Word: generalissimo
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Generalissimo Francisco Franco, ruler of Spain for 36 years, died early this morning...
...Truman Doctrine thawed U.S. relations with Spain, the Pentagon thought it wise to send a major-general to the Iberian peninsula on an indefinite fact-finding mission. Before the small data-gathering entourage got underway, all of the armed services decided to get in on the act, and when Generalissimo Franco saw that about 100 American military men had come to Spain he thought they had come to sign a defense treaty. The information gathered by this Pentagon milk-run was never made public, and while a lot of high officials probably got an all-expenses-paid six-week vacation...
...people admire a fighter more than the Spanish, who prize la valentia y el coraje (valor and mettle). This is why even his foes voiced respect for Generalissimo Francisco Franco last week. Three-and-a-half weeks ago, Spain's frail, 82-year-old Caudillo suffered a heart attack that would probably have killed most men. Yet neither that nor a chain reaction of complications that followed broke the dictator's grip on life. Franco's physicians and the Spaniards who gathered outside the Pardo Palace to pray or wait had no doubts about the outcome...
While the generalissimo hovered between life and death, government leaders were trying to head off complete political paralysis. Under the Spanish constitution, major decisions can be taken only by the Cabinet and only when the Chief of State presides; moreover, all decree laws must be signed by him to take effect. With Franco so gravely ill, the government was unsure whether it had clear-cut authority to make decisions-even on matters as pressing as the Sahara crisis. Said a government official last week: "We cannot go on without an active leader...
Juan Carlos assumed all of Franco's powers, except the positions of head of the Movimiento National and of generalissimo of "the Three Armies"-posts el Caudillo retains for life. The Prince, however, already wields sufficient authority to launch Spain's post-Franco epoch. His first official function, in fact, clearly symbolized that power had been transferred to him; he presided over Friday's Cabinet meeting, which was held around the dining-room table of his Zarzuela Palace rather than in the dining room of Franco's El Pardo...