Spain and the United States - Real Instituto Elcano

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SPAIN AND THE UNITED STATES
Sandinistas during the 1980s and the 1989 invasion of Panama) and supported
right-wing dictators because they were viewed as a bulwark against
communism in their backyard. Spaniards with long memories recall that one of
the reasons for the US support of the Franco regime (1939-75) was the
dictator’s staunch anti-communism.
Today, it is the Middle East that raises the most passions, particularly the
war in Iraq and the issue of Palestine. 12 The re-election of George W. Bush in
November 2004 intensified the negative feelings of many countries, including
Spain, towards the United States. According to the March 2005 barometer of
the Elcano Royal Institute, 68% of respondents felt his re-election was
“negative for peace and security in the world”, ten points above the world
average but lower than in France (75%) and Germany (77%). When asked in
the Pew survey what was the main problem with the United States, 76% of
Spaniards said it was mostly President Bush, by far the highest proportion of
all the countries surveyed (see Exhibit 6.10). A low regard for Bush is more
heavily correlated with an unfavourable rating for the United States than any
other attitude or opinion tested in the survey.
Exhibit 6.10 What’s the Problem with the United States? (%)
Lastly, Spaniards tend to associate Americans, more than other countries
do, with the negative traits “greedy” and “violent” and less with the positive
characteristics “honest,” “inventive” and “hardworking” (see Exhibit 6.11).
12. It is not lost on Spaniards that the controversial US prison camp for suspected terrorists at Guantánamo
Bay in Cuba was Spanish territory ceded to the United States at the end of the 1898 Spanish-American war.