The romanticizing of the Spanish Civil War (1936–39) and the role of the Abraham Lincoln "Brigade," the American contingent of the Comintern army sent to fight on the side of the Spanish Republic against Franco, is hardly a new phenomenon. Now, a year after the Brigade's 70th anniversary, a new book, "Facing Fascism: New York and the Spanish Civil War" edited by Peter Carroll and James Fernandez (New York University Press, 203 pages, $27.95), has been published as a glossy paperback. The book also serves as the catalog for the exhibition that will open Friday at the Museum of the City of New York. At the unit's 50th anniversary in 1986, a gala celebration was held at Lincoln Center. Two years before, a hagiographical film about the vets, "The Good Fight," received wide distribution and attention. The Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade's annual reunions regularly enjoy the participation and support of celebrities. Richard Dreyfuss, Susan Sarandon, Harry Belafonte, and Michael Moore have all appeared at their events or given them support.

By continually referring to the volunteers as a "brigade," the authors show that from the start they have decided to echo the Comintern's phony propaganda. Cecil Eby's new book, "Comrades and Commissars: The Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War" (Pennsylvania State University Press, 440 pages, $39.95), provides all the information one needs to know the truth about what the soldiers did, whose interests they served, and how important they were. "So entrenched is the folk belief that once upon a time an Abraham Lincoln Brigade fought in Spain," Mr. Eby writes, "that it borders on political sacrilege to report the sad truth that no such military unit ever existed — in Spain or anywhere else." A brigade is composed of four to six battalions. The Lincolns were part of the XV Brigade — comprised of several international battalions that were part of the Comintern army sent to fight in the Civil War. "The reason why the Lincoln Battalion was magnified into a whole brigade owed nothing to the men themselves," Mr. Eby writes, "but to publicists in the CPUSA back in New York, who decided … that the American commitment to the ‘War Against Fascism' would be magically quadrupled in size by altering a single word."

Given the amount of attention already paid to the Lincoln Battalion, one wonders why New York City's own museum would agree to be a co-sponsor, along with the left-wing Puffin Foundation and the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives, an exhibit whose evident purpose is further glamorizing and distorting the record with a biased account of the issues that sent a few thousand left-wing New Yorkers to volunteer to fight on the side of the Republic.

The exhibit is anything but balanced. Perry Rosenstein, president of the Puffin Foundation, makes the bias clear in his short introduction. Incorrectly calling the Battalion's activities "a long buried chapter of history" (evidently Mr. Rosenstein is unfamiliar with the scores of books and articles written about them) he calls them "an inspiration to all" who "represented the best of our country and the best of our conscience." The exhibit is thus presented as a "tribute to their courage and sacrifice." Susan Henshaw Jones, president of the museum, shows that she uncritically accepts the old pro-communist analysis of the war, that the men and women who went to fight did so "to defend the democratically elected government of the Spanish Republic against a rebellion led by General Francisco Franco and militarily backed by Hitler and Mussolini." She prefers to see the events of the 1930s as a simple morality play of good guys versus bad guys, in which "ordinary people" showed a great "level of commitment, idealism, and sacrifice."...