10-06-08, 8:57 am

We Saw Spain Die by Paul Preston London, Constable and Robinson, 2008.

Original source: Morning Star

Often reading like a murder mystery, Paul Preston's narrative on the Spanish civil war sweeps the reader along with vivid and sympathetic descriptions of his subjects.

Not so much a book about how foreign correspondents reported the Spanish civil war, although there are some excellent quotes, it reveals what life was like for them in Spain, the abiding impact it had on their lives and how their presence influenced events.

After a brief introduction, the first part of the book focuses on some of the most eminent of the almost 1,000 foreign correspondents who reported the conflict.

Familiar names such as Ernest Hemingway, Martha Gellhorn and John Dos Passos weave in and out of the dialogue. Most of this part is devoted to journalists reporting from the Republican zone.

Preston shows how an initial interest in the war in Spain was, for many, transformed into a deep commitment to the cause of the democratically elected republic, the Spanish people and anti-fascism.

'Decency and fairness mattered to all these correspondents and that was why they sided with cause of the republic,' he writes. We learn of their battles with editors to get the truth published and the frequent rejections or relegations to inside pages, while the story from the rebel side was front-page news.

The section ends with an examination of their counterparts' experience in the rebel zone. This comparison provides a damning indictment of the rebel regime. Relations between foreign correspondents and the Republican press office and censors were generally cordial and, in Valencia, the Republican press office facilitated their work. In the rebel zone, 'such assistance ... was experienced only by the correspondents from fascist Italy, nazi Germany and Portugal,' comments Preston.

The official with responsibility for foreign journalists for the rebels was Luis Bolín, a cruel martinet. Journalists could only visit the front under military escort and censorship prevented any mention of atrocities on the rebel side. Bolín made frequent threats to shoot journalists, even those who supported the rebels.

Part two, subtitled Beyond Journalism, profiles four of the correspondents whose commitment transcended the bounds of their profession. During the war itself, Louis Fischer, who wrote for the New Statesman and Nation among other periodicals, had the ear of Juan Negrín, who became Prime Minister of the Republic, and Pravda corrrespondent Mikhail Koltsov was able to influence events, through a combination of contacts, friendships and his own energy and dynamism.

After the defeat of the Republic, Louis Fischer and Jay Allen worked tirelessly to bring International Brigaders and Spanish refugees to safety. Times correspondent George Steer first broke the news to the world about the bombing of Guernica and then campaigned ceaselessly to counter the lies of the Franco regime.

Through their despatches and sometimes through their campaigning activities, the correspondents tried to bring home to the governments and peoples of the democracies of Britain, France and the US that, without their assistance, the Republic would be defeated. Their conclusion was that it was the democracies that let Spain die, rather than insufficient assistance from the USSR.

In After the War, Preston shows how Herbert Southworth built on Steer's work on Guernica by dismantling the lies of censors, diplomats serving vested interests and Franco's propagandists.

He pays tribute to Henry Buckley, whose love of Spain and shrewd evaluation of people and politics made his Life And Death Of The Spanish Republic 'a unique account of Spanish politics throughout the entire life of the second Republic.'

There are many gripping stories in this book, but surely the most haunting is the rise and fall of Mikhail Koltsov. Preston's blood-freezing account tells of the rise of this enormously intelligent, dynamic and optimistic man from being chief Pravda correspondent in Spain, where he sent out daily dispatches, to his election to the Supreme Soviet, followed immediately by his arrest, torture, show trial and execution at the height of Stalin's paranoid blood-bath.

There is much to inspire in the courage and commitment of these journalists and Preston has done us proud in telling their stories.

Whatever your knowledge of the history of the Spanish civil war, We Saw Spain Die will add to it and, if you have had your appetite whetted, its ample notes and bibliography outline further reading.