SPAIN: AFTER FRANCO: HOPE AND FEAR

As advancing age began taking its inexorable toll, Francisco Franco periodically pledged to his countrymen that he would rule Spain only "as long as God gives me life and a clear mind." It was apparent last week that the pledge was soon to come due, despite the determination with which the 82-year-old Generalissimo clung to the absolute power he had been wielding for nearly four decades. Severely weakened by a series of heart attacks, Western Europe's last dictator at week's end was barely hanging on to life. As the last rites of...