If the below information is correct than it contradicts what Adlai Stevenson
the US ambassador to the UN said about the invasion of 1961.
BC
00:3700:46
- Stevenson, Adlai E.
Stevenson's speech at the United Nations following the vote on Goa. He declares
that the failure of the Security
The US had tactically given the green signal to India. Though it was bound
to help Portugal under the NATO clause, US never that Portugal was on the
wrong foot. Kennedy and Nehru were close and the in-between role played was
by US ambassador John Kenneth Galbraith, who by the way was a Canadian.
Reading Roland's post, things could have been different if the US had to place
nuclear missiles on Goan soil to deter the bharatis. 50,000 vs 3,000 is huge.
Colonial wars were already simmering in Angola and Mozambique. The Suez was
blocked by Nasser. Goa was filled with Catholic traitors.
That Portugal was for many years (specially in the 60s) the Poor Man of Europe,
was no secret to anybody.
My contention was not based on 'who you are' but 'who you know'. Nobody
presupposed that Portugal was a powerful or affluent nation, but one can safely
presuppose that the U.S. was, in
This argument presupposes that the Portugal of the 1950s and 1960s was a
powerful, affluent nation, with all the resources in the world ...
In actual fact, it stepped out of its role of being the "poor man of West
Europe" only in the 1980s or 1990s:
http://www.csmonitor.com/1990/0719/ffill19.html
Interesting article for those with a fondness of the history of December 1961
of Goa.
Goa was the jewel that adorned Portugal's seafaring past but it is pretty
disgraceful that they were cheap enough not to have any planes to defend the
territory, nor any arms or personnel to put up a good
December 18, 1961: A Message of *Paz e Calma*
Panjim-based veteran advocate
Fernando Jorge Colaco has a
different perspective from the
dominant narrative of what
happened in Goa on Dec 18-19, 1961.
Here is an excerpt from his
recently published book:
*December 18-19, 1961:
Before, During & After.
