Letter:Fighters for Franco

Sir: Paul Vallely's essay on the Spanish Civil War and the International Brigade (22 July) dug up the same old figures of socialist Britons going to help their comrades in Spain. The poor versus the rest, not nearly as complex as Bosnia today. Yes it was. The poor socialists were also the Communist atheists and many Christians supported Franco against them. My father was around at the time and I remember asking him once whether he had known anyone who had gone to fight in Spain. "Yes", he said, "Two." "Gosh," I thought, "my dad actually knew two people who fought for the International Brigade." "Oh no," he said, "They fought for Franco". No war has completely right and wrong sides.

TIM EVERSON

New Malden, Surrey