Oldest Ally: A Portrait of Salazar's Portugal

by Peter Fryer

In this study the authors analyze Portugal's economic situation, Prime Minister Salazar's rise to power, the colonies in Africa and Asia, the secret police functions, and the various personalities and trends in the Portuguese Opposition.

295 pages, Hardcover

First published February 22, 1982

Reviews

[Julio The Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Fryer, an important figure on the British New Left of the Sixties, presents a Marxist analysis of Portuguese history, culminating in the long-term Salazar dictatorship. Don't be fooled by the title, probably chosen to sell books in England. Fryer naturally touches on the Anglo-Portuguese alliance, lasting an incredible six hundred years just before the Carnation Revolution of 1974. The bulk of the book is dedicated to dissecting the dictatorship of Dr. Antonio Salazar and causes for its downfall. Salazar's ESTADO NOVO regime is usually credited for initiating fascism in Europe, yet this is not correct. The regime rested neither on an alliance with the Catholic Church and army, as in Spain next door, nor a counter-revolutionary one-party dictatorship a la' Hitler and Mussolini. Salazar took fascism for a dangerous brand of populism, and the armed forces came to prominence in the regime only when Portugal's overseas possessions in Africa needed protection from local insurgents. The ESTADO NOVO relied solidly on the unholy triumvirate of family-religion-and landed property to stay afloat. Even Franco's Spain made greater progress towards industrialization. The regime waltzed into the 1960s unprepared for a new world of social change among young people, women and even the Church after Vatican II. When Salazar was felled by a stroke in 1968 Portugal lay moribund like him, to be awakened only by the sound of revolution via the armed forces in April of 1974. CAVEAT: The first edition of this book dates to 1961, the year the Salazar government had to face the launch of the independence movement in Angola. The second edition, from 1981 incorporates the April Revolution and the failure of the left to take power in Portugal.