ABSTRACT
The veterans of the Lincoln Battalion returning to the United States in the winter of 1938-39 were not the first soldiers to come back from Spain. As early as the summer of 1937, wounded and disabled men had returned in small numbers. The driving force behind the formation of the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade was the Communist Party. Theoretically, any veteran was a member as long as he paid the nominal dues of the organization. The Communist Party was interested in supporting an organization of Spanish veterans because large segments of American opinion looked with favor on what the Lin-coins had done in Spain. Organized originally in December 1937, the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade really got under way after the main body of veterans returned and its leaders decided to capitalize upon its popularity by taking stands on all sorts of national and international issues.
