If I remeber correctly, there were two brigades of U.S. citizens that fought in the Spanish Civil War against Franco. There was the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, mentioned above and the George Washington Brigade. Both numbered considerably more than twelve people. One of the first tactics Sen. Joseph "Tail-gunner Joe" McCarthy used to smear the good name of the men who fought in the brigades was to lable them "Prematurely Anti-Fascist" A lovely little bit of Orwellian word speak used to imply someone was a Communist. The men and women who made up the brigades deseve a monument not only to their bravery and love of freedom but for their forsight in seeing the threat that Germany, Italy and Japans military dictatorships posed in the 1930s As stated above most of these men were not communists or communist sympathisers. They were appalled at the thought of yet another fascist dictatorship on the European mainland. The true tragedy of the Spanish Civil War is that so very many Spaniards had to die so the powers in Europe, notably Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union, could test their weapons systems. And that we would learn this again, as Americans in Souteast Asia. Kindest Reguards, Neil (A stood down cold warrior)