The BBC at War in Spain: A Special Mission for the Spanish Service, 1939-1945

The study of the BBC broadcasts in different languages during the Second World War reveals the extraordinary confidence that the British government placed in the radio, convinced of its potential influence on civil society, as it had done since 1934 with the launching of the British Council, in an interesting advance of what from the 90s Joseph Nye would call Soft Power. This paper deals with the study of the BBC department in charge of the broadcasts addressed to Spain, known as the Spanish Service from its creation in 1939 until the end of the Second World War. In this context, the Spanish Service was entrusted with the difficult task of strengthening the link of its Spanish listeners with the allied cause without interfering in Spanish politics, in a difficult balance that would unleash many tensions and push politics to the limit of containment towards Spain marked by Churchill. In order to give effect to the narrative approach of this work, use has been made of Memoirs, archival sources from the War Cabinet and the Foreign Office, periodical publications, as well as bibliographic sources.