1—As promised, I revisited some documents in the Torre do Tombo archives ordered by Salazar. Among these are documents portraying Portugal’s stance on World War II. Portugal presented as a neutral country, claiming the war was between Germany, France, and England. It justified its neutral position because it had no agreement signed with the USA.
2- In other words, the agreements between Portugal and Great Britain were sufficient for Portugal to grant facilities in Santa Maria and Terceira, which were then extended to the Azores until Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945.
3- Once the Second World War was over, both England and the USA wanted to maintain their presence in the Azores, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill told US President Franklin D. Roosevelt that the time had come to negotiate with Salazar about the permanence of the American and British military forces in the Azores.
4- However, just as Churchill was preparing to iron out the details with Salazar, President Roosevelt informed him that the US had already negotiated for the American troops to remain in Terceira, leaving Santa Maria as an open airport to support transatlantic flights.
5- In other words, with the end of the war in Europe, both Portugal and the US knew that Salazar understood that European policy had little or nothing to do with Portugal’s essentially overseas vocation.
6- In other words, during “Salazarism,” the Azores served as a bargaining chip for Portugal’s support of the country at the UN since 1960 when many countries demanded that Portugal get rid of its colonial empire, which lasted until the fall of the regime in 1974.
7- The US followed the path of the “revolution” in Portugal until November 25, 1975, when the Azores came of age and joined the Autonomy campaign.
8- The First Government of the Azores, which took office on September 8, 1976, chose as its first “battle”, among the many it had to undertake, the return of Portugal and the USA to the negotiating table, to discuss and approve a new agreement on the use, and in some cases, specific abuse, of the Americans regarding the deal that had been in the “limbo of oblivion” for the duration of the colonial war. The Azores were “mortgaged to America” as Portugal’s protective shield until April 25, 1974.
9- Hence the Regional Government’s insistence that negotiations be opened with the USA, defending from the outset the fair sharing between the State and the Azores of the proceeds to be paid by the Americans in the new agreement. The Regional Secretary for Education, José Guilherme Reis Leite, represented the region in the negotiations.
10- Thus, on December 13, 1983, the new agreement was signed between the parties to run until 1991, in which a direct financial contribution to the Azores of 40 million dollars a year was defined, which in 7 years was equivalent to revenue for the Region of 280 million dollars.
11- If this amount were divided equally between each of the 9 islands, this would mean that each island would have 31 million dollars to invest over seven years. Considering the insularity costs, it was essential to know what could be done in seven years with only 31 million dollars on each island.
12- Portugal has always treated the Azores as a poor relation in these negotiations because if we look at the amounts involved in the agreement between 1983 and 1991, Portugal received 1,745 million dollars from the US, which did not pass through the Azores but was sent directly to the coffers of Terreiro do Paço. Of this amount, 1.2 billion dollars was transformed into a gift from America to Portugal, while the remaining 545 million was a credit Portugal used to buy military equipment.
13- There were also 40 million dollars earmarked for establishing the Luso American Foundation.
14- We can only assess the facts fairly if we know the figures and their applications.

Américo Natalino Viveiros was a member of the PSD (center-right political party) government and now is the director of the newsppaer Correio dos Açores in Ponta Delgada.

NOVIDADES will feature occasional opinion pieces from various leading thinkers and writers from the Azores to give the diaspora and those interested in the current Azores a sense of the significant opinions on some of the archipelago’s issues.

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL).