169. Telegram 7272 From the Embassy in Portugal to the Department of State1
Subj: Support for Sixth Provisional Government. Ref: Lisbon 7270.
1. Reftel reports on my conversation December 5 with FonMin Melo Antunes. In discussing the possibility of what might have occurred had the Communists called their militants to the streets, Melo Antunes told me that they had in the back of their minds “Kissinger’s offer of assistance.” He did not elaborate but it was clear that he was thinking of military assistance during the heat of the fray.
2. I informed Melo Antunes of the assistance we had provided to Interior Minister Almeida e Costa. I also told him we had “another request” for equipment which we had turned down. He indicated that he was familiar with this latter request but did not pursue the subject.
3. Comment: Antunes’s comments on U.S. support demonstrate that our backing did have an effect at a critical moment. The GOP might not have been so decisive had it not known we were there. Melo Antunes’s comment in para 1 also suggests how close the struggle was.
- Summary: Carlucci
reported comments recently made to him by Antunes concerning the
November crisis.
Source: Ford Library, National Security Adviser, Presidential Country Files for Europe and Canada, Box 11, Portugal—State Dept Tels To SECSTATE—NODIS (5). Secret; Nodis. In December 1975, the U.S. rejected a MFA request for a small amount of money to buy small arms. (Memorandum for the 40 Committee, November 5; National Security Council Files, Ford Intelligence Files, Portugal—GRF)
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