International Response to Goa

by cockofgod

What was the international response to the Indian conquest of Goa, and how damaging to Portugal or specific Portuguese politicians was the anemic Portuguese response? Did the Portuguese people not support protecting their territory?

EvanRWT

There was strong condemnation of India from the US, UK, and their allies. Countries with connections to Portugal, such as Brazil, also condemned India. Pakistan jumped on the bandwagon as well.

Meanwhile, the USSR supported India (and had previously vetoed the US-initiated UN resolution condemning India). China offered kind of a lukewarm support to India. Ceylon and several other Asian countries also offered support. A bunch of African countries, specially former Portuguese colonies, rejoiced and congratulated India on throwing out the colonialists.

In Portugal, there was national mourning, and a strong reaction against India - in fact, they broke off diplomatic relations with India, which were not re-established until 1974 after the government changed in Portugal.

But there was nothing they could really do. They were a tiny country, a long way from their Indian colony. The Indian military was right there, and it was massive, even in those times. There was no military solution for the Portuguese.

They did persist diplomatically for several years, pushing for help from the US, UK, other European countries, and the UN. Some, as I mentioned, did in fact condemn India and support Portugal. But this was also a time when colonialism was going out of fashion across the world - lots of countries had recently achieved independence and others were in the process. There was no real moral argument to be made why Portugal should own an Indian colony thousands of miles away, specially when there had been continuous and sustained independence movements within the colony since at least the 1920's. So aside from "condemnations", little else was done.