Devil’s Bargain: New York City’s Premier Spanish Shipping Agents and Allied Strategy during World War II

The Spaniards Marcelino Garcia and Manuel Diaz immigrated to the United States as young men, founding what became by the 1930s the most important shipping agency in the Iberian Atlantic world. As ardent Franco supporters and apparent Nazi sympathizers, these agents maintained an elaborate network of support for the Axis during World War II from their perch in New York City. This paper explores why, despite knowing all about this, Allied strategists allowed these men and their transatlantic merchant traffic to remain in play for the duration of the conflict.