1961 - After more than a decade of failed diplomacy, India launched Operation Vijay and swiftly won control over Portuguese colonies in Goa in 2 short days.
Preparations for the conflict was obvious for quite some time, yet the Portuguese government did not provide credible military defence and zero air support. Even worse, Antonio de Oliveira Salazar's government in Lisbon tried to prevent evacuation of Portuguese civilians despite imminent hostilities.
Understandably, Portugal was facing serious unrest in much of her Asian and African colonies, yet Salazar's government seemed to foolishly underestimated the vulnerability of Portuguese position in India by not providing strong military support to Governor General Manuel Vassalo e Silva of Goa for the latter's impossible task.
How could the fiasco (from Portugal's perspective) been possible?
Were the collective Portuguese leadership blind to their weakness or were they counting on foreign support in the event of war?
Elsewhere, they were able to hold on to their colonies longer and were initially successful in suppressing armed hostilities.
Edited by snowybeagle - 24-Aug-2009 at 01:15