Spínola, António de

Spínola, António de (b. 11 Apr. 1910, d. 13 Aug. 1996). Portuguese general Born in Estremoz, he rose through the ranks of the Portuguese army, and became closely involved in the Portuguese colonial wars in Africa, from 1968 as commanding general and high commissioner of Portuguese Guinea (now Guinea-Bissau). There he created a relatively successful ‘Africanization’ programme whereby half of the (Portuguese) Guinean army was formed by African troops. As a result he became something of a hero in the Portuguese colonial wars. After his return to Portugal, when he became Chief of Staff of the armed forces, he published a best-selling book based on his experience in Africa, entitled Portugal and the Future (1974), in which he urged economic liberalization, democratization, and a political solution to the African colonial wars. This book by one of the country's highest generals precipitated a major political crisis, and led to the 1974 coup, in which Caetano was overthrown. The tenets of the book became the programme of the new military government, in which he served briefly as interim President (May to September 1974). Worried by the growth of the Communist Party, he led an abortive coup in 1975 and, after a few years in exile in Brazil, returned to retirement in Portugal.