| This work deals with the political and diplomatic relations between the United States and Portugal during the presidency of John F. Kennedy. This period marked the beginning of a "new era" in the history of both countries and simultaneously in the relationship between them. In the United States, the new administration adopted a new policy for Africa that directly affected its relations with Portugal. The United States would abandon its ambiguous attitude towards European colonialism and would actively support the self-determination of colonial peoples in Africa. This new policy brought great distress to the Portuguese government. Portugal was one of the last European colonial powers in Africa and by 1961 it had not initiated a process of decolonization similar to those followed by other European countries. The Portuguese government considered the maintenance of its colonial empire an essential factor for the survival of the dictatorial regime of Oliveira Salazar and also for the survival of Portugal as an independent nation.; These two opposite perspectives clashed frontally in the first months of 1961 and they were maximized by events in the African continent itself. In March, the war against Portuguese rule erupted in Angola. Facing this new situation, the American Ambassador in Lisbon, before an astonished Oliveira Salazar, informed the Portuguese government of the new policy of the United States and recommended a more liberal policy regarding its colonies. When, in March, the situation in Angola was brought to debate in the United Nations Security Council, for the first time the United States voted favorably on a defeated resolution condemning Portuguese colonialism, and initiating a serious crisis in this bilateral relationship. The dissertation recounts the story of that crisis and also the way it was attenuated throughout 1962 and 1963. |
