Pedro Theotonio Pereira Oral History Interview – JFK#1, 12/18/1966 Administrative Information Creator: Pedro Theotonio Pereira Interviewer: Joseph E. O’Connor Date of Interview: December 18, 1966 Place of Interview: Lisbon, Portugal Length: 33 pages Biographical Note Pedro Theotonio Pereira (1902-1972) served as the Ambassador to the United States from Portugal from 1961 to 1963. This interview focuses on the relations between Portugal and the United States during the Kennedy administration, especially the tension caused by Portugal’s refusal to relinquish its colonies and the agreement to allow the United States to continue using the military base in Azores, among other topics. Access Open Usage Restrictions According to the deed of gift signed October 27, 1969, copyright of these materials has been assigned to the United States Government. Users of these materials are advised to determine the copyright status of any document from which they wish to publish. Copyright The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be “used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research.” If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excesses of “fair use,” that user may be liable for copyright infringement. This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if, in its judgment, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of copyright law. The copyright law extends its protection to unpublished works from the moment of creation in a tangible form. Direct your questions concerning copyright to the reference staff. Transcript of Oral History Interview These electronic documents were created from transcripts available in the research room of the John F. Kennedy Library. The transcripts were scanned using optical character recognition and the resulting text files were proofread against the original transcripts. Some formatting changes were made. Page numbers are noted where they would have occurred at the bottoms of the pages of the original transcripts. If researchers have any concerns about accuracy, they are encouraged to visit the Library and consult the transcripts and the interview recordings. Suggested Citation Pedro Theotonio Pereira, recorded interview by Joseph E. O’Connor, December 18, 1966 (page number), John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Program. Pedro Theotonio Pereira– JFK #1 Table of Contents Page Topic 1 Time as ambassador during the Truman administration 2 Forming relationships with politicians 3 The Marshall Plan 5 Hijacking of the Santa Maria 6 United States’ reaction to the hijacking 8 Hijacking of a Venezuelan ship 9 Kennedy administration’s repudiation of Portugal’s colonialism 10 Being appointed an ambassador in 1961 11 Presentation of credentials to John F. Kennedy [JFK] 12 India’s seizure of Goa 13 Pressure on Portugal to give up its territories 15 Aldai Stevenson’s statement on Goa 17 Agreement on use of base in Azores 20 Letter from Robert S. McNamara on the agreement 22 Importance of Azores military base 24 Articles on strained relations between United States and Portugal 26 Change in United States policy towards Africa 28 Meeting with JFK to relinquish post 30 Discussing situation in Angola with JFK 32 JFK’s assassination I oral History Statement by PEDRO THEO'l'ONIO PEREIRA made by response to a series of questions by Joseph E. o•connor: December lB, 1966 Lisbon. Portugal For the John F •. Kennedy Library o•coNNOR: Dr. Pereira, did you have any particular im- preasion ~f John F • .Kennedy in the years before he became President of the United States? Did you have any reason to be optimistic or pessim- istic :i:egarding Portuguese-American relations when you learned that he was going to take office as President in 1961? PEREIRA a During my first term of duty as Ambassador of my country to the u. •s.A. in 1947-SO. :c do not remember meetin9 John F. Kennedy who, X under- stood later, was already active in politics as a congressman for Massachusetts. This was in the years just after the war and it was a very interesting and pleasant time in the capi- tal of the United States. 'l'he Administration, was Democratic, but no less conservative for that, in the sense of maintaining the friend- -~- ships and traditions which .America had absorbed during its march towards the leadership of the civilised world. The winning of the war had consolidated the prestige and authority of the United States and it was therefore very agree­ able for a diplomat from a small European country, as was my case, to find himself accredited to Washington and fo find there good and constant reminders of the reciprocal services _rendered during the war and the friendly gestures that mark good relations between nations. I kept, and still keep, grateful recollections of my contacts with Truman, with wham I had the good fortune to converse many times, and also of my friendly relations with Marshall and Forrestal and, even now, I still consider the brilliant former Secretary of State Dean Acheson as one of my most distinguished and most } constant friends. ' ..: .. ·· .- To refer only to the more important events that took place in that era, I will say that I was the representative of Portugal in Washington When the Marshall Plan was introduced and during the work preparatory to the signature of the North Atlantic Pact in April 1949. To be precise, X was one of the signatories of the Treaty. It was poesib~ some of these reasons that led my Government to consider me for the post of Ambassador of Portugal in Washington for the second tim6' at the beginning of the summer of 1961, at a critical moment in the relations between the two countries. would X find there people who still, remem- bered our cooperation in so many problems of the highest interest? This was the question :c carried in my spirit. The new Administ1ation of the united States seemed,in fact, jud9~9_:___ I .J. / \___;/ \ ' I / ..•. , Jir ; \' I i J' 'I I• ' \ \ \ -J/- from what I had heard, decided on following new paths. Dw:'ing the period of my second mission in Washington my contacts with President Kennedy were mostly on official occasions. I can, therefore# only contripute a very few personal notes of any interest, as ~uld appear to be one of the princ!pal objectives of this enquirp. However, since questions have been put to me about the political position taken by the Kennedy Administration towards Portugal, ·.. $ perhaps Z can give some of the impressions that I gathered, from a .purely personal angle in view of the fact that following iny departure from washingtlbn I entered on a period of inde- finite leave and have not since returned to official duty, mainly for health reasons. % shall begin by referring to an event that took place just after Kennedy•s mandate commenced \1 -s- in January 1961. Xt is the incident of the liner "Santa Maria", property of a Portuguese ship- owner, on a aruise to the West Indies. The ship was .hijacked'en the high seas by a gang made up of various nationa~ities including Portuguese which, very much in th~ . I tradition of the Caribbean Sea, began by kil~in9' . -. ) : .. I ·I in cold blood the officer of the wathh and 1. \ .. ~. wounding other members of the crew who were ·.\\.'· . 1~· \ ' on duty.. The captain managed to conununic:ate~ ··~ ::. \'. :··~ ,' . with the shipowner in Lisbon, and the Portu~u,se1'.~\ ~· -., Government at once dmspa tbhed naval warship~ \ ~ !'-. >-- \'~ >:\ to sea, at the same time asking the help of ~:i::~ \, maritime nations for the debention of the •sa\t<\:,·.' \ ~ Maria", which carried aboard seven hundred \ ·~~ ~ .. ~ ~-, persons including passengers and crew. \, \ ~:.-· "., ·'·J Apart from the bloody assault on a peaceful ~ commercial ship (which made the case an act "·/t \ I,·:· of aggression under international law), it was ~ \ ,J \ ' \ obvious that this was a clever, discrediting ,•t ( ~ .' ' -6- manoeuvre connected with the campaign against the so-called uportuguese coloniesn of Africa. In fact, . certain news agencies at once began saying that the hijacking of the ship "by Portuguese rebels" was part of the programme for a revolution in Angola. And most astonishing# and revealing of the new ways of the .Ainerican Administration, was the attitude ad&pted towards the appeals of aortugal in the matter • . It was first alleged that contact had been lost with the hijacked liner, a fact that appears very strange when one realises that the Caribbean Sea is a small maritime space strongly patrolled by aircraft and ships of the american Navy. It is beyond all doubt that the latter ~rould have intercepted the 0 Santa Maria" in a question of hours if they had not received orders to the contrary. NOt even the information that there were a good ~! -1- ( number of American passengers aboard the liner was sufficient argument to outweigh the temp- tation to take advantage of the opportunity to publicly weaken the ties of friendship with a country of "aolonialist an.d mediaevaln concepts. But the fact is that for ten days (ten days!) the ~santa Maria" continued in the hands of her as- · sailants with the seven hundred passengers and crew in grave danger. Finally, as the crew was refusing to coop- erate, and since the reserves of oil were finish- ing, the ship entered the port of Recife, Brazil, where she was immediately handed over to the ' representative of the shipowner.