Was the Spanish Civil War “Our Cause”?

Was the Spanish Civil War “Our Cause”?

The October 1986 issue of the neoconservative magazine the New Criterion carried an article, “Spain and the Intellectuals,” by Ronald Radosh, a member of the Dissent editorial board. All of us at Dissent speak and write as individuals; there is no “party line”; and we accept differences among ourselves as normal. But Radosh’s piece is so disturbing that I feel obliged to say a few words about it. His reply to me follows.

The basic thrust of Radosh’s piece, if not its explicit or clear conclusion, is to question the political-moral rightness of having supported the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. Long regarded as a clash between an antifascist Republic democraticall...