Ford authorized secret US payments to steer Portuguese labor from China
By Desmond Okafor ·
Portuguese workers were targeted for manipulation by US funds kept secret from Congress, with the exact dollar amounts still blacked out in the record.
Portuguese laborers and moderate politicians found their livelihoods and political futures steered by money they didn't know existed. The price of this invisible hand was the integrity of a young democracy attempting to shake off decades of fascism.
A memorandum from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs, Brent Scowcroft, to President Gerald Ford records the cold logistics of this interference. The document, marked "Secret; Eyes Only; Outside the System," outlines a covert action program designed to "support moderates and resist Communist and other radical attempts to impose totalitarian rule" in Portugal. While the goals were framed as a defense of stability, the mechanism was the strategic injection of cash into a volatile social landscape.
"Labor operations"
The most telling detail in the memo is the request to release funds specifically for "labor operations." In the wake of the 1974 Carnation Revolution, which ended the authoritarian Estado Novo regime, Portugal became a primary battleground for influence. The U.S. government did not view the organic rise of labor movements or radical leftism as a domestic Portuguese evolution, but as a vacuum to be filled or a threat to be neutralized.
By funding "labor operations," the administration was not supporting workers' rights, but rather subsidizing specific factions that aligned with Washington's interests. The memo notes that these funds had previously been "suspended by OMB pending more specific justification," suggesting that even the Office of Management and Budget required a more precise map of how the money would be used to manipulate the Portuguese workforce. Once that justification was provided, the 40 Committee—the high-level interagency group responsible for overseeing covert actions—gave its approval on November 14.
12/4 in China
The bureaucracy of interference continued even while the President was halfway around the world. The memorandum was sent for action and eventually reached Ford during his historic visit to China. Beside the President's initials of approval is a handwritten note: "12/4 (in China)."
There is a stark contrast between the public diplomacy of a presidential visit to Beijing and the private authorization of a secret fund to steer the internal politics of a NATO ally. While Ford was navigating the complexities of the Pacific, he was signing off on the "reprogramming" of funds and the withdrawal of new capital to ensure that the "moderates" in Lisbon remained in the ascendancy. The document makes it clear that this was an ongoing operation; Scowcroft reports that "some progress has been made toward achieving our objective," though the nature of that progress is left to the imagination of the reader and the archives of the CIA.
Outside the System
The memo is explicit about its desire to avoid the gaze of the American legislature. Scowcroft informs Ford that because the program followed a Presidential Finding approved on August 10, and because there was "no change in purpose or direction," the administration decided "it is not necessary that a new Presidential Finding be submitted to the Congress."
This maneuver allowed the executive branch to expand the scope and funding of the Portuguese operation without triggering new rounds of congressional scrutiny. The document notes only that "appropriate committees of the Congress will be informed of this," a phrasing that suggests a notification rather than a request for permission. The classification "Outside the System" underscores a design for maximum opacity, ensuring that the financial levers being pulled in Lisbon remained invisible to the public and the majority of the government.
The missing Tab A
The full extent of the damage remains obscured by both time and redaction. Every single dollar amount in the memorandum has been blacked out. We do not know if the "new funding" amounted to thousands or millions of dollars, only that the OMB determined the amounts were "reasonable."
The document refers to a "Tab A" which provided a detailed breakdown of how these funds would be utilized—the specific names, the specific unions, and the specific political actors receiving the payments. However, the archival record explicitly states: "Tab A was not attached."
Without Tab A, the record leaves us with the blueprint of the operation but not the list of the beneficiaries. It leaves open the question of which Portuguese "moderates" were on the payroll and which labor leaders were compromised by the 40 Committee's checkbook. The minutes of the November 14 meeting, where these decisions were finalized, are noted as existing in the National Security Council files, but the specific target list remains absent from this record.