An interesting read and also gives a little more context. There was literally an US aircraft carrier at the gates of Lisbon, in case the country had the intention to become a communist one.
The guns and armor of the American aircraft carrier Saratoga stood out menacingly within sight of Commerce Square, opposite where most of the workers had assembled. This had to arouse the greatest indignation, not only from the demonstrators but from all Portuguese workers, especially when one remembers that the CP itself has stood out so long and undeviatingly against NATO. Yet one must wonder-how could the Armed Forces Movement agree to the participation of Portuguese naval units in an exercise which involved simulated bombings of central Portugal? And how can the Provisional government at this very late date still be a member of NATO, especially when the Pentagon has contemptuously barred the Portuguese armed forces from any so-called secret NATO material?
It would have never been allowed by the US and the west.
https://www.workers.org/marcy/cd/samport/port/port02.htm
An interesting read and also gives a little more context. There was literally an US aircraft carrier at the gates of Lisbon, in case the country had the intention to become a communist one.