Pay attention to the subtext

The Communist screenwriter, John Howard Larson, knew he couldn't write a script that was overtly sympathetic to the Spanish Republic, so imbues it instead with hommages, allusions and film quotation. To reach those who would not recognize that sort of film language, he makes Marco (The Spanish Republic) represent the side of peace. The sympathetic Henry Fonda declares: "Peace? Where can you find it? Our country has been turned into a battlefield. There is no safety for old people and children. Women can't keep their families safe in their houses; they can't be safe in their own fields. Churches, schools, and hospitals are targets. It's not war; war is between soldiers. It's murder, murder of innocent people. There's no sense to it. The world can stop it. Where's the conscience of the world?"

Where indeed.

(Incidentally, the Ohio Knights of Columbus denounced Margo's plea as Marxist propaganda, historically false and intellectually dishonest. Apparently the Knights did not realize that the Spaniards in the movie are meant to be Basque Catholics - which is not historically false - or perhaps they did and, like Franco, resented it.)