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Portugal Portuguese Guinea
In Portuguese Guinea (present-day Guinea-Bissau), the
struggle against Portuguese rule began officially in
January
1963, although there had been earlier acts of sabotage by
members
of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and
Cape
Verde (Partido Africano pela Independência de Guiné e Cabo
Verde-
-PAIGC). PAIGC was a Marxist movement guided by the Maoist
concept of achieving revolution through the rural
peasantry. By
1968 PAIGC claimed control of nearly 70 percent of the
territory
and half the population of the province, the Portuguese
being
confined largely to the towns and major villages of the
coastal
area. Under a vigorous new governor, General António de
Spínola,
regular forces numbering 33,000 (about half Africans) were
supplemented by local armed militia based in strategic
villages.
PAIGC nevertheless kept up its pressure by guerrilla raids
mounted from neighboring Senegal and the Republic of
Guinea. The
military situation was already deteriorating in 1973 when
Soviet
surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) were introduced and a
number of
Portuguese planes were shot down. Portuguese pilots became
reluctant to fly, and as a result Portugal had to curtail
the air
attacks that had been highly effective against guerrilla
operations.
After Spínola returned to Lisbon in 1973, military
morale
eroded because the soldiers felt that they were fighting
an
unwinnable war in a territory of little value. A few
months
later, the revolutionary government that had recently come
to
power in Portugal began negotiations for withdrawing
Portuguese
troops from the province. Portugal recognized
Guinea-Bissau as an
independent state in September 1974. Portuguese losses in
Portuguese Guinea were reported to be 1,656 killed in
action and
696 noncombat deaths.
Data as of January 1993
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