Herrero, Luis, Los que le llamábamos Adolfo, Madrid, La Esfera de los Libros, 2007.
Melià, Josep, Así cayó Adolfo Suárez, Barcelona, Planeta, 1981.
—, La trama de los escribanos del agua, Barcelona, Planeta, 1983.
Morán, Gregorio, Adolfo Suárez. Historia de una ambición, Barcelona, Planeta, 1979.
Powell, Charles, and Bonnin, Pere, Adolfo Suárez, Barcelona, Ediciones B, 2004.
Suárez, Adolfo, Fue posible la concordia, ed. Abel Hernández, Madrid, Espasa Calpe, 1996.
On Manuel Gutiérrez Mellado
Gutiérrez Mellado, Manuel, Un soldado de España, conversaciones con Jesús Picatoste, Barcelona, Argos Vergara, 1983.
Puell de la Villa, Fernando, Manuel Gutiérrez Mellado. Un militar del siglo XX (1912–1995), Madrid, Biblioteca Nueva, 1997.
On Santiago Carrillo
Carrillo, Santiago, El año de la peluca, Barcelona, Ediciones B, 1987.
—, Memorias, Barcelona, Planeta, 1993.
Claudín, Fernando, Santiago Carrillo. Crónica de un secretario general, Barcelona, Planeta, 1983.
Morán, Gregorio, Miseria y grandeza del partido comunista de España. 1939–1985, Barcelona, Planeta, 1986.
On the King
Powell, Charles T., El piloto del cambio. El Rey, la monarquía y la transición a la democracia, Barcelona, Planeta, 1991.
Preston, Paul, Juan Carlos: A People’s King, London, HarperCollins, 2004.
Vilallonga, José Luis de, El Rey, Barcelona, Plaza y Janés, 1993.
On the Intelligence Services
Cernuda, Pilar, Bardavío, Joaquín, and Jáuregui, Fernando, Servicios secretos, Barcelona, Plaza y Janés, 2000.
Díaz Fernández, Antonio M., Los servicios de inteligencia españoles: desde la guerra civil hasta el 11-M. Historia de una transición, Madrid, Alianza, 2005.
Perote, Juan Alberto, 23-F. Ni Milans ni Tejero. El informe que se ocultó, Madrid, Foca, 2001.
Notes
Prologue. Epilogue to a Novel
The poll is mentioned in Umberto Eco’s article, ‘Érase una vez Churchill’, El Mundo, 20.3.2008. See also articles on the same poll in the Mirror 04.02.2008 and the Telegraph 03.02.2008.
The article is called ‘La tragedia y el tiempo’, La Repubblica, 23.2.2006, later published in La verdad de Agamenón, Barcelona, Tusquets, 2006, pp. 39–42.
The Cortes declaration can be found in Amadeo Martínez Inglés, Juan Carlos I, el último Borbón, Barcelona, Styria, 2007, p. 264.
Jorge Luis Borges, tr. Norman Thomas di Giovanni, ‘The Life of Tadeo Isidoro Cruz’, in The Aleph & Other Stories, New York, Dutton, 1970.
Julián Marías, Una vida presente, Madrid, Páginas de Espuma, 2008, p. 740.
[ Translator’s note: English is intriguingly short of home-grown words for the act of overthrowing governments and the people who do such things. We generally rely on the French coup d’état and occasionally turn to the Swiss-German putsch, or putschist. Since this particular golpe de estado came very close to happening in Spain, I have chosen to stick to the Spanish word golpista for the soldiers and politicians discussed in this book.]
Part One. The Placenta of the Coup
Hans Magnus Enzensberger, ‘Los héroes de la retirada’, El País, 25.12.1989. Also published as ‘Europe in Ruins’, translated by Piers Spence, in Granta 33, 1990, pp. 136–142.
Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo, Memoria viva de la transición, p. 52.
‘“The only way they’re going to get me out of here is by beating me in an election. .”’ One of the visitors to Moncloa to whom Suárez made a statement of this sort was Fernando Álvarez de Miranda, Del ‘contubernio’ al consenso, Barcelona, Planeta, 1985, p. 145. Alfonso Guerra’s quote comes from Cuando el tiempo nos alcanza, p. 297; Hemingway’s is from an interview with Dorothy Parker, ‘The Artist’s Reward’, New Yorker, 30 November 1929, p. 20; the Camus quote is from The Rebel, tr. Anthony Bower, London, Penguin, 2006; Melià’s, from La trama de los escribanos del agua, pp. 55–56. Melià’s conjecture — that Suárez’s first thought on hearing the Civil Guards’ gunshots was the next day’s front pages — is endorsed by various statements from Suárez himself: see Luis Herrero, Los que le llamábamos Adolfo, pp. 224–225, or Jorge Trías Sagnier, ‘La cacería de Suárez y el 23 de febrero’, ABC, 23.2.2009, who quotes an unpublished projected memoir that Suárez drafted and which is in the personal archive of Eduardo Navarro, one of the former Prime Minister’s most loyal and closest collaborators.
Suárez is quoted in Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo, Memoria viva de la transición, p. 26.
‘“Because I was still Prime Minister of His Majesty’s government. .”’ See for example the audio-visual report by Victoria Prego (‘Asalto a la democracia’, in El camino de la libertad, Barcelona, Planeta/De Agostini, 2008), where he says: ‘I was the Prime Minister of the government and I did not feel like throwing myself to the floor, simply because I am the Prime Minister. And the Prime Minister should not do that. I understand those who did perfectly; probably if I hadn’t been Prime Minister I would have done the same. But I’m the Prime Minister of the government.’
‘For this reason we don’t need to pay too much attention to the politicians. .’ Pablo Castellano, PSOE deputy, writes for example: ‘When Tejero burst into the chamber I had the feeling that very few of us were surprised. Those who, from one party or another, were not in the know’; Yo sí me acuerdo. Apuntes e historias, Madrid, Temas de Hoy, 1994, p. 344. Ricardo Paseyro is quoted in Juan Blanco, 23-F. Crónica fiel. ., p. 131.
See Sol Alameda’s interview with Suárez in Santos Juliá et al, eds., Memoria de la transición, p. 454. ‘Everything is tied up and well tied.’ The first Franco quote can be found in Discursos y mensajes del jefe del estado. 1968–1970, Madrid, Publicaciones Españolas, 1971, p. 108; the second, in Discursos y mensajes del jefe del estado, 1960–1963, Madrid, Publicaciones Españolas, 1964, p. 397. As for Jesús Fueyo’s phrase, see Pueblo, 24.11.1966, quoted by Juan Pablo Fusi, España, de la dictadura a la democracia, Barcelona, Planeta, 1979, p. 236. Franco’s will can be read in Stanley G. Payne, The Franco Regime 1939–1975, Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1987, p. 620.
The first time Tarradellas speaks of the necessity for a touch on the rudder is 14 June 1979; see Juan Blanco, 23-F. Crónica fiel. ., p. 49; the quote comes from El Alcázar, 4.7.1980; but on the first Sunday in May of that year the former Catalan premier had already declared to El País: ‘If there is not a firm and swift touch on the rudder, a scalpel will have to be used.’ Quoted by Santiago Segura and Julio Merino, Las vísperas del 23-F, Barcelona, Plaza y Janés, 1984, p. 286. Footnote. I took the first two statistics from Mariano Torcal Loriente, ‘El origen y la evolución del apoyo a la democracia en España’, Revista española de ciencias políticas, no. 18, April, 2008, p. 50, and the third from Joaquín Prieto, El País, 28.10.2007.