was the second step down the road to defeat in Vietnam. Quite simply put, the US placed its money on the worst possible option. Even though Diem was assassinated in a CIA backed coup in 1963, the South was never going to be an effective allie against Ho Chi Mihn and the North. The legacy of corruption incompetence and brutality set by Diem was never overcome and continued on after Diem's assassination. It was always going to be hard to convince the people of the south that the South Vietnamese government were the good guys in a war against Ho Chi Mihn and the North. The US could keep the South and ARVN propped up as long as the US maintained a significant ground force in Vietnam, but without that, the South Vietnamese government and ARVN were doomed. It was a bad war from the start that the US should have never allowed it's self to get involved in.

This wasn’t a secret at all in Spain, although it wasn’t a well known story outside military history buffs. They even appeared in contemporary newspapers and magazines. Usually we’re friendly people and apparently we were too in ‘Nam

Its worth noting, that Franco wrote a letter to the president, counseling him to avoid a conflict in Vietnam. Needless to mention, how this counsel was followed...

It's great to see a non-WW2 topic discussed by Dr Felton. Here's for more to come! Every conflict deserves your attention!

I have always had a fascination with the Vietnam war since I was born the year we pulled out of Vietnam. I know a few relatives and one of my executive Chefs that I worked under years ago is Vietnam Veteran. I had no clue that Spain actually got involved in this war even with a token force, thanks Mark Felton for such a fascinating bit of history. There is always something to learn in History.

How was this not touched on in Ken Burns': The Vietnam War? You have a wonderful knack for finding little known historical events, Dr. Felton.

Thank you for mentioning Australia’s ( entirely regrettable, but, sadly predictable) contribution to that awful conflict. My own birth saved my father from conscription for service in Vietnam ( a policy which saw young Australian men hurled into the armed forces, via a televised lottery system, until the Whitlam Governments termination of it all in 1972 ) . However, others were obviously not so fortunate. Growing up in the 70s and 80s, the country seemed to be festooned with wrecked, embittered, barely functional veterans. One of my neighbours, a great hulk of a bloke, a truly gentle giant, was a veteran of the equivalent of the Green Berets,..possibly Aust. SAS. Of course, he never uttered a word about it all. But his behaviour was frequently startling and bizarre. All that we had heard was that he had been assigned to murder suspected VC militants in rural areas. So very many kids grew up with fathers with such backgrounds, including my best friend. And there seemed to be a whispered pact that government, media, and the community in general were to simply leave it all as ‘ unmentionable ‘ . Never to be addressed. On a positive note, as they say, Malcom Fraser’s Tory government did a superb bit of work in welcoming Vietnamese ‘ boat people ‘ onto Australian shores,..as our Indonesian, Thai, Malaysian, and Singaporean neighbours refused to do nary a thing to assist them. Btw, Dr Felton, British presence, as I’m sure that you know, was actually quite palpable. If ‘ inadvertently’. One of my uncles received extensive training from a British Army officer in Malaysia prior to his own deployment,..these men were all veterans of the UK input into hampering Indonesia’s ‘ confrontation ‘ with Malaysia, which saw UK and Commonwealth ( Aust. and NZ ) forces deployed at some strength in Borneo ( ‘ Kalimantan ‘ in Bahasa ) to see off Sukarno’s troops..

I LOVE THIS CHANNEL! So much great history at our fingertips.

Just when you thought you knew a lot, along comes a Mark Felton video.

Thank you, Dr Felton. I wonder if you are aware of the US "Deer Team" dropped into northern Vietnam in 1945 to assist a "Mr. Ho" against the Japanese occupiers. Would love to hear your take on it.

I was in the Engineer Corps from ‘67 - 71 and heard rumors of this unit while in Khe Sanh, nice to see it confirmed, thank you Dr. Felton.

New Zealand also had units fighting there too and we were self sufficient. Unlike some countries who relied on the USA for aid to fight along side the allies.

Don’t forget that the USA supported the Khmer Rouge too!

A few years ago I was in Spain doing my shopping in carrefour when I noticed an older gentleman wearing a very nice vintage Rolex (that's another story for the watch nerds if anyone's interested). I approached him and asked about it as I knew it was something very rare and very unlikely to have been bought in Spain at that time. To my surprise the man told me the story about how he had purchased the watch at an American Army base in Vietnam in the late 60s. I thought he was pulling my leg but the fact that he had the watch made me very curious so I asked a few more questions fully expecting at least some BS. He then proceeded to explain to me in detail how he was part of this very mission, went there as a nurse and then went on a 5-10 min rant/trauma/story about his time there and how he saw so many burnt people that he could still smell the burnt napalm flesh at night. He cursed Franco and basically broke down sobbing in front of me when he was telling the story of an F4 pilot that was brought to the hospital who had crash-landed engulfed in petrol and flames. I went home and researched the whole thing and learnt about this mission... absolutely bonkers experience.

A five minute gem from the master!

Watching the video now, can’t wait

58, 000 young lives snuffed out including American allies Australia, and so many Moore who contributed but nearly a whole generation if you add all the repatriated soldiers who were permanently screwed up the figure would be in the millions and those still suffering today cheers mark .

During the Cold War, the US allied itself with a long list of strongmen. Practically the only requirement was their opposition to communism. During the Vietnam War, the most feared troops were those of the ROK. They were also the largest non-U.S. contingent.

Didn't know about the medical unit from Spain. Besides Anzac and Rok forces there was also Thai troops and an artillery unit from the Philippines. Flags into battle etc

Mark Felton is officially the greatest historian researcher of all time.

The most importan experience against communism was rather the civil war itself. Interestingly, Franco wrote a letter to the American president forecasting the defeat. Thank you for your work, Mark!

In 1982 I bought a coffee table book "THE VIETNAM WAR; The Illustrated History of the Conflict in Southeast Asia," by Lansdowne Press, which mentions the Spanish contingent, on p. 96. So, no, not top secret for decades until 2012...! The book's in front of me right now.

Love to know that our army excels at both sides of the war, fighting and saving lives. I knew about Muñoz Grandes great results at WW2, but didnt know about Vietnam.

Excellent as always, Mark!

Nice work. If you ever do a V2 of this video, suggest you include that Franco, and experienced counter-insurgent commander, warned US not to get involved in Vietnam.

Perhaps by only sending a medical team to South Vietnam, the crafty Franco was hedging his bets - the same way he had successfully done in WWII. Interestingly, it seems he was more willing to lend "forces" to Hollywood than to the US as roughly 4000 Spanish soldiers served as extras for the movie, "Patton."

Thank you for the lesson. USN carrier based aircraft and pilots supported French troops in Indochina in 1953. The CIA used networks of former Nazis in Eastern Europe during the Cold War. Even though some of them were wanted for war crimes they never saw the inside of a courtroom.

You may hate the guy, But franco came out of the wwii Unscathed

As a Spaniard I appreciate you bringing attention to my country during the cold war! As always a very interesting video

I think the attempted coup in 1981, known as 23F, would make an interesting future video. Also, Portugal's wars in Angola and Mozambique would be worthy of future videos

Was also a Italian Army hospital in Korea. Interesting story.

Kudos for another awesome upload of least known facts. Appreciate ur archival films n still pics of that era. Hopefully u will produce more Vietnam War stories. Looking forward to ur next one. Aloha from Hawaii

Wow ❗ again. History that I never knew existed borough to light by you. Bravo.

Thank you for the great obscure war history Dr Mark! In 2004, I served on a base with El Salvador soldiers in Iraq, I said WTF, lol. There were many countries there (Tonga even!) and I met many at Camp Victory. I even saw a Canadian one star general there even though Canada was not officially involved with Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Ooow! Now you've done it. You forgot to include New Zealand with Australia in the introduction.

The locals respected the Spaniards because they were helping the civilians and that's the reason the Vietcong never attacked them. What many Americans do not understand to this day is that the US government was supporting the wrong guys. Most if not all civilians in South Vietnam hated their corrupt government. That's why they rejected the American soldiers and why the Vietcong was everywhere.

1:50 "You Know Who" ...very cheeky, Dr. Felton. 😉

I admire your content, and this video is exceptional. But I think calling Franco´s regime "fascist" is incorrect. It is called by most local historians "Franquist", as it differs in many ways from Italian fascism and, of course, from Nazism. Also, by the time of its involvement in the Vietnam War, Spain had signed treaties with the US many years before and had some US military bases on its soil. So it was not strange at all that Franco approved the involvement in that war, as limited as it was.

So good video! Loves when there come new videos out 🤩

A bit disappointed that you never mentioned that New Zealand was in Vietnam. Very remiss of you as a historian to overlook this fact and that over 30000 troops served and 37 died whilst on active service🎉

I missed this notification..but I am on it now..great work Mark Felton!

Llamar a Franco fascista es de un simplismo que huele a panfletario, la personalidad de Franco es tan poliédrica que casi que se define mejor con el consejo que él mismo le dió a un colaborador: "usted haga como yo y no se meta en política..." Si el autor del vídeo me permite le haré una aportación. Cuando el gobierno de USA le solicitó implicación militar a Franco éste les respondió que lo que deberían de hacer los americanos es salir del sudeste asiático, ya que una guerra de guerrillas es muy difícil de ganar y que Ho Chi Min era un patriota que, pese a ser comunista, era quien mejor representaba los intereses de su pueblo. Gracias por el vídeo. Un saludo desde España.

It shows again how astute the dictator Franco was (irrespective of being a fascist). Not only did he know how to keep Spain kind of out of WWII but he also knew how to come into the good graces of the US without involving Spain too strongly in Vietnam. Also to generally commit medical staff and humanitarian aid to a war, in particular to the Vietnam war, is accepted at any standard even today. Thank you for this information and your research.

Thank you for sharing. Always greatly appreciate your episodes. Always awesome!

Hello , I had a conversation with a retired British soldier who said he was involved in providing supplies to the Americans in the Mekong delta , also said the whole affair in Vietnam was for the control of rubber ,…… other point he made was that he was amongst the last of the guards watching over rudolf Hess

Apartheid South Africa can also be considered a fascist ally during both the Vietnam and Korean war.

It is mind boggling how you can find these obscure stories…once again..well done sir

Mark, please make mention of New Zealands contribution. It annoys me Australia is mentioned and NZ is left out. LOVE your work, all the same. Cheers.

The more I learn about military history the more amazed I become.

As many people have pointed out Franco was not really fascist at all in his personal ideology, he was a monarchist, an ultra-Catholic and a hardline Spanish nationalist, but he was also a political realist and really quite expert in a lot of what he did. Both the pre-existing fascist and long-standing rival dynastic monarchist movement (the Carlists, an interesting topic of their own) were integrated into the same party under him, effectively dissipating their power while not really ever giving them what they wanted (he thoroughly betrayed the Carlists for example by stringing them along for decades only to appoint an heir from the main dynasty to replace himself as he thought an absolute monarch, a bad choice for that purpose as it happened as he democratized the state on ascension to power), the carlists at least were a powerful movement with a very long history but after his reign they were politically spent towards a cause not their own, the fascists likewise were turned more into a aesthetic than an influence to any tangible degree. Once you get into his premiership it becomes clear that beyond his hatred of communism and rejection of liberal democracy he was generally playing all sides, he supported the Nazi's with troop but at the same time facilitated ratlines of Jews out of occupied Europe (a fact that he would both publicise and exaggerate post war, along with leaving out that the same networks were later used by Nazi's themselves to escape justice). He was in short a clever political mover and old style European autocrat rather than an ideological adherent to anything other than Catholicism and a deeply traditional conception of Spain as a Catholic monarchy. If his chosen king hadn't been a liberal subverter of his vision of Spain then he could probably have been considered the most successful politician of the 20th century in terms of actually fulfilling his ambitions, or at least doing so without mass bloodshed inflicted on civilians in peace time, though unfortunately that exposes that it's not a very high bar.

That was actually kind of heartwarming...

😲😲😲😲😲. Absolutely superb video, Dr. Felton. Thank you.

👍👍👍!!!

What an interesting story about the Vietnam War I had no clue about. The military history bloodhound is on duty... thanks Mark!

I feel if they wanted to send real hardcore fascist types to Vietnam, the US would have asked those Buckingham Palace tour operators we saw in a previous video

I have followed Dr Felton's videos assiduously, for years, although I tend not to post comments Never have I seen one of his excellent and instructive productions garner as much support as this one, in so short a time. Thank you

Former Na/zis also fought in Viet Nam as part of the French Foreign Legion - which is where you go when you need to start over with a new identity. Of course, the French knew exactly who they actually were.

I met a British major at a formal function. He was, quite rightly, wearing his medals. One stood out as unusual. He told me it was for service in Vietnam. He explained he was on secondment to the Australian Army at the time and was subsequently posted to Vietnam. He never divulged what he did there.

Franco’s Spain during WW2 was basically if Switzerland was a dictatorship. Guess it wasn’t until the post war era where he sort of rejected neutrality.

Thank you, thank you...incredible historical info!

One country that also had troops there was New Zealand. We had a few killed over there as well. Not sure how many were there or how many lost their lives. Quite a few also came back suffering from the effects of agent orange. I new of 2 that had been effected. One chap i worked with said sometimes they would go in not long after it had been sprayed and their uniforms would be soaked in it

The famous running gag during the first season of Saturday Night Live was Chevy Chase reporting “Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.” Chevy would also repeat President Nixons statement: "Franco was a loyal friend and ally of the United States and earned worldwide respect for Spain through firmness and fairness." - with a picture in the background of Franco giving the salute alongside Hitler.

Awesome

I read something a long the line of, "I am glad the Spanish were exhausted from fighting themselves and, not in the mood to fight against us."

A video on the UK's covert role during the Vietnam war would be very interesting

Thanks for this video. It would be great to know more about the Spanish Blue Division. Perhaps a video about them would be fitting at some time? 👍

I am not sure that Franco could be considered fascist. Following the trend of coup d'etats of the XIX century in Spain, I think that the Franco regime would be considered more a Catholic Ultraconservative one.

The stories are so intriguing and fascinating, that sometimes I even forget to click the "like". Thank You very much, Mr. Felton.

Dear Dr Felton, I'm afraid Franco was not a fascist but a NationalCatholic. Actually they called themselves (Spanish) "nationalist". Furthermore, the US support of Franco started already in 1959, with the visit of President Eisenhower. And the Spanish involvement in the form of medical aid was publicly known well before 2012. Thanks anyway for your points: for instance, , I was not aware of General Munyoz Grandes' involvement in the aid mission.

This is another excellent video Mark, thanks. You casually mention US involvement in VN in the 50s, something I only tripped across by accident in the last few years. I met a former marine in the supermarket line and two in the the gym, they, telling me that their unit had been in VN very much earlier than most people realized.

Franco was never fascist.

South Korea at the time wasn't exactly a beacon of civil liberties and human rights either.

Such a tragedy that spain turned back on itself since francos death.

"You know who ". Very simple yet intelligent work around. Well done. 👍

Sorry to correct anything from your wonderful video, but the Spanish participation in Vietnam wasn't a secret. At least not until 2012. It has been widely known by anybody interested in military history. Some of the people that went to Vietnam wrote about their experiences, and the army honoured their participation and is remembered periodically