U.S. exercises at Morón Air Base rehearsed defending Franco’s dictatorship

Evidence

Pincus said his time in General Francisco Franco’s Spain was particularly telling. “I kept asking, ‘Why do we keep Morón [Air Base]?’” The answer, he was told, was that it was a “key base” for exercises. … “So what the hell are we exercising with Spain?” he asked. He discovered that the yearly exercises practiced saving the dictatorial government from insurgents. Pincus also realized that the exercises were, not coincidentally, timed to end around the start of one of Spain’s biggest festivals, the Feria de Sevilla. The good weather in southern Spain also didn’t hurt. This, Pincus said, was the “perk side” of overseas bases. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 784

Categorization

• CANDY: The image of U.S. war games scheduled to end in time for the Seville fair, in good weather, is a nicely absurd detail.