Word: spinola
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Rogers added that General Antonio de Spinola, the head of the Portuguese junta, has never favored complete independence for the three colonies...
Rogers cautioned that the situation in Portugal at present is extremely fluid, but he speculated that Spinola may seek to replace outright colonialism with a confederation similar in some respects to the French Union or the British Commonwealth...
...week's end the government had still not decided what to do with 5 Spinola, who was stripped of his job but not his military rank. A dashing combat commander who often helicoptered to rebel fighting fronts armed only with a swagger stick, Spinola is admired not only by the 45,000 troops in Portugal but also by both black soldiers and white settlers in Africa. After he left his position last year as commander and military governor of Guinea-Bissau (where he reportedly met in secret with leaders of the rebel forces), troop morale there plummeted...
Ringing Rhetoric. In diamond-and oil-rich Angola, white settlers are restive under Portuguese rule, and have considered breaking away as Rhodesia did from Britain in 1965; they too like Spinola because he advocates greater autonomy for the provinces. Moreover, Spinola cannot be dismissed as just another left-wing critic. During the Spanish civil war he fought as a volunteer for Franco, and then went to Hitler's Third Reich for military training...
President Thomaz and Portugal's rightist ultras are faced with a highly uncomfortable dilemma. The general's arrest or exile would surely shatter already shaky morale, if it did not lead to open revolt by the military. On the other hand, Spinola at liberty represents a viable symbol of an alternative to the moribund colonial policies of the regime. Already, countless thousands of Portuguese have been caught by the ringing rhetoric of his message: "A government policy can never be genuine unless it is guided by the desire of those who are governed. Those who really believe...