most at risk. Negrín thought that there was no other course but resistance, because the Nationalists refused to negotiate any peace deal: To fight on because there was no other choice, even if winning was not possible, then to salvage what we could – and at the very end our self respect... Why go on resisting? Quite simply because we knew what capitulation would mean. The critical year of 1938 saw a rupture in the PSOE and the political and personal friendship between Negrín and Prieto. Prieto was removed from the Defence ministry for his defeatism and joined with Largo Caballero and Julián Besteiro (the leader of the PSOE right-wing faction) in denouncing the government's policy as favourable to the communists and opposed to the idea of international mediation. Negrín explained his position to his friend and confidant Juan Simeón Vidarte: Do you think this odious servitude does not weigh as heavily on me as on anyone else? But there is no other way. When I speak to our friends in France, it is all promises and good words. Then inconveniences begin to arise, and of what was promised there is nothing left. Nothing remains of what was promised. The only reality, however much it pains us, is to accept the help of the Soviet Union, or to surrender unconditionally. (...) What else can I do? Negotiated peace always; unconditional surrender so that half a million Spaniards will be shot, never. Casado's coup After the fall of Barcelona, President Manuel Azaña had fled to France, where he resigned as President of the Republic on 3 March 1939. Colonel Segismundo Casado, joined by Besteiro, general José Miaja, Cipriano Mera and disillusioned anarchist leaders ― tired of fighting, which they regarded then as hopeless — planned a coup d'état. Seeking better surrender terms, they seized power in Madrid on 5 March 1939, created the National Defence Council (Consejo Nacional de Defensa), and deposed Negrín. On 6 March, Negrín fled to France. Although the troops led by the PCE rejected the coup on Madrid they were defeated by Cipriano Mera's troops. The uprising against the Negrín government succeeded, at the cost of nearly 2,000 lives. The Junta tried to negotiate a peace deal with the nationalists, but Franco only accepted an unconditional surrender of the Republic. Finally all the members of the Junta (except Besteiro) fled, and by 31 March 1939 the Nationalists