Spanish Echoes in Greece, 1946-1949: The Myth of the Participation of an "International Brigade" in the Greek Civil War

One of several direct references to the Spanish Civil War made during Greece's similar experience in the 1940s was the speculation that an International Brigade would fight alongside the Greek communists. By the summer of 1947 the British, Greek, and American governments were examining the possibility that an International Brigade, consisting of veterans of the Spanish Civil War, was being organized in France and Italy. Although it cannot be entirely discounted that some European left-wingers and veterans of the Spanish Civil War might have entertained such an idea, the most likely explanation of the entire episode lies in a combination of still vivid memories of the Spanish conflict and the emerging realities of the Cold War, which impelled the opponents of the Greek communists to believe that, apart from using its local "puppets," international communism might decide to get itself actively in-volved in the fighting in Greece.