Showing posts with label Portugal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Portugal. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Wednesday, January 15, 1975. Independence for Angola.

The Alvor Agreement was signed at the Penina Golfe Hotel in Alvor, Portugal by Angolan independence figures Jonas Savimbi, Agostinho Neto and Álvaro Holden Necaca Roberto Diasiwa and Portugese President Costa Gomes.

November 11, 1975 was set as the Angolan independence date.

The very communistic flag of Angola.

It can't be said that independence for the country went well.  It would nearly immediately fall into civil war.

CIA Director William Colby confirmed that the agency had violated its charter by spying on American citizens for activities within the United States.

Last edition:

Tuesday, January 14, 1975. Un-American.

Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Monday, October 16, 1944. Fascist Hungary.

The German backed fascist coup in Hungary, designed to keep the country in the war, completed with the leader of the banned  fascist Arrow Cross Party, Ferenc Szálasi, becoming prime minister of  a "Government of National Unity" w hich was controlled by the Germans.  Horthy was taken prisoner.

Horthy, who appears here a lot, died in Portugal in 1957 at age 88.  Szálasi was executed in 1946 at  age 49.

Who the crap could think that the fascist were going to win in late 1944?

 T/5 Ray Tintera, Tampa, Fla., and Sgt. Elwood Johnson, Ogema, Wisc., check civilians at an outpost in Monschau, Germany. 16 October, 1944.g, Admiral Miklós Horthy was forced out of office and replaced by Ferenc Szálasi of the fascist Arrow Cross Party.

Registration slips of these two German frauleins are checked by T/4 Nick Kellen, Woodstock, Mich., as they pass through the outskirts of Monschen, Germany. Slips showed them to be Karolina Rader and Johanna Kirch. 16 October, 1944.

The Soviets launched the Gumbinnen Operation with the goal of penetrating the borders of East Prussia.

Albanian partisans liberated Vlorë.

Maj. Gen. Eurico Jaspar Dutra, (left), Brazilian Minister of War and Maj. Gen. Mascarenhas De Moraes, C.G. of the B.E.F., shown in hatches of a medium tank in which they took a ride during an inspecting tour at the IV Corps recently. Fifth Army, IV Corps area, Italy. 16 October, 1944.

The U.S. launched an offensive towards Bologna.

The 10th Indian Division crossed the Savio River.

A U.S. bombing raid on Salzburg destroyed the dome of the cathedral and most of the Mozart family home.

Troops of the 44th Division await truck transportation after unloading at a station in Northern France. They are on their way to the front. 16 October, 1944.

 
Pfc. Victor Henry, Pontotoc, Miss., fires his machine gun through a hole in a wall, at Germans in a barn 300 yards away, beyond Kohlscheid, Germany. He is flanked by two of his buddies. 16 October, 1944. Company K, 3rd Battalion, 119th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division.

Saturday, September 7, 2024

Saturday. September 7, 1974. Independence for Mozambique.

Portugal and FRELIMO (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique) recognized independence for Mozambique, with it to formally occur on June 25, 1975.  The negotiations took place in Zambia.

FRELIMO, a far left wing political party that was formally Communist, has governed the country continually since that time.  It has evolved into a democratic socialist party.

Last edition: 

Wednesday, September 4, 1974. Recognizing East Germany.

Saturday, July 27, 2024

Saturday, July 27, 1974. Articles of Impeachment.

The bipartisan House Judiciary Committee voted 27-11 to adopt the first of three articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon, obstruction of justice.

Richard M. Nixon, using the powers of his high office, engaged personally and through his subordinates and agents, in a course of conduct or plan designed to delay, impede, and obstruct the investigation.

Back when Congress actually acted responsibly, although 11 of the 17 Republicans did vote no.

The Rhodesian Army began Operation Overload, the relocation of 49,690 black civilians within the Chiweshe Tribal Trust Land to "protected villages" away from  the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA).

Portugal's military government announced that it was granting independence to Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe and Portuguese Guinea.

Last prior:

Wednesday, July 24, 1974. United States v. Nixon.

Tuesday, June 11, 2024

Tuesday, June 11, 1974. The arrival of the end of Portuguese colonialism.

Portugal's new government promised independence to Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea on the condition that ceasefires could be agreed upon in the ongoing wars and if democratic voting would be guaranteed on the form of post-colonial government.

Portugal had been one of Europe's first modern colonial powers, with an empire dating back to 1415.

Bill Clinton won the Democratic Party runoff for the Congressional nomination for the party in Arkansas.  Then employed as a law professor, he'd lose in the fall.

William Cann, police chief of Union City, California, was assassinated at a public gathering by former members of the Brown Berets, a Chicano group, in retaliation for a police killing of a Hispanic man.

Last prior edition:

Blog Mirror: June 4, 1974: Ten-Cent Beer Night In Cleveland

Friday, April 26, 2024

Friday, April 26, 1974. A Portuguese military coup turns towards democracy.


The Portuguese Junta de Salvação Nacional announced that it would govern Portugal until further notice, but that it would restore democracy and, further, it would pursue a policy to end Portuguese rule of Mozambique, Angola and its other colonies.  It was in fact the Portuguese corporatist state's efforts to retain its colonies by force which had led to its junior military officers becoming disaffected, leading to the coup, and a return to democracy, through the Movimento das Forças Armadas.

The junta also released most political prisoners in the country.

I should have noted the coup in yesterday's entries, but I failed to.

Angola and Mozambique would of course slip into civil war.

The West German Bundestag narrowly passed a law allowing abortion in the first trimester, but it was soon suspended by the German supreme court and then found to be unconstitutional.  Contrary to what Americans commonly think, abortion was much more restricted in Europe than in the US up until recently, and proposals here to return to the bizarre Roe v. Wade standard would return the US to a far more bloody condition than exists in Europe.

The Ethiopian government arrested members of the government and military that were associated in some fashion with the February 25 coup.

April 26, 1974: The Yankees' Friday Night Massacre

Last prior edition:

Monday, April 15, 1974. The Hibernia Bank Robbery.

Sunday, April 7, 2024

Monday, April 7, 1924. Another around the world effort.

While the US Army Air Service was flying up, on this day, the Canadian coast towards Alaska, in its around the world effort, another such effort was commencing in Portugal.

The Portugese effort had the decency to start on  Monday, as opposed to the American one that launched on a Sunday.

Last prior edition:

Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Tuesday, March 5, 1974. Portugal decides to stay.

Portugese troops in Mozambique.  By Joaquim Coelho, author from Espaço Etéreo, a compilation of texts and pictures from people involved in the war. Permission is granted here, and personal e-mails between me (Nuno) and Joaquim (backed up for reference). - The copyright holder of this work allows anyone to use it for any purpose including unrestricted redistribution, commercial use, and modification.Please check the source to verify that this is correct. In particular, note that publication on the Internet, like publication by any other means, does not in itself imply permission to redistribute. Files without valid permission should be tagged with {{subst:npd}}.Usage notes:If the work requires attribution, use {{Attribution}} instead.If this is your own work, please use {{Cc-zero}} instead., Copyrighted free use, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=685173

Portuguese Prime Minister Marcello Caetano informed the Portuguese National Assembly that Portuguese Guinea, Angola and Mozambique would retain their colonial status in spite of ongoing guerilla wars.  He stated that elections "would be inappropriate for the African mentality."

Ethiopian Emperor and absolute monarch Haile Selassie pledged democratic reforms in an unprecedented national address on radio and television.

Eva Mendes was born in Miami.

Last prior:

Monday, March 4, 1974. Suez.

Thursday, October 12, 2023

Tuesday, October 12, 1943. Expanded use of the Azores.


Portugal expanded the use of naval and air facilities in the Azores under the treaty of 1373, even though, as recently noted, Portugal was neutral.

It was, of course, increasingly obvious which way the war was going, and that by this time the risk to Portugal was less than it was previously.

The U.S. 5th Army began its assault on the German Volturno line in Italy.

The U.S. attacked Rabaul by air, damaging three Japanese vessels.

The Battle of John's Knoll-Trevor's Ridge began on New Guinea.

The Battle of Levin began on the Eastern Front

The American Broadcasting Company's purchase of the NBC Blue Network was approved by the FCC, ending an antitrust suit against NBC.

Sunday, October 8, 2023

Friday, October 8, 1943. Caserta Palace.


The British troops landed on Terceira Island, one of the Azores, in a little noted operation.

The Azores belong to Portugal and the population of the Azores are Portuguese.  The Allies had made plans to land there by force, much like they had in Iceland, but it proved unnecessary as the Portuguese agreed to lease air bases to the allies.

Portugal and the UK had been allies since the Napoleonic Wars, although Portugal had not entered the war.  They remained on friendly terms in spite of Portugal having a long sitting authoritarian government which would make one presume, in accurately, that it would have been sympathetic to the Germans.  In fact, at the start of the Second World War, Portugal announced that its 500-year-old plus treat with the UK remained in effect.  The UK, wisely, simply chose not to invoke it.  The British did begin, however, to occupy islands in the Azores starting in 1942 under lease from Portugal.

The Azores were known to Europeans prior to the 1370s.  Settlement by Portugal commenced in the 1439.

Today in World War II History—October 8, 1943: 80 Years Ago—Oct. 8, 1943: In Italy, US occupies Caserta Palace, future Headquarters of the US Fifth Army.

Sarah Sundin.

The British 8th Army took Lairon and Guglionesi. 

The last Jewish residents of the Liepaja Ghetto in Latvia were sent to the Kaiserwald concentration camp.

Thursday, June 1, 2023

Tuesday, June 1, 1943. The attack on Flight 777.

The Luftwaffe shot down a civilian DC-3 airliner belonging to BOAC flying out of Portugal, killing the passengers on board, which included actor Leslie Howard.


The flight, 777, was a regularly scheduled flight of which the Germans were aware.  As odd as it is to think of this in the context of a global war, commercial aviation continued on during the war where it could.  The fact that the aircraft was shot down has led to speculation that the Germans may have thought Winston Churchill was on board the craft, although other conspiracy theories exist including that Howard was the target, as, it is theorized, he was a British spy.  Some speculation exists that the Germans targeted the plane simply to cause British demoralization, which they theorized would occur with the death of Howard.  Having said all of that, the plane had been attacked by German aircraft twice before during the war.

The flight was overbooked and Howard actually joined the passenger list late, bumping off another passenger who accordingly was spared his fate. Some other last moment changes have led to some confusion over who was originally supposed to be on the flight.   Catholic Priest Father A. S. Holmes, vice president of the R. C. English College, left the plane at the last moment in order to take a phone call.  Actor Raymond Burr claimed that his wife Annette Sutherland, an actress, died in the crash, but no record of her being on the plane exists, nor of Burr having ever been married to an Annette Sutherland.

Howard is best known to American audiences for his role as Ashley in Gone With The Wind, a role which I feel he was miscast in.

The SS John Morgan, carrying explosives, exploded when it accidentally struck the tanker SS Montana in Baltimore's harbor. Sixty-five of the 68 men on the John Morgan died in the explosion, while 18 of the 82 men on the Montana were killed.

The United Mine Workers went into a coal strike.  It lasted only a week.

Tuesday, November 1, 2022

Sunday, November 1, 1942. Excapes


Japan's Ministry of Colonial Affairs ceased to exist, its functions going to the Ministry of Greater East Asia.

From Sarah Sundin's blog:
Today in World War II History—November 1, 1942: US War Department designates Japanese aircraft with human names, initially with male names for fighters and female for all others.

This came about later than I'd realized.  She has a set of playing cards depicting Japanese aircraft up on her blog as well.

She also notes:

 US ceases production of liquor—warehouses contain a four-year stock.

I was completely unaware of that.  Note that this pertains to hard alcohol, not beer.

Films produced in this era routinely show casual drinking, which would at least suggest it was relatively common, and at least personal recollections I've heard suggest that very much was at the time.  The cessation of production should have had no immediate effect on prices for anything aged, which would have been most hard alcohols.

Alcohol had only become legal, once again, in 1932, and even then it was readily available, as some later depictions suggest.  Prohibition had a devastating impact on the production of Rye, which had predominated the quality American production prior to 1919 and which has never really fully recovered.

The Marines launched the Matanikau Offensive on Guadalcanal.  It would run for four days and secure Koli Point.

The Germans took Alagir in North Ossetia, in the USSR.

Four German sailors broke out of Fort Stanton, New Mexico. They'd soon be captured by a mounted posse, during which one of them was wounded.

Portugal held elections, but as it was a one party state, the victory of the National Union Party was somewhat foreordained.

Pornographer Larry Flynt, who was responsible for Hustler magazine, was born on this day.  Huslter followed in the wake of Playboy and Penthouse, and was cruder than either two, that avenue having been opened up for glossy smut due to Playboy.

It was the Solemnity of All Saints, as it is now, which is a Catholic Holy Day of Obligation.  Given as this one fell on a Sunday, there would have been no requirement for attendance at an extra Mass for Catholics on this week in 1942.

Wednesday, September 7, 2022

September 7, 1822. Dom Pedro I declares Brazil independent of Portugal.


Dom Pedro I declared the independence of Brazil on this day in 1822.

I don't know this story well, nor do I know the history of Portugal well, which this event is tightly tied into.  Pedro was a Portuguese-born member of a noble family close to the thrown in Portugal.  Born with the full name of Pedro de Alcântara Francisco António João Carlos Xavier de Paula Miguel Rafael Joaquim José Gonzaga Pascoal Cipriano Serafim, he not only became Emperor of Brazil, but bizarrely, due to revolution and family associations, was briefly later King of Portugal.

Something often missed in the United States is the fact that early independence movements in Latin America sometimes featured contests between propertied American located noblemen vs. their European opposites, and were not examples of common people rebelling against their colonial masters.  No matter how a person might tend to characterize the American Revolution, they were often not analogous to it and featured little input or concern for common people.  I'm not familiar, as noted, with the Brazilian episode, as noted, but it is interesting to note that this provides an example of a contest between societal monarchical elites.  The first revolutions in Mexico very much followed this pattern before they turned into true revolutions against the Spanish noble class.

Sunday, February 20, 2022

Friday, February 20, 1942. Action in the Pacific

Sarah Sundin's daily blog on the Second World War has an entire series of really interesting items in it for this day. Well worth reviewing,  which you can do here:
February 20, 1942: First US Eighth Air Force officers arrive in England. Japanese land on Portuguese East Timor and Dutch West Timor in the East Indies.

Among those items is Navy pilot Edward O'Hare being credited with shooting down five Japanese aircraft within six minutes on this day in 1942, a feat which secured him the Congressional Medial of Honor. 


The aircraft that O'Hare struck were Japanese Betty bombers headed towards the USS Lexington which was off of Bougainville.  In reality, O'Hare shot down only three aircraft, rather than the six he thought he had, or the five he was credited with,although he so disrupted their attack that he prevented it from being a success.  One of the stricken Japanese bombers did attempt to fly into the Lexington, so four were in fact lost during the raid.

The heroic O'Hare was killed in combat in November, 1943.

Sundin also reports that the first advance party of the U.S. 8th Air Force arrived in the United Kingdom.


The 8th, of course, would go on to figure enormously in the US strategic bombing campaign over Germany.

Sundin also notes that the vast majority of Norwegian teachers, on this day, refused an order to become fascists, leading to some of them enduing up in concentration camps.

The Battle of Badung Strait ended in a Japanese victory, with the Japanese navy driving off a much larger combined Allied task force.   

The Japanese landed forces on Portuguese Timor and took the airfield.  Portugal wasn't in the war and was now enduring its second Timorese occupation, as the British and Australians had occupied it first to prevent it from being attacked by the Japanese.  The Portuguese protested the occupation without success.

Portuguese Timor was in the midst of an interesting transition at the time.  The Portuguese government had just turned education over to the Catholic Church, and as a result, the educational fortunes of the population were improving.  During the Japanese occupation of Timor the distinction between Portuguese and Dutch Timor were ignored, fairly obviously, but the Portuguese reasserted their possession in 1945 and would maintain it until 1975.  The region was then invaded, following the political turmoil in Portugal of that period, by Indonesia, but in 2002 it gained independence.  It's own independence movement can trace its origin to the improved educational lot of the population that started in 1941.

The Japanese also attacked Koepang in Dutch Timor on the same day, logically enough as it was all one island. The action was unusual in that it featured Japanese paratroopers who landed to take an airfield, but who were successfully repulsed by Australian troops.  Japan did have paratroopers but they received little use during the war, and were in fact mostly only used in the early stages of the war in the Pacific.

German U-boats started raiding ships off of the Lesser Antilles.  The Italian submarine Torelli participated with them.


The Hakim of Bahrain, Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifa, died on this day in 1942.  Under his administration, which commenced in 1932, oil exploration in the country commenced.  Bahrain was a British protectorate at the time, something that had come about as the ruling family needed outside support due to their unstable position in the country.

Tuesday, October 19, 2021

Wednesday October 19, 1921 Noite Sangrenta

The Noite Sangrenta, the Bloody Night, occurred in Portugal as Prime Minister Antonio Granjo, former President Antonio Machado Santos, and Navy Minister Jose Carlos de Maia were murdered in monarchical coup.  The assassination had been against the wishes of the leaders of the coup, and demonstrated the instability of the nation.

In another act of violence, a British hand grenade was delivered in a package to U.S. Ambassador to France Myron T. Herrick.  Herrick didn't have time to open it at work and took it home, where his valet, British Army veteran Lawrence Blanchard, went to open it, but recognized the sound of the Grenade's spring and threw it into an empty room, although he was wounded in the resulting explosion.


Sunday, August 29, 2021

Friday August 29, 1941. Shifting sands

On this day in 1941, Charles Lindbergh at a rally of the American First Committee in Oklahoma City warned the audience that the United Kingdom might turn against the US "as she had turned against France and Finland". 

Senator Burton K. Wheeler of Montana.

Lindbergh was backed up by Montana Senator Burton K. Wheeler who counseled that "If our interventionist want to free a country from the domination of another country, we ought to declare war on Great Britain and free India.  I have never seen such slavery as I saw in India a few years ago".

Wheeler was an outspoken left wing Democrat who had at one time crossed over to the Progressive Party and then back.  He opposed entry to the war right up until December 7, 1941 and was instrumental in the leaking of US plans to aid the British prior to the war, which went to press on December 4, 1941.  His isolationist stances caused him to suffer defeat in the first Montana election in which he was up after December 7, and he never returned to politics. A lawyer by training, he returned to practicing law and defended Max Lowenthal in front of the House Committee On Un American Affairs in the 1950s.  He's an example of how opposition to entry into the war was not, as sometimes imagined, politically uniform.

The rally itself was not well received by the public, and polls started increasingly swinging towards the Administration's interventionist policies.

Speaking of Finland, the Finns retook Viipuri.  Not forever of course, its Vyborg, Russia.

Flag for the city of Vybork, in the Leningrad Oblast.

The city did have a Finnish population at the time, but its entire population was evacuated in 1944 with the collapse of the Eastern Front.  It is, therefore, an example today of the massive population disruption brought on by the Second World War.

Finnish victory parade, August 31, 1941.

In Serbia, the puppet collaborationist Government of National Salvation commenced control of the country.

Vichy authorities arrested American journalist Varian Fry.  Fry was running an underground railroad effort helping Jews escape from France and to the United States, using Spain and Portugal as conduits.  He'd be expelled from the country.

Arthur McFadden became Australian Prime Minister in a coalition government.  He was a member of the minority Country Party.  The National Country Party, the "Nats" is a center right party that's strongest in rural areas and which has a focus on agrarian issues.

Saturday, June 26, 2021

Thursday. June 26, 1941. Germany's Neutral Allies

Symbol of the Spanish Blue Division 

On this date in 1941, the Spanish government began to organize a division to serve with the Germans against the Soviet Union.  It's effort would be the most successful example of a non German contribution to the German armed forces during World War Two, outside of the complicated topic of Soviet volunteers to the same.

The German government requested that Spain contribute to Operation Barbarossa on June 22, 1941, the date of the opening of the offensive, hoping for a Spanish declaration of war.  Spain did not take that step, but as the Spanish army was favorable to a contribution, Franco agreed to it on June 24, providing that the Spanish army be in charge of the organization of the unit.  Organization commenced on this day and recruitment the following day.  Technically the unit was not to be a unit of the Spanish armed forces and therefore its contribution not a causa belli.

By early July the unit was sufficiently manned, with over 18,000 volunteers, that it was sent to Germany for further training.  It acquired its nickname the "Blue Division" as it adopted a dress uniform that features the Falangist blue shirt, most of its volunteers being Falangists.  The same uniform featured a red Carlist beret and the Spanish Legion's khaki trousers.  In combat it wore German uniforms.  It was incorporated into the Wehrmacht on July 31.

It's performance inside the Wehrmacht would be a good one, showing the dedication of its Falangist volunteers.  Ultimately 47,000 Spaniards would serve in the unit, and less than 200 fascist Portuguese, and it would inflict 49,000 deaths upon the Soviets.  The unit was responsible for the desecration of the Church of the Transfiguration on Ilyina Street in Novgorod, which perhaps says something about the often mistaken assumption that the Falangist held a charitable view on religion.

Indeed, inside of Spain, while Falangist celebrated the German invasion, conservative Spaniards and the Catholic Church opposed the contribution to the German cause and Allied pressure made it increasingly uncomfortable for Franco.  In October 1943, by which time the handwriting was on the wall on an eventual German defeat, he ordered its official withdrawal.  3,000 mostly Falangist refused Franco's order and remained, and were incorporated into the SS.

At the same time, but with an undeterminable date in June, French far right politicians approached the German ambassador in France about contributing up to 30,000 volunteers for the same cause.  Notable among them was Jacque Doriot who had been a former Communist, but had turned to the hard right.

The symbol of the Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism.

The Germans accepted the idea, but not trusting the French, limited the contribution to 10,000 men and began organizing them in July.  Less than 3,000 volunteers, however, came forward to serve in the unit, showing that it the German cause was not popular even among the hard French right. The Vichy government tolerated its formation but didn't support it, unlike the Spanish government.  The unit was ordered disbanded after the western Allies landed in Normandy and its surviving members were incorporated into the SS.

Ironically one of its members was Said Mohammed, a notable member of the Algerian independence movement after the war.  He was later sent by the Abwehr into Algeria where he was caught and arrested.  He seemed to somehow associate his membership in the unit with Algerian independence.  Completing the irony of his life, he died in Parish in 1994.

As noted, the largest number of individuals who served with the Germans during World War Two who were not German, were Soviet citizens, with the numbers ultimately being massive.   Their story, however, is much more complicated than those discussed above, so it'll have to be addressed elsewhere.

Kassa Hungary was bombed by unidentified aircraft, which was used as a pretext by the Hungarian government to declare war on the Soviet Union.  The event remains controversial today as the origin of the aircraft remains unknown, with the two likely suspects being the Germans, in a clandestine role with the cooperation of the Hungarian government, or the Soviets, by accident. The latter seems the most likely.  In any event, Hungary was going to join in with the Germans, so it was a mere pretext no matter who was responsible.

What all this tends to show is how bad the ability of humans to predict the future really is.  Germany was receiving support for its invasion of its massive neighbor right and left, but the outcome was very far from certain at the time.  With the first couple of days being successful, and with the German record up to that date seemingly in their favor, it was simply assumed they'd win.

Friday, June 11, 2021

Wednesday, June 11, 1941. The RAF at night, Hess' outside interests?, the US and Portugal

The RAF bombed the Ruhr and Rhineland in a nighttime raid. They would do so for the following nineteen nights in a row.

The RAF had determined as early as 1940 that daylight raids were too costly to be undertaken, something the Germans had also concluded during the Battle of Britain.  It would not be until the American entry of the war that any major belligerent would reengage in daylight strategic bombing over Europe.

The first RAF raid had been a reprisal for a German raid on an urban target which the Luftwaffe actually hit by accident at night, a frequent problem in night bombing.  What it rapidly demonstrated, however, is that pre war RAF planning, which was similar to that of the United States Army Air Corps, had resulted in a fleet of heavy strategic bombers, something the Germans lacked. The Luftwaffe, having more limited resources, had developed all tactical aircraft for the most part which were largely unsuitable for industrial and strategic targets.

On the same day the German Government arrested Christian Scientists, astrologists, fortune tellers and faith healers due to their ostensible influence on Rudolph Hess.

Today in World War II History—June 11, 1941

None of which I was aware of but for the entry linked in above.

Hess was an oddball, to be sure, but did all these varied groups really have an influence on him?  I have no idea. And what on earth would Christian Scientists have to do with some of these categories?

The United States sent a diplomatic note to Portugal that if the Azores or Cape Verde Islands, both Portuguese territories, were threated by a "belligerent" power, the US would reserve the right to occupy them first.  What the US really meant is that if the Germans went to occupy them that the US would strike first and occupy them instead.

Portugal held a very peculiar status in the war at this time.  It's status would actually change late war, but it would still remain odd.  The country was governed by the Salazar dictatorship, an arch conservative non democratic government that was nearly personal to Salazar himself, but it had no sympathy with Germany and it feared Francoist Spain.  Early in the war it reaffirmed an alliance it held with the United Kingdom publicly, which it had held since Napoleonic times, but noted that as the British had not invoked the treaty, it had no obligation to do anything.  The British moreover wisely abstained from invoking it as it could not realistically defend Portugal and having done so would have merely invited a German, or perhaps Spanish, invasion.  The country greatly feared that Germany would unilaterally act to take the Azores or the Canary Islands as it was.

During the war the country became a legendary port of passage out of Nazi occupied Europe and a central location for intelligence operations of both sides.

Portugal is really notable in the war for its nearly complete lack of sympathy for the other authoritarian European regimes.  Portugal had contributed a division strength number of volunteers to the nationalist during the Spanish Civil War, but only about 150 Portuguese citizens volunteered for German service, serving in the Spanish Blue Division during the war.