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Exactly what the new government in Lisbon will do in Africa is unclear, but if it follows the prescription of Spínola's book, it will not simply dismantle the empire it began 500 years ago, following the discoveries of the great Portuguese explorers* who were first sent out by Prince Henry the Navigator. Spínola, instead, talks of a federation of Portugal and its territories, with real autonomy-but not independence-for the Black African majorities. "Self-determination should not be confused with independence," he said last week. How such an arrangement would work in practice...
...African rebels have greeted Spínola with both suspicion and hostility, viewing his ideas for federation as merely a more sophisticated brand of colonialism. If it were to be a true federation, says Luis Cabral, a leader of Guinea's rebels, sheer weight of numbers would give the leadership to blacks. He adds sarcastically: "I'm sure Spinola wouldn't want a black government heading Portugal." Said Dr. Agostino Neto, an Angolan guerrilla leader: "What we want is to be completely free to determine the destiny of our own country. If all Lisbon has in mind...
...record, General António de Spínola should be the last man in Portugal to lead a campaign for reform and liberalization. For most of his 64 years he has been a stern authoritarian. The son of a top financial adviser to Dictator António de Oliveira Salazar, he was a volunteer fighter on the Franco side in the Spanish Civil War, commanding a detachment of other Portuguese volunteers. A few years later, the Portuguese high command, recognizing his potential, sent him to Nazi Germany for training with the then invincible Wehrmacht. From the German side...
When African rebels began challenging Portuguese rule in Angola in 1961, Spínola once again was an early volunteer. Brought home after three years, his chest festooned with ribbons and medals, he was made second in command of Portugal's National Republican Guard, a paramilitary police force. In 1968 he was sent back to Africa as commander in chief and military governor of the territory of Portuguese Guinea, where he served until he returned to Lisbon last summer to receive the Order of the Tower and the Sword with Palm, Portugal's highest military honor...
...Guinea, Spínola created a MacArthur-like aura around himself. His bushy eyebrows, the flashing monocle in his right eye-an adornment he picked up in Berlin-the gloves, and the riding crop he invariably carried were as well known to Portuguese troops as MacArthur's corncob pipe had been to Marines and G.I.s in the South Pacific. Unlike MacArthur, however, he believed in cultivating the enlisted man, and he would pop from his helicopter in hazardous spots to see personally how the fighting was going...