University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Doctoral Dissertations Student Scholarship Fall 2012 Shifting alliances and fairweather friends: Luso- American relations, 1941--1951 Paula Celeste Gomes Noversa. Rioux University of New Hampshire, Durham Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation Recommended Citation Rioux, Paula Celeste Gomes Noversa., "Shifting alliances and fairweather friends: Luso-American relations, 1941--1951" (2012). Doctoral Dissertations. 674. https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/674 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SHIFTING ALLIANCES AND FAIRWEATHER FRIENDS: LUSO-AMERICAN RELATIONS, 1941-1951 BY Paula Celeste Gomes Noversa Rioux BA, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, 1989 MA, Providence College, 1997 DISSERTATION Submitted to the University of New Hampshire In Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History September, 2012 UMI Number: 3533704 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI 3533704 Published by ProQuest LLC 2012. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ©2012 Paula Celeste Gomes Noversa Rioux This thesis has been examined and approved. Dissertation Direct^ $urk Dorsey, Associate Professor of History Douglas L. Wheeler, Professor Emeritus of History - ,c Fran < McCann, Professor Emeritus of History JL Lucy E. Saly^r, Associate ProfessoHtf HTTstory Maria da Gloria da Sa, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Faculty Director, Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth vM / 25 July 2012/ This study is dedicated in memory of my father, Domingos Martins Noversa, and to my mother, Eva Gomes Vilaga Noversa. The more I know of Portugal, the better I understand them. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study would not have been possible without both the financial assistance of many institutions and the support of many individuals. First I would like to thank the History Department for the aid, both financial and professional, that it has offered me over the years. The History Department has assisted me in so many ways. First, the department offered me two small, but essential, travel grants from the Gunst-Wilcox Fund, which helped offset research costs to the National Archives in College Park, Maryland in the spring of 2001 and the summer of 2002. By joining the Council for European Studies, the History department also helped me qualify for one of the Council's Pre-Dissertation Fellowships that are supported through the Luso-American Development Foundation (F.L.A.D.). These funds helped offset the costs of two months of research at the Foreign Ministry Archive (A.M.E.) in Portugal, and the Portuguese National Library (B.N.). The documents found at the A.M.E. were fundamental to this study. I would also like to thank the Harry S. Truman Library Institute for a research grant in the summer of 2002, which helped defray the costs of research at the Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri. Although my research has taken me to a variety of archives in several countries, I have always v had the great fortune to woik with archivists of the highest caliber. The archivists at the U.S. National Archive know their collections well and are remarkably efficient. The folks at the Truman Library could not have been more welcoming and helpful. My fondest memories, however, are of my time spent at the time the A.M.E. in Lisbon--a salmon-colored palace surrounded by palm trees. The archivist there helped orient me to the Foreign Ministry Archive quickly and easily. The rest of the staff were courteous and supportive and helped me make the best use of my time in Lisbon. The library staff of the B.N , the U.N.H. Dimond Library, the Claire T. Carney Library at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth (U.M.D.), and the Fall River Public Library proved to be essential to obtaining all of the secondary and public documents necessary to this work. I am grateful for all of their help over the years. I am appreciative of the support that I received from so many individuals. Of course in terms of academic guidance, I could not have asked for better than Drs. Kurk Dorsey and Douglas L. Wheeler. Their probing questions and consistent feedback have helped clarify this work and strengthen the argument. With funding from F.L.A.D., Dr. Wheeler was able to offer me the Prince Henry the Navigator and the Portuguese Discoveries Fellowship. This fellowship allowed me to pursue graduate study at U.N.H. that would have otherwise eluded me, and also offered me the opportunity to act as Assistant Editor of Portuguese Studies Review—two wonderful experiences that changed my life. I would also like to personally thank Dr. Cari Moorhead, Associate Dean of the Graduate School, for her continued support and understanding over the past few years. vi Her encouraging words were an important factor in the completion of this dissertation. I am fortunate to have had the sympathetic ear of many colleagues at U.M.D. over the years. I am especially grateful to Dr. Richard Ironfield for the long talks over coffee or while taking a walk. These conversations offered me a differing perspective on the chapters, which was crucial to their development. I would also like to thank Susan Foley, Secretary of the History Department at UMD, and Dr. Gerard Koot, Professor Emeritus and former Chair of the History Department at UMD. Their consistent assistance and encouragement throughout this long period were beneficial to the work and to my spirits. I am indebted to my sisters, Mary and Marie, and to my brother Charles and his wife Cathie, for their help caring for my daughter, Genevieve, and for believing in me even when, at times, I did not believe in myself. Finally, I will always be beholden to Genevieve, my beautiful girl. Thank you for your patience and understanding during this long journey. VI! TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v LIST OF FIGURES xi ABSTRACT xii CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION 1 Methodology 5 Historiography 8 Outline 17 II. OLDEST ALLIES 24 Strange Bedfellows 25 The Ties that Bind 29 With the Cross of St. George Inscribed on their Hearts 29 In the Shadow of Mine Enemy 46 Woolens for Wine: the Methuen Treaties 53 The English Century 56 viii The Third Empire 56 Old Alliances, New Challenges 71 The Threat of a Greater Germany 71 Portuguese-German Colonial Rivalry of the 1930s 75 Conclusion 79 III. FAIR WEATHER FRIENDS 84 Enter the Diplomats 89 The American Revolution 89 The Treaty of Commerce and Friendship of 1786 97 Challenging Times: the Nineteenth Century 104 The War of 1812 104 Brazil 109 The End of a Turbulent Century 116 The Twentieth Century 121 World War 1 121 Luso-American Relations, 1920s and 1930s 127 Conclusion 130 IV. "COLLABORATIVE NEUTRALITY" 134 Anglo-German Cultural and Military Rivalries 140 The Iberian Pact of 1939 148 Operation Bracken 153 Portuguese Wolfram 164 Conclusion 172 ix V. 1944: THE TURNING POINT 178 American frustration, Portuguese suspicion 179 Santa Maria 198 Conclusion 215 VI. A NEW WORLD ORDER 221 The Marshall Plan 224 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (N.A.T.O.) 234 Mutual Assistance & Mutual Defense Agreements 258 Conclusion 271 VII. CONCLUSION: COMMON GROUND—THE ATLANTIC 276 BIBLIOGRAPHY 324 x LIST OF FIGURES FIGURES PAGE Figure 1: The Rose Colored Map 61 Figure 2: Wolfram deposits in Spain and Portugal 165 Figure 3: Importance of Flawaiian Islands and Azores Islands 181 Figure 4: Allied troops in Iceland 186 Figure 5: Initial Japanese attacks 200 Figure 6: The ABDACOM Area 204 Figure 7: N.A.T.O. organizational chart 254 xi ABSTRACT SHIFTING ALLIANCES AND FAIR WEATHER FRIENDS: LUSO-AMERICAN RELATIONS, 1941-1951 by Paula Celeste Gomes Noversa Rioux University of New Hampshire, September, 2012 This dissertation analyzes the diplomatic relations between Portugal and the United States from 1941 to 1951, a decade that resulted in a tremendous and permanent shift in Luso-American relations. It examines the wartime and postwar goals of both Portugal and the United States. It reveals how these two nations overcame their differences during the war and worked towards mutually beneficial ends after the war. Moreover this dissertation asserts that Antonio Salazar, Portugal's Prime Minister, permanently altered Portuguese-American relations and managed to supplant the assurances found in the flagging Anglo- Portuguese alliance with a series of American initiatives-the European Recovery Program, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the Mutual Defense Assistance Program. Up until WW II, Portugal's oldest ally had been Great Britain. Beginning in 1373, their alliance brought them commercial, political, and military benefits. Though never abandoning her commitments to Great Britain during WWII, the xii reality of Portugal's security needs—the fourth largest colonial empire of the time-demanded the protection of a great naval power. Prior to World War II, Luso-American relations were based on long, but tenuous, commercial ties and a small steady Portuguese immigration stream to the United States.