On May 8, at 7:30 p.m., FLAD will host the conference “The Path to Democracy: U.S.-Portugal Relations During the Carnation Revolution and Beyond”, an event organized by the U.S. Embassy in Lisbon, which will revisit the importance of the relationship between the then U.S. ambassador to Portugal, Frank Carlucci, and the leader of the Socialists, Mário Soares. Frank Carlucci’s wife and daughter, Marcia Carlucci and Kristin Carlucci Weed, and Mário Soares’ son and former Minister of Culture , João Soares, are invited. The event will be moderated by U.S. Ambassador to Lisbon Randi Charno Levine.

The 25th of April 1974 was, as far as a forced overthrow of a regime is concerned, a model for the peaceful way in which it unfolded. But the period that followed was one of great uncertainty. With extremist forces pushing for anti-democratic government solutions, and the United States worried about the possibility of a NATO country falling into the hands of a communist party allied with the Soviet Union, Henry Kissinger, then US Secretary of State, sent Frank Carlucci to Portugal.

Frank Carlucci would become U.S. ambassador to Lisbon from 1975 to 1978, a position in which he would be responsible for coordinating all CIA activities in Portugal. As a diplomat, he had already passed through Congo in 1960, when independence from Belgium was being discussed, and in Brazil, where he learned to speak Portuguese fluently, at the time of the military coup that deposed João Goulart and began the military dictatorship.

Carlucci developed a close relationship with Mário Soares, who was instrumental in arguing before the U.S. administration – and a Henry Kissinger who thought Portugal was lost to the communists – that it was possible for moderate democratic forces to win in Portugal, while remaining calm, even when, in February 1975, the U.S. stationed the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga on the Tagus River. in front of the Belém Palace.

The friendship between Frank Carlucci and Mário Soares turned out to be decisive for the stability of the country during the PREC’s Hot Summer period, and marked the relations between the two countries in the decades that followed.

To discuss this very important period in the history of the relationship between the two countries and the two great figures who marked it, the Embassy of the United States of America in Lisbon invited those who knew them more closely: Frank Carlucci’s wife, Marcia Carlucci, and their daughter Kristin Carlucci Weed, who recently released a book about her father’s work and legacy (‘Get Me Carlucci: A Daughter Recounts Her Father’s Legacy of Service’); and João Soares, son of Mário Soares, and former deputy and socialist governor. This talk will be moderated by U.S. Ambassador to Portugal Randi Charno Levine.

The conference will take place in the auditorium of FLAD, in Lisbon. If you want to participate, please register until the 4th of May through the following link: https://forms.office.com/g/8fKz6DsAN7