Herbert Southworth

Herbert Rutledge Southworth (February 6, 1908 – October 30, 1999) was a writer, journalist and historian specializing in the Spanish Civil War and the subsequent Francoist State in Spain and whose work led the Francoist ministry of information to set up an entire department to counter his demolition of the State's propaganda. He also founded a radio station in Tangier following the end of World War II.

Early life Southworth was born in Canton, Oklahoma. He worked as a construction worker and in a copper mine in Arizona. There, he learned Spanish from the Mexican workers. At Texas Technological College (now Texas Tech University) in Lubbock, Texas, he majored in history, with a minor in Spanish. In 1934, he started work in the document department at the US Library of Congress in Washington.

Spanish Civil War When the Spanish civil war broke out, Southworth reviewed books on the conflict for the Washington Post. His articles brought him to the notice of the Spanish republic's ambassador, who asked him to work for the Spanish information bureau.

He also took a master's degree at Columbia University and formed an enduring friendship with the war correspondent Jay Allen.

World War II Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Southworth was recruited by the US office of war information. In 1943, he was sent to Algeria to work for the office of psychological warfare, and later was posted to Morocco to broadcast to Franco's Spain.

Post-war radio broadcasting In the aftermath of World War II, Southworth continued his radio broadcasting activities, starting his own shortwave station, Radio Tangier Internationale, in the Tangier International Zone. Its director, Ricardo de la Cierva, later Spain's minister of culture (1980-1981), went on to write 80 books in defence of Francoist Spain.

In the mid-1970s, Southworth became Regents Professor at the University of California. He died on 30 October 1999 in a medical centre of Le Blanc, close to Saint-Benoît-du-Sault (Indre), the French village where Southworth had lived his last two decades.