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General Antonio de Spinola - Magda Hassan - 06-04-2009
Sources: October 1989 – Issue 18, Lobster Magazine, 'The Pinay Circle and Destabilisation in Europe'
Born in an old aristocratic and wealthy family in 1910. Entered Colégio Militar in 1920, a military school in Lisbon, Portugal. Joined joined Portugal's Military Academy in 1928. Fought as a volunteer for General Francisco Franco in the 1930s Spanish civil war. Fought with Hitler's armies on the Russian front in World War II. August 14, 1996, Chicago Tribune, 'General Spinola, led coup in Portugal': "Gen. Spinola was encouraged in his military career by dictator Antonio Salazar [dictator of Portugal 1932-1968; strong Roman Catholic; supported by the former King Manuel II of Portugal; close friend of Ian Smith, who headed the illegal Rhodesian white minority government], a family friend. Trained under Spanish dictator Gen. Francisco Franco and Hitler's Russian front generals, Gen. Spinola earned a reputation for toughness and valor and became Portugal's most decorated officer. A hero of the old regime's wars against independence movements in the African colonies..." Service in Angola 1961-1964 where he reached the rank of Brigadier-General. Governor and Chief of the Army Forces in Portuguese Guinea 1968-1973. Here he followed a policy of bombing defenceless villages, destroying crops and burning hayfields at the end of the dry season to prevent the resistance (and anyone else) to construct huts for the rain season. Invited to become Minister of the Colonies in 1973, but refused. Vice Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces 1974. Director of Companhia Uniao Fabril (CUF), which dominated Guinea-Bissau's economy, had large interests in Africa, and owned 10 percent of Portuguese industrial capacity. Director of Champalimaud, a steel and banking giant, also with extensive interests in Africa. Champalimaud and CUF were seen as two of maybe 5 or 6 companies that controlled virtually the whole economy of Portugal at the time. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the continuing wars in the colonies not only began to take a heavy toll on the morale in the Portuguese Army, but also with the citizens at home. The economy in Portugal also suffered from the war and the large corporations in Portugal criticized Marcello Caetano, the follow up of dictator Antonio Salazar, for not pushing hard enough free market (or better, monopolist) policies. In February 1974, Spinola's book 'Portugal and the Future' was published in which Spinola claimed the colonial wars could not be won by force. Instead, he argued that a moderate black elite should be created in the colonies who would cooperate within a federation, headed by Portugal. The book, published by Companhia Uniao Fabril (CUF), became enormously popular in the weeks ahead. In March 1974, Spinola was fired by Caetano for writing the book. His superior General Francisco da Costa Gomes was also fired for his support of Spinola. On April 25, 1974, the Movement of the Armed Forces (MFA), a group of of lower-ranking officers opposing the colonial war and the fascist regime (who took advantage of the book's momentum), headed a coup against Caetano. Spinola knew about the upcoming coup. The plotters intended to make him commander of the armed forces while the more moderate Gomes would be head of the transitional government. In the end, the coup succeeded, but the plotters had failed to capture Caetano, who then demanded he would only surrender if Spinola became his successor. According to Caetano, Spinola was "the only man who could save" Portugal. To avoid a bloodbath, the plotters accepted, and Spinola became head of the national junta of the MFA. He became president of Portugal in May 1974. Spinola, however, strongly disagreed on most points with the with MFA and was generally only interested in a "renovation" of the economy and the policy pertaining to the colonies. He completely resisted the MFA's efforts in giving independence to the colonies, but he forced to comprise in almost every instance because of the powerful influence of moderates and the left. The people of Portugal had risen up en masse after Caetano had been driven out, had dismantled the secret police and taking out their frustration on anyone who had ever repressed them or caused some kind of grief. Socialism and Communism became very strong movements and Spinola, together with his fascist friends, did everything in their power to contain and reverse the situation. Spinola met with Nixon, a later Cercle participant, in the Azores (considered a key location for NATO forces) in June 1974. In July 1974, Spinola appointed a former fascist cabinet member as ambassador to the UN, which provoked large street demonstrations. Spinola confined leftists troops to their barracks on July 6-7 and send troops considered right-wing to break up leftist demonstrations. An Economic reform bill was issued on July 6 that limited the right to strike, strengthened private property, and encouraged foreign investment. Thousands of civil servants demonstrated against law on July 8. Spinola was ousted in late September 1974, presumably after having attempted to take full control of the government. The MFA had prevented this and installed the more moderate General Costa Gomes, their first choice. October 7, 1974, Winnipeg Free Press, 'Why Spinola Bowed Out': "With his resignation, President Antonio Spinola of Portugal has lost a long ideological battle with the Movement of the Armed Forces [MFA] which reluctantly brought him to power... According to young officers of the Movement [MFA], a coup d'etat was planned by right-wingers, some of them protesting loyalty to Gen. Spinola, who had been storing arms, indulging in economic sabotage, and creating an emotional climate of tension [sounds like Gladio]... So the Movement surrounded the presidential palace with tanks, took over the national radio and ordered newspapers to suspend publication. A sniper's rifle with telescopic sights is said to have been found in a house opposite the home of the prime minister, Brigadier Vasco Goncalves... Estimates of the right-wingers who have been detained vary from 70 to more than 300. Those arrested include Franco Nogueira, a longserving foreign minister to the late dictator Antonio Salazar,... Nuno Alves Caetano, son of the prime minister who was deposed by the April 25 coup, and Antonio Champalimaud, heir to Portugal's most powerful banking and industrial empire and son of Gen. Spinola's economic adviser... Gen. Spinola wanted to increase press censorship, ban strikes, enhance his own power and disband the Movement's co-ordinating committee. The Movement believed that if it allowed this to happen, its promises of democracy would not be carried out and the elections in March would be called off. Many of the members of the Movement not only believed that it was a disaster to appoint Gen. Spinola; they also believed that if real disaster was to be averted, he had to be removed. They feared that he would take Portugal back to something akin to what is now called the 'ancien regime' with a dictatorship ruling in the interests of the capitalisl interests... The young officers of the Movement are erroneously cast as left-wing and a few may be; but the majority at the centre of the Movement includes monarchists and conservatives." October 3, 1974, Winnipeg Free Press, 'Leftist Takeover Feared': "Top Portuguese financier Antonio Champalimaud warned in an interview published here of the dangers of a "totalitarian" takeover in Portugal "on orders of Moscow"... Turning to the economic situation, the financier said that it was essential for Portugal to collaborate with other nations and in particular extend its link with the Common Market." This sounds very much like a propaganda effort ala Le Cercle of which Spinola is said to have attended meetings. In March 11, 1975 Spinola tried to get back with a vengeance with a (failed) right-wing coup attempt, aided by Nixon's national security advisor Henry Kissinger (Le Cercle) and US ambassador to Portugal Franck Carlucci (CIA). Spinola and 18 others fled to Spain and then to Brazil. The attempted rightist coup by Spinola caused another major leftist countermovement, a wave of nationalizations of banks and other businesses, and the seizure of many large farms in southern Portugal. 1977, Phil Mailer, 'Portugal, the Impossible Revolution', chapter 8: "For three days the left and workers' group exercised total power. An article about Spinola in the Parisian paper Temoignage Chretien (March 6) had said that US ambassador Frank Carlucci (who had CIA connections) had given the go-ahead for a right-wing take-over in Portugal. Otelo's [head moderate MFA] remark on March 11 that 'Carlucci had better have plans to leave the country or face the con-sequences' was seen as related to the failed coup. Kissinger, according to a Sunday Times (London) report, had sanctioned the use of the CIA." April 23, 1975, Winnipeg Free Press, 'Mini-Cold War Weakens Portugal, NATO Ties': "[Soviet] Ambassador Kalinin's task has been made easy by U.S. and North Atlantic Alliance hostility toward the ruling leftwing military, who have made it clear that they cannot govern Portugal without sharing power with the Portuguese Communist party... Moscow is carefully moving into the power vacuum caused by the loss of influence and prestige during its [the US's] long association with the deposed dictatorship and its apparent support for Gen. Antonio de Spinola. Spinola's hostility to his former revolutionary associates led to an attempted coup last month... [US ambassador] Carlucci's image has been tarred with allegations that he is a top CIA operative assigned to destabilize Portugal and reverse the Socialist thrust of the revolution... Recently Dr. Kissinger contradicted the essence of the Carlucci speech in which he had expressed a measure of understanding for the idealism of the officers who deposed Portugal's rightist dictatorship last year... Ruling military moderates, among them senior advisers of President Francisco da Costa Gomes, are frankly distressed by a situation forcing them to strengthen Portugal's ties with the Soviet Union because "Nobody in the West is willing to help us so long as Washington remains aloof." They added: "Before our revolution, nobody wanted to help us because we were a right-wing colonialist dictatorship. Now that we are freeing the colonies and trying to create a pluralistic democracy, nobody wants to help us because we're left-wing." Aginter Press was the name of the CIA-supported Stay Behind network in Portugal. It was founded in 1966 by Guerin Guerin Serac (anti-communist Catholic; did assassinations and terrorism for Franco; co-founder OAS that tried to assassinate De Gaulle and destabilize peace in Algeria; worked for Portugal's secret police; friend of Florimond Damman, who was appointed by Cercle founder Jean Violet to run the Belgian Académie Européenne des Sciences Politiques) and Stefano Delle Chiaie (fascist; friend of Licio Gelli, official head P2; P2 member; undermined Italian politics by assisting in coups and terrorism; associate of Prince Valerio Borghese, who worked with former Nazi commander Otto Skorzeny; associate of former Nazi officer Klaus Barbie; involved in Operation Condor and the cocaine wars in the Americas) to counter leftist influences in Portugal. They supported Spinola. 2005, Daniele Ganser, 'NATO's Secret Armies', p. 121: "Upon learning that left-wing officers within the Portuguese military were planning a coup to start the 'Revolution of the Flowers', Aginter operatives plotted with right-wing General Spinola against the Portuguese centrists. Their plan was to occupy the Portuguese Azores islands in the Atlantic and use them as an independent territory and offshore base for covert operations against the Portuguese mainland. Unable to realize their plan Aginter Press was swept away together with the dictatorship when on May 1, 1974 the left-wing of the Portuguese military took over power and ended the dictatorship which had lasted for almost half a century. Three weeks after the revolutionary coup, on May 22, 1974, special units of the Portuguese Police on the orders of the new rulers broke into the Aginter Press headquarter in the Rua das Pracas in Lisbon in order to close down the sinister agency and confiscate all material. But by then the premises were deserted. With good relations to the intelligence community all Aginter Press agents had been warned and had gone underground and nobody was arrested. Leaving their offices in a hurry some documents were left behind. The special police units were able to collect a large amount of criminal evidence, proving that the CIA front Aginter Press had very actively engaged in terrorism." Spinola was able to return to Portugal in 1976. Appointed Field Marshal in 1981. Named a member of Le Cercle in 1989 by Lobster Magazine. Died in 1996.