The World: Spain: Calculated Magnanimity

STANDING stiffly behind his desk in Madrid's Pardo Palace, Dictator Francisco Franco last week delivered his annual state-of-the-nation address with all the emotion of a wooden soldier. For 20 minutes, the Caudillo, 78, methodically pumped his right hand up and down for emphasis as he spoke in his lisping, high-pitched voice of trade-union reforms, of Spain's Common Market hopes, of Richard Nixon's visit in October. But of the political crisis that continued to send seismic waves throughout the country Franco said practically nothing. There was an odd, stilted sentence—"A spattering of the currents...

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