General

General

A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....

 Vasco dos Santos Gonçalves (ˈvaʃku ɡõˈsaɫvɨʃ; Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

 3 May 1922 – 11 June 2005) was a Portuguese

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 army officer in the Engineering Corps who took part in the Carnation Revolution

Carnation Revolution

The Carnation Revolution , also referred to as the 25 de Abril , was a military coup started on 25 April 1974, in Lisbon, Portugal, coupled with an unanticipated and extensive campaign of civil resistance...

 and later served as the 104th Prime Minister

Prime Minister of Portugal

Prime Minister is the current title of the chief of the Portuguese Government. As chief executive, the Prime Minister coordinates the action of ministers, representing the Government from the other organs of state, accountable to Parliament and keeps the President informed...

 from 18 July 1974 to 19 September 1975.

He was best known for his controversial left-wing positions, including nationalization

Nationalization

Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...

 of banks and insurance companies after the events of 11 March 1975. The matter of fact is that those nationalizations were provoked by the bank conglomerates' huge debt to the Portuguese State and their directors' escape to Brazil.

In parallel, other measures implemented by his Government, such as imposing a minimum wage and the attribution of the "Christmas subsidy" (equal to one month's pay), were hardly radical in democratic Europe, even by today's standards.

External links

• "PORTUGAL: The New Command," TIME (magazine), October 28, 1974.
• "The World: Four Views from the Top," TIME (magazine), May 5, 1975.
• "PORTUGAL: A Resounding Vote for Moderation," TIME (magazine), May 5, 1975.
• "Lisbon's Troika: Red Threat in Portugal" (cover), TIME (magazine), August 11, 1975.
• "PORTUGAL: Western Europe's First Communist Country?" TIME (magazine), August 11, 1975.
• "The World: The Cork, the Ideologue, the Playboy," TIME (magazine), August 11, 1975.
• "PORTUGAL: Hammers Yes, Sickles No,", TIME (magazine), September 29, 1975.
• "Portuguese ex-PM Gonçalves dies," BBC News, Sunday, June 12, 2005.
• Fuchs, Dale. "General Vasco Gonçalves" (obituary), The Guardian (London, UK), Monday, June 13, 2005.
• Gallagher, Tom. "General Vasco Gonçalves: Marxist prime minister of Portugal" (obituary), The Independent (London, UK), Tuesday, June 14, 2005.
• Hershman, Gabriel & Graeme, Chris. "Portugal mourns its revolutionaries," Algarve (Portugal) Resident, Thursday, June 16, 2005.
• "General Vasco Gonçalves" (obituary), The Daily Telegraph (London, UK), Thursday, June 23, 2005.