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Salazar, the Portuguese Army and Great War Commemoration, 1936–45

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 September 2011

FILIPE RIBEIRO DE MENESES
FILIPE RIBEIRO DE MENESES*
Affiliation:
Department of History, NUI Maynooth, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland; [email protected]
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Abstract

António de Oliveira Salazar, dictatorial premier of Portugal from 1932 to 1968, like most conservatives of his generation, had opposed Portugal's intervention in the Great War. Once in power, and especially during his time as Minister of War (1936–44), Salazar attempted to wind down the commemoration ceremonies, which centred on 9 April. His failure to do so is very revealing of the difficult relationship between Salazar and the Portuguese army, which was the main beneficiary of these ceremonies, and which saw itself as having a privileged role within Salazar's New State.

Salazar, l'armée portugaise et la commémoration de la première guerre mondiale, 1936–44

António de Oliveira Salazar, premier ministre du Portugal entre 1932 et 1968, se comporta en dictateur et, comme la plupart des traditionnalistes de sa génération, avait opposé l'intervention de son pays dans la première guerre mondiale. Une fois au pouvoir, et avant tout dans sa fonction de ministre de la guerre (1936–44), il chercha à réduire progressivement les cérémonies de commémoration autour du 9 avril. L'échec de ses efforts est révélateur au sujet des relations difficiles qu'il entretenait avec l'armée portuguaise qui, elle, tirait le plus grand profit de ces cérémonies, tout en considérant qu'elle avait un role privilégié au sein du Nouvel Etat de Salazar.

Salazar, die portugiesische armee und die erinnerung an den ersten weltkrieg, 1939–45

António de Oliveira Salazar, der diktatorisch regierende portugiesische Premierminister zwischen 1932 und 1968 hatte, wie die meisten Konservativen seiner Generation, eine Beteiligung seines Landes am Ersten Weltkrieg abgelehnt. Einmal an der Macht und besonders während seiner Zeit als Kriegsminister zwischen 1936 und 1944 versuchte Salazar entsprechend die Erinnerungszeremonien, die sich auf den 9. April konzentrierten, herunterzufahren. Der mangelnde Erfolg bei der Umsetzung des Vorhabens zeigt wichtige Hinweise auf Salazars schwierige Beziehungen mit der portugiesischen Armee, welche am meisten von den Zeremonien profitierte und welche für sich eine Sonderrolle in Salazars ‘Neuem Staat’ beanspruchte.

Type
Articles
Information
Contemporary European History , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , November 2011 , pp. 405 - 418
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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References

1 On Carmona, see da Costa, Jorge Ribeiro, ‘Carmona, António Óscar de Fragoso’, in Mónica, António Barretoand Maria Filomena, eds., Dicionário de História de Portugal Vol. 7, Suplemento A/E (Lisbon: Figueirinhas, 1999), 232–35Google Scholar.

2 de Meneses, Filipe Ribeiro, ‘A Comemoração da Grande Guerra em Portugal, 1919–1926’, Revista Portuguesa de História, 38 (2006), 109–33Google Scholar.

3 For an English-language overview of Sidónio Pais’ year in power, see de Meneses, Filipe Ribeiro, ‘Sidónio Pais, the Portuguese “New Republic” and the Challenge to Liberalism in Southern Europe’, European History Quarterly, 28, 1 (1998), 109–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For an exhaustive biographical study, see da Silva, Armando Malheiro, Sidónio e Sidonismo, 2 vols (Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra, 2006)Google Scholar.

4 Sousa Carrusca, ‘Pela Pátria’, A Guerra (Lisbon), July 1926.

5 In the private papers of Augusto Casimiro, one of the main interventionist figures in Portugal, who served in the CEP, is to be found a very rudimentary sketch of a book of memoirs, entitled Memórias de um homem do meu tempo. In its pages Casimiro describes the process by which the phrase that adorns the monument – ‘Ao serviço da Pátria o esforço da Grei’ was arrived at, before adding, that ‘the monument to the Fallen of the Great War was inaugurated . . . Many of those responsible, morally and materially, for its erection, were in exile, forced or voluntary’. Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon, Núcleo Augusto Casimiro, ‘Memórias dum homem do meu tempo’, loose leaf.

6 Barclay to Cushendun, 8. Nov. 1918, no. 369, FO, Western Europe, W 10624/490/36, Confidential, Foreign Office Records, The National Archives, London.

7 Salazar's diaries are stored at the Arquivo Nacional [AN], Torre do Tombo [TT], in Lisbon, but can be accessed online at http://ttonline.dgarq.gov.pt/aos.htm (last visited 21 July 2011).

8 The first volume was published in Lisbon in 1920 as Documentos Apresentados ao Congresso da República pelo Ministro dos Negócios Estrangeiros: Portugal no Conflito Europeu. The two volumes were published in 1997 as Portugal na Primeira Guerra Mundial (1914–1918) (Lisbon: Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros, 1997).

9 Marques Guedes to Leal Marques, 19 Sept. 1939, AN, TT, Arquivo Oliveira Salazar [AOS], Correspondência Particular [CP] 134.

10 Marques Guedes to Leal Marques, 22 Sept. 1939, AN, TT, AOS, CP 134.

11 Salazar, Oliveira, Discursos e Notas Políticas, Vol. 3, 1938–1943, 2nd edn (Coimbra: Coimbra Editora, 1959), 113Google Scholar.

12 O Dia (Lisbon), 5 Sept. 1916 (emphasis in original). This article coincided with the presence of an Allied Military Mission in Portugal, whose task was to evaluate the strength of the Portuguese army and determine how it should participate in the Allied war effort.

13 Diário da Manhã (Lisbon), 9 Apr. 1933.

14 Teotónio Pereira wrote to Salazar, on 29 Oct. 1941, ‘And speaking of admirable things, I have the great pleasure of sending you the first volume of Pabón's book on Portuguese politics. The prologue is very good and the final chapters – above all the one on our participation in the War – turned out as well as possible. I was able, without any difficulty, to get him to skip over certain facts and not to twist the knife in the wound. I am also certain that the volume dedicated to you will measure up. Pabón lunched with me yesterday and revealed himself to be pleased with his work and desirous of continuing with it . . . I believe as well that the recipient of this year's Camões prize has already been found’. Correspondência de Pedro Teotónio Pereira para Oliveira Salazar, vol. 2: 1940–1941 (Lisbon: Comissão do Livro Negro Sobre o Regime Fascista, 1989), 441. It is worth highlighting the fact that Teotónio Pereira compared the despatch of the ‘Blue Division’ to the eastern front to the sending of the CEP to France, and that he recommended to Ramón Serrano Suñer that he read Pabón's book: ‘I advised him to send warm clothes to the poor unfortunates whom they sent to Russia and told him to read about the effect of the climate on our soldiers who fought in France, as told in Pabón's book. I gave him this reference with the secret hope that he might find there other significant lessons’. Correspondência de Pedro Teotónio Pereira, 456.

15 Pabón, Jesús, La Revolución Portuguesa, vol. 1: De Don Carlos a Sidónio Paes (Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1941), 243–4Google Scholar.

16 Jesús Pabón, La Revolución Portuguesa, 256.

17 Brochado, Costa, O Sr. Norton de Matos e a sua Candidatura (Lisbon: Portugália, 1949), 30Google Scholar.

18 Nogueira, Franco, Salazar, vol. 1: A Mocidade e os Princípios (Coimbra: Atlântida Editora, 1977), 144Google Scholar.

19 Diário da Manhã, 11 Feb. 1938.

20 Where there was a plot set aside for veterans of the Great War.

21 The medieval monastery of Batalha, built to celebrate the victory over Castile at Aljubarrota (1385), and which houses the remains of King Dom João I, his wife, Philippa of Lancaster, and their sons (including Prince Henry the Navigator), was chosen to house the remains of Portugal's unknown soldiers from the Great War – one from Africa and one from Flanders.

22 Salazar underlined the words ‘be entirely forgotten’ [ficar inteiramente esquecida].

23 Memo, Ministry of War Protocol Service, 2 Apr. 1943, AN, TT, AS, CP 49.

24 Round-robin letter, Ministry of War, Cabinet Section, 2 Apr. 1943, AN, TT, AOS, CP 49.

25 Diário da Manhã, 10 Apr. 1942.

26 Diário da Manhã, 20 Apr. 1945.

27 Diário da Manhã, 12 Nov. 1945.

28 See O Século (Lisbon), 18 May 1926. See also A Guerra, 1 Jan. 1926, which carried an article on the Liga's origins.

29 Ferreira do Amaral, who went on to act as commander of the Lisbon police, wrote one of the most significant accounts of the Portuguese presence on the western front, A Mentira de Flandres . . . e o Medo (Lisbon: J. Rodrigues, 1922). Francisco Aragão, a hero of the 1914 clash with German forces in Naulila, Angola, is probably best remembered as the target of poet Fernando Pessoa's spleen in his ‘Carta a um Herói Estúpido’. See Pessoa, Fernando, Da República (Lisbon: Ática, 1978), 193–212Google Scholar.

30 Colonel Mardel Ferreira, ‘Vitória Mutilada’, A Guerra, May 1926.

31 António de Cértima spoke at the 9 April celebrations in 1927, the first to be staged by the military dictatorship. Before, among others, General Sinel de Cordes (Minister of Finance), Cértima stated that ‘[the Portuguese soldier] was not told where he was going or why he was going, nor did he enlist in any given political party or faction. He went because he was sent, and he fought because he had to fight’. Concluding his remarks, Cértima went on to state that ‘let us now and forever honour the Pátria, so that she may remain throughout the centuries the same Portuguese land, birthplace of heroes and saints, of miracle-workers and poets! Let us follow the commands of the Great War's Fallen!’ A Guerra (Lisbon), Apr. 1927.

32 Assis Gonçalves: Relatórios para Oliveira Salazar, 1931–1939 (Lisbon: Comissão do Livro Negro Sobre o Regime Fascista, 1981), 25. The Liga 28 de Maio was an early attempt by the military dictatorship to create a popular support base. It would be eclipsed by the later União Nacional. The National Syndicalists were Portugal's fascist party, led by Rolão Preto, and they would indeed become a serious threat to Salazar.

33 Diário da Manhã, 2 Apr. 1933.

34 Oliveira Salazar, Discursos, 97.