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Américo Tomás

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
President of Portugal from 1958 to 1974
Not to be confused withThomas Americo.
In thisPortuguese name, the first or maternalfamily name isRodrigues and the second or paternal family name isTomás.
Américo Tomás
Official portrait, 1958-1960
President of Portugal
In office
9 August 1958 – 25 April 1974
Prime MinisterAntónio de Oliveira Salazar
Marcelo Caetano
Preceded byFrancisco Craveiro Lopes
Succeeded byAntónio de Spínola
Minister of the Navy
In office
6 September 1944 – 10 May 1958
Prime MinisterAntónio de Oliveira Salazar
Preceded byManuel Ortins de Bettencourt
Succeeded byFernando de Quintanilha e Mendonça Dias
Personal details
BornAmérico de Deus Rodrigues Tomás
(1894-11-19)19 November 1894
Died18 September 1987(1987-09-18) (aged 92)
Cascais, Portugal
Political partyNational Union
SpouseGertrudes Ribeiro da Costa
Children2
Alma materPortuguese Naval School
ProfessionNaval officer
AwardsOrder of St. James of the Sword
Order of Aviz
Order of Christ
Order of the Tower and Sword
Signature
Military service
AllegiancePortugal
Branch/service Portuguese Navy
Years of service1914–1974
RankAdmiral[1]
Battles/warsFirst World War
Portuguese Colonial War

Américo de Deus Rodrigues TomásOSEComA GOAComC GCCGCoITE[2] (Portuguese pronunciation:[ɐˈmɛɾikuðɨˈðewʒʁuˈðɾiɣɨʃtuˈmaʃ]; 19 November 1894 – 18 September 1987) was aPortuguese Navyofficer and politician who served as thepresident of Portugal from 1958 to1974. He was the last president of the authoritarian and corporatistEstado Novo.

Biography

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Early life

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Américo de Deus Rodrigues Tomás was born inLisbon to his parents António Rodrigues Tomás and Maria da Assumpção Marques. He married Gertrudes Ribeiro da Costa in October 1922. The couple had two children, Maria Natália Rodrigues Tomás (born 1923) and Maria Magdalena Rodrigues Tomás (born 1925).[1] Tomás entered high school at Lapa, Portugal in 1904, completing his secondary education in 1911. He then attended the Faculty of Sciences for two years (1912–1914), after which he joined theNaval Academy as a midshipman.

Military career

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Américo Tomás as a Navy Cadet, in 1915.

After Tomás graduated from theNaval Academy in 1916, he was assigned to thePortuguese coast escort service onVasco da Gama and later assigned to thePedro Nunes and thedestroyersDouro andTejo[3] duringWorld War I. In 1918, he received a promotion to Lieutenant.

On 17 March 1920, he was placed on thesurvey vessel5 de Outubro, where he served for the next sixteen years. During this time, he was assigned to the survey mission of the Portuguese coast and was a board member of the Technical Commission forHydrography,Navigation and NauticalMeteorology and a member of the Council for Studies ofOceanography andFisheries. Tomás was also a member of the International Permanent Council for the Exploration of the Sea.[3]

Tomás was appointed chief of staff to theMinister of the Navy in 1936, President of theMerchant Marine National Junta from 1940 to 1944, andMinister of the Navy from 1944 to 1958.

During his term as Minister of the Navy, he was responsible for the total reconstruction of the Portuguese commercial navy organized under Dispatch 100. Fifty-six ships were ordered, with a total of more than 300,000 tons of displacement. The dispatch included statutes that also allowed the formation of what is now the modern shipbuilding industry in Portugal. Tomás' actions while serving as Minister of the Navy won him a positive reputation in the marine community, unlike the infamy acquired by several of his colleagues in thePortuguese Armed Forces (FAP) and thegovernment of Portugal during their respective tenures.

Presidency

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In 1958, Tomás was chosen by then-Prime MinisterAntónio Salazar as the candidate of the rulingNational Union party for the presidency of the republic, succeedingFrancisco Craveiro Lopes. He ran against the opposition-backedHumberto Delgado. It initially appeared thatthe election ended as soon as Tomás was nominated. The electoral system was so heavily rigged in favor of the National Union that he could not possibly be defeated. However, in an unusually spirited contest, Tomás was ultimately credited with 76.4 percent of the vote to Delgado's 23.5 percent.[4] Most neutral observers believed, however, that Delgado, the only opposition candidate in the history of the Second Republic to stay in the race until Election Day, would have won had the election been honest. Salazar was alarmed enough that he pushed through a constitutional amendment transferring the election of the president to the legislature, which was firmly controlled by the regime. Tomás was re-elected by the legislature in1965 as the only candidate.

Although vested with sweeping—almost dictatorial—powers on paper, in practice Tomás was little more than a figurehead for his first decade in power. For most of the existence of the Estado Novo, Salazar, as prime minister, held the real power. Indeed, Salazar had chosen him because Craveiro Lopes had shown an independent streak that Salazar didn't like. Tomás' virtual powerlessness in the office under Salazar made him little more than a decorative figure at inaugurations and festivities. This, together with a natural ineptitude for speech-making, also made him a target of frequent jokes.

In September 1968, Salazar was incapacitated by a coma. Believing that Salazar did not have long to live, Tomás dismissed Salazar and appointedMarcelo Caetano to succeed him. For all intents and purposes, the president's power to dismiss the prime minister had been the only check on Salazar's power. However, he never informed the recovered Salazar that he had been removed as leader of the regime he had largely created. Reportedly, when Salazar died two years later, he still believed thathe was prime minister.

Tomás' ouster of Salazar would be the only time he exercised his presidential prerogatives during his first decade in office. In contrast, Tomás took a much more active role in the government after Caetano took power. While he had given Salazar more or less a free hand, he was not willing to do the same for Caetano. Eventually, Tomás became the rallying point for hardliners who opposed Caetano's efforts to open up the regime. Caetano's reforms did not go nearly far enough for a populace that had no memory of the instability and chaos that had preceded Salazar. For instance, he left the presidential election in the hands of the regime-dominated legislature, which re-elected Tomás unopposed in1972. However, Caetano had to expend nearly all of his political capital to wrangle even these meagre reforms out of Tomás and the hardliners. He was thus in no position to resist when Tomás and the other hardliners forced the end of the reform experiment a year later.

Tomás, unlike his predecessor, lived in his private residence while President of the Republic, using theBelém Palace only as an office and for official ceremonies.

Later life

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On 25 April 1974, theCarnation Revolution ended 48 years of authoritarian rule in Portugal.[5] After being removed from power, Tomás was exiled to Brazil; in 1978, PresidentAntónio Ramalho Eanes allowed his return to Portugal. In 1981, his eldest daughter, Natália, suddenly died.[1] He was denied re-entry into the Navy and the extraordinary pension scheme currently in force for former presidents of the Republic, having received a modest pension from a retired military. After his return from exile, Tomás lived practically isolated, having gone through serious financial difficulties, being forced to sell various gifts and valuables from when he was president. He published his memoir in 1986.

Tomás died at his home, inCascais, of a generalized infection, at the age of 92, on 18 September 1987. His funeral was simple and modest, without any representation or military or state honors, being buried in the Ajuda Cemetery.

Honours

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He was portrayed in theAngolan escudo banknote issues of 1962 and 1970.[6][7]

National honours

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Foreign honours

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Source:[8]

Published works

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  • Sem Espírito Marítimo Não É Possível o Progresso da Marinha Mercante (in Portuguese), Lisbon, Portugal: self-published, 1956
  • Renovação e Expansão da Frota Mercante Nacional, preface of Jerónimo Henriques Jorge (in Portuguese), Lisbon, Portugal: self-published, 1958
  • Citações (in Portuguese), Lisbon, Portugal: República, 1975
  • Últimas Décadas de Portugal (in Portuguese), vol. 4, Lisbon, Portugal: Fernando Pereira, 1981

References

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  1. ^abc"Américo Tomás, MPR".
  2. ^"ENTIDADES NACIONAIS AGRACIADAS COM ORDENS PORTUGUESAS".
  3. ^abMascarenhas, João Mário; Telo, António José (1997)."Américo de Deus Rodrigues Tomás".A República e seus presidentes (in Portuguese).
  4. ^ISCSP."Eleições presidenciais de 1958". ISCSP. Archived fromthe original on 2012-04-06.
  5. ^Junta da Salvação Nacional(PDF) (in Portuguese), Lisbon, Portugal: Diário da República, 25 April 1974
  6. ^Angola - Banco de Angola 10.06.1962 "Americo Tomás" Issue Bank Note Museum
  7. ^Angola - Banco de Angola 10.06.1970 "Americo Tomás" Issue Bank Note Museum
  8. ^"ENTIDADES NACIONAIS AGRACIADAS COM ORDENS ESTRANGEIRAS".
Political offices
Preceded by
President of Portugal
1958–1974		Succeeded by
Preceded byMinister of the Navy
(2nd time)
1953–1958		Succeeded by
Preceded byMinister of Defence
(Interim)
1957		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Manuel Ortins de Bettencourt
Minister of the Navy
(1st time)
1944–1953		Succeeded by
Preceded byMinister of the Colonies
(Interim)
1945		Succeeded by
First Republic (1910–1926)
Flag of the President of Portugal
Second Republic (1933–1974)
Third Republic (1974–present)
Interim presidents are initalics.
International
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