CARLUCCI'S SUCCESSFUL WAYS IN PORTUGAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302360006-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: December 29, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302360006-5
/V- r-ZAP.0
ON
WASHINGTON TIMES
29 December 1986
Carlucci's successful ways in Portugal
GEORGIE ANNE GEYER
LISBON, Portugal
i" f there is one even remotely po-
litical Portuguese who does
not have a favorite story about
Frank Carlucci, the White
House's new national security ad-
viser, I have yet to find him on these
sunny streets. From my own little
poll, I can testify that the favorite by
far about Mr. Carlucci's crucial time
here as ambassador in the 1975-76
days of the "Portuguese Revolution:'
is this one:
It was the spring of 1975 and,
? some years after the end of the old
Salazar dictatorship, Portugal was
being run by the Communist Party
' through the leftists in the armed
forces. As the new U.S. ambassador,
Mr. Carlucci was naturally hated by
the left.
' One day, the leading leftist mili-
tary man, Otelo Sariva de Carvalho,
arrived at the Lisbon airport from a
trip abroad and immediately made
some pointedly menacing threats
about Mr. Carlucci. He said he could
"not assure his safety," which was an
ominous go-ahead to the leftists.
Those were strange and violent
days, a time when nobody really
ruled and the streets were con-
stantly filled with mobs and demon-
strations. Indeed, as the man spoke
at the airport, an unruly and un-
friendly crowd estimated at 20,000
persons was milling in front of the
American Embassy.
An enraged Ambassador Carlucci
immediately telephoned Mr. Sariva.
He had heard the threats on televi-
sion, Mr. Carlucci told him. Then, "I
am leaving the embassy in 10 min-
utes;' Mr. Carlucci went on, "and I
want you to make sure nothing hap-
pens to me:'
After those 10 minutes, Mr. Car-
lucci walked alone, his defiant head
up, through the crowd, saying, "Ex-
cuse me, excuse me;' went around
the corner, got into his car and drove
home.
This story clearly demonstrates
the Carlucci talents that were so am-
ply and repeatedly shown during his
time here: an Italian-American
street sense and an ability to judge
power balances, a sure knowledge of
the society he was working in and
with, and sheer guts.
What does his time in Portugal
show about the man who, at an un-
precedented time of scandal for the
White House, will take over at the
National Security Council on Jan. 2?
When Mr. Carlucci came to Portu-
gal in its moment of modern up-
heaval, Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger had written it off; the
country would go directly from the
old rightist dictatorship to the Com-
munists, but he thought its tragedy
would be the "vaccination of West-
ern Europe:' in effect serving as an
antibody to the Communist infection
threatening the rest of the Conti-
nent.
Mr. Carlucci violently disagreed.
He did not forget the important fact
that 85 percent of the country's pop-
ulation lived in largely rural areas
from Lisbon north: the great major-
ity of the Portuguese were conserva-
tive, sober, Catholic, and totally anti-
Communist.
With his good political sense, Mr.
Carlucci knew that the Communist
Party had its apparatus readied out-
side the country to take over. It
needed only to be transplanted in-
side, and at this time their leader,
Alvaro Cunhal, controlled the
streets. But Mr. Carlucci also was
convinced that the right man on the
democratic side still could save the
country, and that man, like him a
man of intellect and courage, was
the socialist leader Mario Soares.
It was, of course, Mr. Snares, who
went on to become the first demo-
cratic prime minister and now pres-
ident, and the Portuguese people
who "saved" Portugal. But Mr. Car-
lucci offered them the support and
the spirit of the United States.
"Mr. Carlucci is a legend 'here, a.
myth," is the way one pontwpiete
man typically put it to me. rs ?
also a great actor; he was part of a
great drama of good and evil' -
But even after the socialists, and ,
- now the Social Democrats, came to .
power, Mr. Carlucci kept his interest ,
in ? and, indeed, love for ? Por-
tugal. He helped form the Lifo-
American Business Council, a group ,
of some 30 American compaqies
that work with Portuguese comn-
ies, and he has maintained many per-
sonal relationships.
Mr. Carlucci unquestionably hs
had failures in his multifaceted ca-
re_stliis in the caseig_camezt_action
against South Yemen in 1979 when
fie was with the CIA. But his per-.
sonal qualities, shown with greategst
drama and effectiveness in this
beautitul country, not only au ;
pressive
United States needs at this timol
His intellectual and. personal ;
sense of Portugal, for instance, were ;
exactly the opposite of the White
House cowboys' lack of any sense-at :
all about the reality of Iran:, His
canny street sense was exactly what
the foolish Irangate arms philandetr-
ers did not have. Maybe there stings
hope.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302360006-5