A New state of affairs:  Portuguese-U.S. Relations 1945-1961

ABSTRACT

This thesis examines Portuguese-U.S. relations in a global context from the early years of the Cold War to the start of Portugal’s Colonial Wars. Portuguese and U.S. policymakers came together pursuing varying levels of Western integration to resist the spread of Communism internationally, cooperating to different extents in emerging international organizations such as NATO, and the United Nations. This shared desire for Communist containment which brought the two nations together was frequently undermined by their contradictory ambitions with respect to decolonization, with U.S. desires for nationalist self-determination across the third world running contrary to Portuguese imperial ambitions from Western Africa to Southern China. These contradictory agendas undermined the bilateral relationship and are examined here in how they manifested in both countries’ foreign policies and actions undertaken in post-war international organizations.