Júlio Carlos Alves Dias Botelho Moniz (Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

, 1900 - Lisbon, 1970) was Portuguese

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 soldier and politician. Botelho Moniz owed his political and military career (Minister of the Interior and of Defense, Chief General of the Armed Forces, representative of the Portuguese Army

Portuguese Army

The Portuguese Army is the ground branch of the Portuguese Armed Forces which, in co-operation with other branches of the Portuguese military, is charged with the defence of Portugal...

, as an observer, on the East Front of the Second World War) to Fernando Santos Costa

Fernando Santos Costa

Colonel Fernando dos Santos Costa was a Portuguese army officer who held the office of Minister of War in the government of António Salazar between 1944 and 1958.- Early career :...

's close protection.

Coup attempt

After his nomination as Minister of Defense (following Santos Costa in that position), Botelho Moniz became receptive towards the discontent felt by certain members of the military hierarchy against the Estado Novo regime. In the spring of 1961, he was one of the main participants in an aborted coup d'état

Coup d'état

A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...

, also supported by the former President Craveiro Lopes and some of his colleagues. The attempt to overthrow António de Oliveira Salazar

António de Oliveira Salazar

António de Oliveira Salazar, GColIH, GCTE, GCSE served as the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1932 to 1968. He also served as acting President of the Republic briefly in 1951. He founded and led the Estado Novo , the authoritarian, right-wing government that presided over and controlled Portugal...

 failed because the "coup" was badly prepared, enabling the dictator to react promptly. Some believe that Botelho Moniz developed contacts with the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, as the Americans, under President John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

's new policy, were allegedly willing to discreetly support changes in the political orientation of the Portuguese administration.

See also

• Estado Novo (Portugal)
• Portuguese Colonial War
  Portuguese Colonial War
  The Portuguese Colonial War , also known in Portugal as the Overseas War or in the former colonies as the War of liberation , was fought between Portugal's military and the emerging nationalist movements in Portugal's African colonies between 1961 and 1974, when the Portuguese regime was...