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The Politics of Indifference: Portugal and Africa, A Case Study in American Foreign Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2019

John Marcum
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Extract

To those who peer into the shadows beneath the dazzling peaks of media-lit summitry, the shape of America's projected post (Vietnam) war foreign policy is becoming discernible. Thoroughly nationalist and pragmatic, it stresses advantage and comity in relations with other major powers — whether politico-military (China and the Soviet Union) or economic (Western Europe and Japan). Coonskin zealotry having given way to cost-benefit real-politik, military withdrawal from Southeast Asia is being accompanied by strategic retrenchment. From Guam and Micronesia in the Pacific, to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, to Bahrain in the Persian Gulf, to the Azores in the Atlantic, American air and sea power is taking on an insular “low profile” — while maintaining a long reach. At the same time, domestic postwar introversion threatens a further decline in already minimal American concern for the fate of the world's relatively powerless and economically disadvantaged.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Issues , Volume 2 , Issue 3 , Fall 1972 , pp. 9 - 17
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1972 

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Footnotes

*

Reprinted by permission of the author and publisher from The Politics of Indifference: Portugal and Africa, A Case Study in American Foreign Policy (Syracuse: Eastern African Studies Monograph No. V, March 1972), 31 pp. Copyright (C) 1972 by Eastern African Studies Program, Syracuse University. Originally presented as the Third Annual Eduardo Mondlane Memorial Lecture at Syracuse University, March 9, 1972.

References

1 Congressional Record, Vol. 115, No. 26, 91st Congress, 1st session, (February 7, 1969), p. E941.

2 See Good, Robert C., “Rhodesia: Towards a New Policy Context,” Africa Today. Vol. 18, No. 4 (October 1971), pp. 10–12 Google Scholar. Also Oudes, Bruce, “Ore that Makes U.S. a Criminal,” in The Sun (Baltimore), February 27, 1972.Google Scholar

3 See McKay, Vernon, Africa in World Politics (New York, USA: Harper and Row, 1963), pp. 320–342 Google Scholar: Nielsen, Waldemar A., The Great Powers and Africa (New York, USA: Praeger Publishers, 1969), pp. 245–282 Google Scholar.

4 Modelski, George, “The International Relations of Internal War,” in Rosenau, James N. (ed), International Aspects of Civil Strife (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1964), pp. 23–24.Google Scholar

5 See Ball, George W., The Discipline of Power. Essentials of a Modern World Structure (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1968), pp. 245–252 Google Scholar.

6 Ibid , p. 249.

7 Schlesinger, Arthur M. Jr., A Thousand Days John F. Kennedy in the White House (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Co., 1965), pp. 562 and 582.Google Scholar

8 Ibid., p. 562.

9 U.S. Senate. A Report on United States Foreign Operations in Africa, Doc. 8, 88th Congress, 1st sess., Washington D.C., U.S. Government Printing Office, 1963, pp. 20 and 115.

10 Sorensen, Theodore C., Kennedy (New York, USA: Harper and Row, 1965), p. 538n.Google Scholar

11 See Marcum, John, The Angolan Revolution, Vol. 1. The Anatomy of an Explosion, 1950-1962 (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1969), pp. 272–274.Google Scholar

12 Address by G. Mennen Williams, Williams College, Williamstown, Mass., March 18, 1965, mimeo.

13 For a comprehensive survey of American and other western military assistance to Portugal see Bosgra, S. J. and van Krimpen, Chr., Portugal and NATO (Amsterdam: Angola Comite, 1969), pp. 13–14 Google Scholar.

14 Robert A. Diamond and David Fouquet, editors with the Congressional Quarterly have estimated that over 2700 Portuguese military personnel trained in the United States through 1970. See their “Portugal and the United States,” Africa Report, Vol. 15, No. 5 (May 1970), p. 17.

15 Memorandum dated May 2, 1963.

16 Ibid. In The Great Powers and Africa, (New York: Praeger, 1969), Waldemar A. Nielsen suggests (p. 287) that “rebel leaders” from the Portuguese territories though not received in the State Department, “were regularly consulted on an informal basis by high government figures, including the President's brother, then Attorney General.” It is this observer's impression that such meetings were, to the contrary, rare and infrequent. And it seems unlikely that Robert Kennedy met a single nationalist from either Angola or Guinea(Bissau). Most contacts, other than those with Mondlane, were at a very low level.

17 The New York Times, April 1, 1962.

18 Declaración Sobre Política Ultramarina. Hecha por su Excelencia el Presidente del Consejo. Prof Doctor Oliveira Salazar, el 12 Agosto de 1963 (Lisbon: Secretanado Nacional da Informaçãb, 1963), pp. 30-31.

19 See for example, Conseil de Solidarité Afro-Asiatique, “Intervention de M. Mário de Andrade, President du Mouvement Populaire de Libération de l'Angola” (Bandung, Indonesia, April 10-15, 1961, mimeo).

20 The New York Times, January 1, 1966.

21 See Henderson, Lawrence, “Gulf Oil in Angola,” Social Action, Vol. 38, No. 7 (March 1972) p. 14 Google Scholar. Gulf has been singled out tor criticism by the United Church of Christ among others “especially because it began to make its contribution to Portuguese strength just at the moment when Angolan liberation movements were seriously challenging the Portuguese control of Angola.” Ibid., p. 13.

22 B. R. Dorsey (president), “Position Paper on Angola,” Gulf Oil Corporation, March 1971, mimeo.

23 The New York Times. July 7, 1968.

24 “Gulf Statement to Trustees, Ohio Conference, The United Church of Christ,” Columbus, Ohio, September 10, 1970.

25 Part of the Center for Study of Responsive Law, Washington DC.

26 See Corporate Responsibility and Religious Institutions: Information and Action Documents (New York: National Council of Churches, 1971), 109pp.

27 See Karl Kaiser, “Transnational Relations as a Threat to the Democratic Process,” pp. 706-720; Peter B. Evans, “National Autonomy and Economic Development: Critical Perspectives on Multinational Corporations in Poor Countries,” pp 675-692; and other articles in special issue of International Organization, “Transnational Relations and World Politics,” (eds. Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye, Jr.) Vol. 25, No. 3 (Summer 1971).

28 The New York Times, May 29, 1962.

29 Noticías de Portugal (Lisbon), No. 1285, December 18, 1971.

30 Testimony of Undersecretary of State U. Alexis Johnson in U.S. Senate, “Executive Agreements with Portugal and Bahrain,” Hearings before the Committee on Foreign Relations, 92nd Congress, 2nd sess., February. 1-3, 1972, Washington D. C., U.S. Government Printing Office, 1972, p. 49. (Hereafter cited as Senate, Hearings before the Committee on Foreign Relations).

31 The Department of State Bulletin, Vol. LXVI, No. 1698 (January 10, 1972), pp. 25-30.

32 Department of State, “Background Paper,” December 9, 1972.

33 Notícias de Portugal, op cit. Lisbon's thinking had long linked the Azores and colonial policy. Portugal's ambassador to the United Nations stressed in a letter to The New York Times in 1966 that when Britain and the United States originally requested Azores base rights during the Second World War both “considered it convenient to give a guarantee to respect Portuguese sovereignty in all the Portuguese Overseas Territories,” The New York Times, May 21, 1966. George Kennan, who arranged for the American guarantee of such “respect'’ has been a consistent defender of Portugal's record and rationale for remaining in Africa. See George Kennan, “Hazardous Courses in Southern Africa,” Foreign Affairs. Vol. 49, No. 2 (January, 1971), pp. 230-235.

34 Tad Szulc, “Letter from the Azores,” The New Yorker, January 1, 1972, pp. 54-55.

35 For the official text of the notes constituting the agreement see The Department of State Bulletin. Vol. LXVI, No. 1697 (January 3, 1972), pp. 7-9.

36 The rationale for this backdating is specious. According to public record, in January 1969 Lisbon submitted a written request for the opening of negotiations at an unspecified date. Washington replied that it was “ready to consider their proposals at any time.” But as late as mid-July 1970 (and perhaps much later) there had been “no further formal exchanges,” although on “several occasions” the matter was discussed “informally.” See U.S. Senate, “United States Security Agreements and Commitments Abroad,” Hearings before the Subcommittee on United States Security Agreements and Commitments Abroad of the Committee on Foreign Relations, Vol. 11, Parts 5-11, 91st Congress, July 15, 1970, Washington D C , U.S. Government Printing Office, 1971, p. 2405

37 “Background Paper,” op. cit.

38 The terms were set at 15 years at 4½ percent interest, with an initial payment of 5 percent and currency use payment of 10 percent.

39 From “Statement Submitted to President Nixon” by Representative Charles C. Diggs, Jr. (D.-Michigan) in Congressional Record. Vol. 117, No. 199, Part II, 92 Congress, 2 session, (December 17, 1971), pp. E13814-E13815.

40 Senate, Hearings before the Committee on Foreign Relations, p. 58.

41 Ibid, p. 59.

42 Over 300,000 American tourists spent in excess of $80 million in Portugal in 1969. (The Europa Yearbook. 1971, Vol. 1 [London, Europa Publishers, 1971], p. 1053); that same year imports from Portugal, Angola and Mozambique totalled $178 million (Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1971, 92nd ed. [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Governrttsnt Printing Office, 1971], pp. 769-770); the Azores base employs some 1700 islanders and provides the islands with an estimated $13 million in revenue annually. (Tad Szulc, op. cit.) The input from Gulf's Cabinda operations, as noted earlier, are rising rapidly.

43 Le Monde. December 11, 1971.

44 Notícias de Portugal, op. cit.

45 U.S. Senate, “Agreements with Portugal and Bahrain,” Report No. 92-632, Calendar No 600, 92nd Congress, 2d session, February 17, 1972, p. 2 (hereafter cited as Senate, Report No. 92-632).

46 See testimony of Prof. Willard R. Johnson of M.I.T. in Senate, Hearings before the Committee on Foreign Relations, p. 101.

47 The New York Times, March 5, 1969.

48 Southern Africa: Proposals for Americans (New York: United Nations Association of USA, 1971), p. 22.

49 Senate, Hearings before the Committee on Foreign Relations, p. 52.

50 Senate, Report No. 92-632, p. 2.

51 Senate, Hearings before the Committee on Foreign Relations, p. 51.

52 Ibid., p. 54.

53 Basil Davidson, “Nixon Underwrites Portugal's Empire,” TheNewStatesman. Vol. 83, No. 2132 (January 28, 1972) p. 103.

54 Statement to Mims Thomason, president of United Press International, The Guardian (Manchester, U.K.), March 31, 1971.

55 Department of State, Defense: Use of Facilities in the Azores. Agreement between the United States of America and Portugal (Sept. 6, 1951), Publication 5716, Washington DC, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1951, p. 1, article 1.

56 Letter explaining U.S. presence in the Azores signed by Colonel R. T. Kennedy, Acting Director, Africa Region, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, 1-1629/69, February 13, 1969.

57 Commenting on the contrast between Lisbon's past criticism of Amen can “decadence” and “democracy” and its post-agreement praise for America's “greatness” and “the moral strength in its civic life,” Basil Davidson wrote: “There's nothing like a sack of dollars, apparently, for giving one confidence in moral strength.” Davidson, op. cit., p. 104.

58 Ibid.

59 Kissinger, Henry A., The Troubled Partnership: A Reappraisal of the Atlantic Alliance (New York, USA: McGraw-Hill, 1965), p. 205.Google Scholar

60 Interdepartmental Group meeting, December, 1969.

61 UN, General Assembly, Committee on Decolonization, Doc. A/8423/Add. 4, September 28, 1971, pp. 23-34 and 57-58.

62 See for example. The New York Times, April 21, 1971.

63 The New York Times, July 27, 1971.

64 Diario de Notícias (Lisbon), September 1, 1971.

65 In April 1971 Senator Byrd inserted a speech entitled “Portugal's Policy in Africa” by Portugal's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Rui Patricio, into the Congressional Record. See Congressional Record, Vol. 117, No. 52, 92nd Congress, 1st session (April 15, 1971), pp. S 4944 - S 4949.

66 “The Status of the Liberation Struggle in Africa,” New York, American Committee on Africa, June 1, 1971, mimeo.

67 Letter from Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, David D. Newsom, to author, October 8, 1971.

68 David D. Newsom, “The United Nations, the United States and Africa,” The Department of State Bulletin. Vol. LXIII, No. 1633 (October 12, 1970), p. 421.

69 The importance of Boeing 707’s and 727’s for troop ferrying purposes is described in Al J. Venter, “Portugal's Forgotten War,” Air Enthusiast (London), February 2, 1972. Secretary Newsom agreed that the planes could “obviously carry military as well as civilian passengers.” Newsom letter, op. cit.

70 Congressional Record, Vol. 117, No. 65, 92nd Congress, first session, (May 5, 1971), p. S6276.

71 Undersecretary U. Alexis Johnson in Senate, Hearings before the Committee on Foreign Affairs, p. 25.

72 Southern Africa: Proposals for Americans, p. 79.

73 Report from Novedades (Lisbon), Denver Post, February 8, 1972.

74 The Guardian, January 14, 1972.

75 The Fianancial Times (London), May 21, 1971.

76 Times of Zambia (Lusaka), December 15, 1971.

77 The Financial Times, January 14, 1972. Le Monde, November 10, 1971 and Ibid., November 14-15, 1971.

78 United Nations, General Assembly, Committee on Decolonization, Doc. A/8423/Add. 4, September 28, 1971, p. 37.

79 The Times, November 17, 1971.

80 The ratio of total military expenditures of the African territories to that of Portugal rose from 29 percent in 1967 to 47 percent in 1970. UN, General Assembly, Committee on Decolonization, Doc. A/8023/Add. 3, October 7, 1970, pp. 78-84.

81 As evident, for example, in speech by a representative of local European economic interests, Venâncio Guimarães, to the Angolan Legislative Council, November 19, 1971.

82 Fernandes, Gil, “The Azores over Africa,” Africa Today, Vol. 19, No. 1 (Winter, 1972), pp, 4–6.Google Scholar

83 Senate Resolution 214. See Report No. 92-632, op. cit.

84 Senate, Hearings before the Committee on Foreign Relations, pp. 137-153.

85 See Statement of Prof. Willard R. Johnson in Ibid., pp. 100-107.

86 Ibid., pp. 153-155.

87 Fernandes, op. cit., p. 6.

88 Mondlane, op. cit.