Colonial Discourse in the Cold War: Negotiations Between António De Oliveira Salazar and John F
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University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Undergraduate Humanities Forum 2009-2010: Penn Humanities Forum Undergraduate Connections Research Fellows 4-2010 Colonial Discourse in the Cold War: Negotiations Between António de Oliveira Salazar and John F. Kennedy over Angolan Independencce and the Azores Base from 1961 to 1963 Daniella Mak University of Pennsylvania Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/uhf_2010 Mak, Daniella, "Colonial Discourse in the Cold War: Negotiations Between António de Oliveira Salazar and John F. Kennedy over Angolan Independencce and the Azores Base from 1961 to 1963" (2010). Undergraduate Humanities Forum 2009-2010: Connections. 13. https://repository.upenn.edu/uhf_2010/13 Suggested Citation: Mak, Daniella. (2010). "Colonial Discourse in the Cold War: Negotiations Between António de Oliveira Salazar and John F. Kennedy over Angolan Independence and the Azores Base from 1961 to 1963." 2009-2010 Penn Humanities Forum on Connections. This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/uhf_2010/13 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Colonial Discourse in the Cold War: Negotiations Between António de Oliveira Salazar and John F. Kennedy over Angolan Independencce and the Azores Base from 1961 to 1963 Comments Suggested Citation: Mak, Daniella. (2010). "Colonial Discourse in the Cold War: Negotiations Between António de Oliveira Salazar and John F. Kennedy over Angolan Independence and the Azores Base from 1961 to 1963." 2009-2010 Penn Humanities Forum on Connections. This other is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/uhf_2010/13 Colonial Discourse in the Cold War: Negotiations Between António de Oliveira Salazar and John F. Kennedy over Angolan Independence and the Azores Base from 1961 to 1963 Daniella Nicole Mak 2009–2010 Penn Humanities Forum Undergraduate Mellon Research Fellowship A Senior Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Honors in History Honors Director: Dr. Ronald Granieri; Faculty Advisor: Dr. Bruce Kuklick TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements………………………………………………………...………............i Preface…………………………………………………………………...……………….iii Introduction: Lusotropicalismo and Modernization as Ideologies. ………………..…1 Part 1: The Development of an Alliance …………………………………………...…...4 Chapter 1: The Azores as the Beginnings of an Alliance……………………………….….………………………………………………..5 Chapter 2: Birth of the North Atlantic Alliance: Portugal and the United States as Partners……………………………………………………………………19 Part 2: Lusotropicalismo and Modernization as Ideologies ……..…………………..43 Chapter 3: Salazar, the Estado Novo , and Portuguese Lusotropicalismo ..........................44 Chapter 4: Support Any Friend, Oppose Any Foe: Kennedy and the Start………....…...64 of a New Era Part 3: The Diplomatic Rift ……………………………………………..……………..83 Chapter 5: Portugal and the United States, the Diplomatic Rift: Lusotropicalismo vs. Modernization Theory....................................................84 Conclusion …………………………………………………………..………….……….93 Salazar and Kennedy on the Eve of Decolonization……………………..........................94 Maps and Illustrations………………………………………………………..……..……97 Bibliography………………………………………………..………………….….…....101 Penn Humanities Forum Mellon Undergraduate Research Fellowship, Final Paper April 2010 Daniella Nicole Mak, College ‘10 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I extend my deepest thanks to Dr. Ronald Granieri and Dr. Bruce Kuklick for their advising of my senior honors thesis. They have each spent countless hours offering feedback and support for this project. I will not forget the scramble towards Dr. Granieri’s office, only to find him waiting inside for each one of us with witty humor and personal guidance. Dr. Kuklick introduced me to the intersection of American diplomatic and intellectual history, and has diligently offered his valuable advice and mentorship. I also owe much thanks to the many scholars beyond Penn who influenced my thesis. Dr. Luis Nuno Rodrigues of ICSTE at the Nova University of Lisboa has been an immense source of guidance, and offered much of his time over e-mail exchanges and during my research trip. His research on the role of military bases during the Cold War, and dissertation on Salazar and Kennedy has been a guiding light throughout the research. Melissa Teixeira at Princeton University completed her Penn honors thesis on Portuguese neutrality in WWII and has been a personal mentor from the get-go. Dr. Jeremy Ball, and Dr. Witney Schneidman are important Angola scholars who have offered their support through e-mail exchanges and conversations. Colleagues on H- Diplo, H-Luso-Africa, and H-1960s also offered valuable advice on primary and secondary sources. To the archival staff at the JFK Library, National Archives in College, Salazar Archive, Arquivo Histórico-Diplomatico, Biblioteca Nacional Portugal, UN Archives and Library of Congress: thank you for your diligence and support. I would not have been able to do archival research without the support of the Penn Humanities Forum, Harnwell House Research Fellowship, Seltzer Digital Media Award, and Ruth Marcus Kanter | i | College Alumni Society Research Award. The advisers and other participants of these fellowship communities also provided a great forum for discursive exchange and scholarly support. To my past colleagues during my internship at the State Department: thank you for giving me a practical picture of how American foreign policy is constructed, and a real sense of how to piece together the archival material I was examining. My Council of American Ambassadors Annenberg Fellowship mentor, Ambassador Abelardo Valdez, has been a crucial part of this experience. Ambassador Valdez ingrained in me the idea of trying to understand the issues at stake as a “citizen-diplomat.” To the colleagues in Angola with whom I worked and the friends I met in Luanda and Kuito during the summer of 2008. I write because my encounters with you left me gasping for more knowledge, more understanding of your history after listening to your personal stories. Without our acquaintance, this thesis would not exist. Dáni, you spoke to me of your Civil War memories, and Titia Cécilia, you taught me more about life and Angola than text books or a university instructor could ever reveal. To my family and friends for keeping me sane, and bearing with me as I perpetually rambled about my research, my carrel 4106 in Van Pelt, and overdue library books. To my Mamãe, father, and Stephanie for their support and love throughout this journey. Obridaga por todo. Daniella Nicole Mak Department of History University of Pennsylvania March 2010 | ii | PREFACE This project was motivated by time spent abroad in Angola, a country characterized by political strife, and still so much suffering after the civil war ended only in 2002. While I was there, it was the 2008 elections in the U.S. Many Angolans expressed hopes and expectations about Obama’s promises, envisioning him as a kind of savior. Two years later, Angolans say they are largely disappointed by the juxtaposition between campaign rhetoric and policy. My fascination, and indeed, often obsession, with Angola, led me to study the promises we have made to Angola in the past about how its fate should be determined. In doing so, I came to travel to and to explore the connections between Portugal, Angola, and Washington D.C. I found at the heart of this intersection, the Kennedy family. Following Senator Edward Kennedy’s passing this year on August 25, 2009, African media outlet All Africa reported that, “Today Africa mourns the death of Senator Edward Kennedy because he is a Kennedy, because the Kennedys represented, no matter how dim it appeared, a glimmer of hope in a still colonial world.” 1 For many Africans, the Kennedy family symbolized a promise for change; a promise to give Africans a voice in shaping their own futures. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy attempted to charter a new course for the United States’ African policy, a vision that he had set in mind long before running for presidency. President Kennedy fervently believed in self- determination, and sought to support independence movements all over Africa. 1 John Otim. Africa: The Kennedys and the Continent. Pambazuka News, 10 September 2009. | iii | When talking about Cyprus on October 15 of 1956 at the Junior Chamber of Commerce Dinner in Richmond, Virginia, then Senator John Kennedy declared, “I have high hopes that 1956 will offer the voters a far saner, a far sounder discussion of foreign policy issues than 1952. After all, as the result of the change in administrations both parties should now be able to concentrate on current policies instead of berating and distorting the distant past…or the old battle of Asia-first vs. Europe-first…We proclaim our sympathy to the end of Colonialism but abstain from voting on specific issues… But this kind of indecision, compromise and half-heartedness, which has characterized Democratic Administrations in election years, also, has tragic consequences.” Yet, the young Massachusetts senator’s words would come to haunt him in 1962. After broadcasting his sympathy for the end of Portuguese colonialism in Angola, 1962 was the year when the Kennedy administration was to discontinue its support for Angolan independence at the United Nations. Kennedy would go back on his very words. To this end, this thesis is thus an attempt to look beyond simply how Figure 1 Cartoon by Jack Ohman: Careerists decisions were made within