U.S. Public Diplomacy and Democratization in Spain

When the post-war relationship between Spain and America began,
Hitler's old ally was an unlikely candidate for US influence. The Cold War
changed all this. Soon there were US bases on Spanish territory and a political
conjuring trick was under way. This volume examines the public diplomacy
strategies that the US government employed to accomplish an almost impossible
mission: to keep a warm relationship with a tyrant without drifting apart from
his opponents, and to somehow pave the way for a transition to democracy. The
book's focus on the perspective of soft power breaks new ground in understanding
US-Spanish relations. In so doing, it offers valuable lessons for understanding
how public diplomacy has functioned in the past and can function today and
tomorrow in transitions to democracy.