Word: dutra
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Fully an hour before Harry Truman tumbled out of bed at his usual 6 a.m., an earlier bird in the same nest had beaten him to it. In the stillness of Blair House, another President, Brazil's Eurico Caspar Dutra, also true to his old-soldier habit, had already shaved and breakfasted. Coming down stairs later, Harry Truman invited his overnight guest along on his regular morning stroll. Long before the high priests of protocol were up to bother them, the two Presidents ambled leisurely in the capital's cool, clear morning...
Ultimately, Vargas made the mistake of underestimating the closemouthed Dutra. In 1945, when Brazil was growing restless under the dictatorship...
Monteiro and Dutra told Vargas that he must hold an election. The dictator called in his Minister of War. "I can resign," he told Dutra, "or I can choose a candidate. I've talked to many people, and your name has constantly recurred . . ." "A great honor," Dutra broke in. Vargas, who had expected reluctance, was caught off balance. Thereafter, while he ostensibly supported Dutra's campaign, he actually sabotaged it behind the scenes...
...month before the election, Vargas suddenly installed his unpopular brother, Benjamin Vargas, as police chief. Dutra and Góes Monteiro decided that Vargas was preparing to cancel the elections. They staged a coup of their own which abruptly ended Vargas' 15-year rule. Chief Justice José Linhares became acting President until the election, which Dutra won by just over a million votes...
Timetable. Soon after his inauguration Dutra told an aide: "I shall spend the first two years of my term restoring constitutional government. The remaining three I shall devote to the economic development of the country." In just over three years in office, Dutra has not only restored the constitution but made it the guide for his every act. He takes its description of his limited powers so literally that the press now criticizes him, savagely on occasion, for his "government by inertia." It is a rare occasion when he gets off a message to Congress, as he did three weeks...