Welcome to the Future! Science as a Tool for American Geopolitics in 1950s’ Spain

Abstract

At its dawn, the Franco regime tried to carry out an autarkic economic policy and industrialization associated with military objectives 1 , which in turn fed the development of a home-grown scientific and technological policy to give them sustenance. Such aspirations, similar to those of other countries at that time, required strong investments, an industry with the capacity to face such challenges, and a firm commitment to training competent scientists and technicians. None of these goals were within the reach of the Spain that came out of a bloody civil war, with its aftermath of infrastructure destruction. In addition, the scientific community that had been developing during the first third of the twentieth century and that still lacked a long-established tradition in terms of knowledge generation and technological development was subjected to the repression and purification of its members carried out by the dictatorship that then governed the destiny of the country 2 .The formula to overcome such shortcomings was to resort to an external partner that acted as a catalytic agent, a role assigned at that time to Germany 3 . The commitment to having rapport with the Axis countries and with Germany as a necessary collaborator mediated the initiatives undertaken in World War II, with the Juan de la Cierva Board of  This work has been carried out within the framework of two research projects, funded by the Junta de

Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA), 1939-1972

“…Other well-known studies mention the INI's holdings in the aircraft industry only briefly (Martín Aceña and Comín 1991;Gómez Mendoza 2000). Also pertinent to the study of the aircraft industry and CASA is research on diplomatic, military, and political aspects that looks at the training and modernization of the Spanish Air Force (Delgado 2019;2021;León-Aguinaga 2019;Delgado and León-Aguinaga 2018;Sanz 2019). In this vein, León-Aguinaga and refer to the launch of the Offshore Procurement Program (OSP) and the Facilities Assistance Program (FAP), which allowed CASA to provide maintenance services to the USAF in the 1950s and 1960s.…”