Rethinking the supposed isolation of the Catalan student movement opposed to the Dictatorship before 1968 from the analysis of the treatment of American imperialism in Vietnam in the Barcelona student press is the main objective of this research, which, based on a comprehensive hemerographic analysis, presents a new vision of the international relations of the Barcelona student movement during the Franco dictatorship.
The history of anti-Francoism as a front against the dictatorship has a great interest. On previous occasions I have had the opportunity to study this topic from different points of view and I have always been surprised by the limited bibliography dedicated to it by a deep and concrete analysis. There are some aspects that are treated superficially or that are not even mentioned. I dedicated myself to one of these topics in this investigation: concretely to the study of the interest that the anti-Franco students of the University of Barcelona had for the events that were taking place in the international plane in the 60’s (including contacts with colleagues students abroad).
The opinion of the historians appears divided on the matter: historians like Muniesa (Dictadura y Monarquía en España, de 1939 hasta la actualidad) or Tusell and Alted (La oposición al régimen de Franco: estado de la cuestión y metodología de la investigación) agree that the students focused their attention on the struggle against the dictatorship in order to reach a democratic system and that, therefore, they stayed away from the events that were taking place in the international context, as well as students from other countries .
On the other hand, historians such as Colomer (Els estudiants de Barcelona sota el franquisme), Maravall (Dictadura y disentimiento político. Obreros y estudiantes bajo el franquismo) or Palazuelos (Movimiento estudiantil y democratización de la Universidad) believe that only after radicalization that occurs in the heart of the Spanish student movement since 1968 begins to detect the interest of students in international events and can begin to establish some analogies with the student vanguards of other countries, in terms of topics of interest and expositions.
