Sam's Brother goes astray - Brazil in the 1960s.

[CardinalXiminez]

[Rancho Boyeros Airport, Havana, Cuba, April, 3, 1960]

- “So, what the madman wants now?”

Captain Otávio Brünnheim was that angry. He expected to spend at least another night with Dolores, drinking ice-cold Polars and exceptional Bacardi rum at the comfortable hotel at the Malecón, but here he was, smelling kerosene fumes at the airport and glimpsing checklists and flight plans. Now he was doing the ‘olympic lap’, the visual revision of the white-and-blue Lockheed Constellation with his copilot.

“He wants to go today. Something about journalists or so”. Pedro Paulo Brandt sighed. This was his first trip to Havana. Varig was trying to avoid the stop, due to the “recent confusion”, or, translated, the growing hostility of the arch-conservative German airline owners with the Castro government and the unions running the airport.

“Oh, please. The guy wants to be president and runs away from a scandal when he sees it”, grunted Brünnheim.

“That’s WHY he’s gonna be president”, said Brandt with a smile. “And maybe he’s crazy, and likes women a bit too much, but who doesn’t?. The important stuff, the real deal, is this: he’s not a crook and he’s not a commie. That’s why I am going to vote for him”.

“Of course you are, like I am going to too”, said Brünnheim. In 1960, no Brazilian aviator would recognize otherwise to other aviator. “But still, I’m not that confident. The Brigadier, THAT is a man…”

“Yea, of course, but let’s call a spade a spade here, do you think these pox-ridden paupers will vote for a man of the stature of the Brigadier?”, complained Brandt. “I don’t think so. Look what happened in 1950”.

“Or in fifty-five”, confirmed Brünnheim.

You know, Brünnheim, someday we will not need all this shitty politicians”, Brandt followed on, raising his voice. “We’ll take care of all the stuff, get rid of the commies…”

“We tried, Paulo”, and the voice of the older man carried the experience of a man with friends still in prison since the last coup attempt. He shaked his head, like a man trying to get rid of bad remembrances, and looked at the flight plan again. “And let’s do this now. I know a place in Caracas with excellent rum…”

Neither of the two men saw that the little crack in one of the rudder cables, consequence of a couple of careless New York - Rio operations and that just today decided to show up. And neither of them will see it break two hours later, when the Super Constellation PP-VDB plunged in the calm waters of the Caribbean, killing all the passengers and crew on board.

Varig Lockheed L-1049G Super Constellation PP-VDB, at Idlewild Airport, New York City, 1959.​

I know is not the easiest theme or POD, but all feedback will be extremely welcome.

 

[CardinalXiminez]

When in 1930 Getúlio Vargas landed into power in Brazil, nobody thought he would be the man who would shape the country for the rest of the century. However, he did. After 1946, the country was a battlefield between two forces: those who were with Vargas and those who were against him.

Starting as a compromise candidate of the civilian forces against the traditional powers who ruled the country since the proclamation of the Republic in 1889, and with the support of a young, idealistic and politically naive slice of the military, he was lifted to the heights and managed to never leave it for fifteen years, being what the times demanded: the constitutional democrat in 1934 became a fascist-inspired Leader in 1937, when he closed Congress and ruled by decree. Vargas toyed with neutrality during the first years of the war, but after Pearl Harbor, he threw his hat with the Allies (in exchange for the first modern steelworks in the country, built with American technology) and became one of the few Latin American countries to fight the war directly, sending the Brazilian Expeditionary Force to Italy in 1943. Vargas impulsed the industrialization of the country and a series of workers’ rights reforms, getting even the support of the Brazilian Communist Party; and at the same time, he slept at the Catete Palace every night as a dictator.

But when in 1945 the Army smelled that he wanted to get rid of the upcoming elections to keep himself in power (again), it overthrew him in a bloodless coup. But, even from his farm in São Borja, a thousand miles away from Rio, he was in the election anyway: he threw his support to his former War Secretary, Eurico Gaspar Dutra, who duly won the election (paradoxically, the highest-ranking Germanophile in Vargas’ cabinet was to rule the new democratic Brazil). Vargas himself was elected again president in 1950, a fact celebrated by the song 'Portrait of the Old Man': "Hang the portrait of the Old Man again / at the same place it was before! / The smile of the Old Man / make us work"

Vargas’ rule was supported by two parties: the Social Democratic Party (PSD), who united the elites he brought to power in the 1930 (specially in rural areas) and the Labour Party of Brazil (PTB), supported by most trade unions and the urban worker classes. The Communists were outlawed in 1947, but its influence could be seen.

The main opposition party, the National Democratic Union (UDN), was formed by rural elites hostile to Vargas, a sizeable part of the military and (mostly) a mid-upper urban middle class, specially in Rio de Janeiro. And they really hated Vargas. Even before he was a candidate again, in 1949, the firebrand journalist Carlos Lacerda was making the opposite Sherman: “Vargas can not be a candidate; if he is, he can not be elected; if he is, he can not be inaugurated, and if he is, we must do a coup to oust him from power”. During four years, opposition was relentless. In 1954, one year before the end of Vargas’ term, came the fatal mistake: a member of Vargas’ personal guard shot Lacerda, hitting and killing a major from the Air Force, who was volunteering to protect the journalist. The Air Force, staunchly in the opposition (the presidential candidate of the UDN in 1946 and 1950 was Air Force Brigadier Eduardo Gomes) took care of the inquest. The military, tired, pressured Vargas to resign, or, at least, take a leave of absence pending the investigations.

He did take a leave of absence. When the generals were leaving the palace, on August, 24, 1954, he went to his room at Catete Palace and shot himself in the chest. With that act, and his “testament letter” lavishly published everywhere, poor Brazilians showed the real popularity of the president. When in 1955 fresh presidential elections were made, the PSD-PTB candidate, Juscelino Kubitschek, won handily against the UDN candidate, Juarez Távora. Immediately, the losers (with the help of acting president Carlos Luz) started to plot against the president-elect, accusing him of being elected with the votes of the proscribed Communists. But before they could act, the War Minister, general Henrique Teixeira Lott, gave a coup and transferred the power to the president of the Senate, Nereu Ramos, who would keep it until transferred again to Kubitschek.

The JK (the nickname Brazilians gave to their new president, unable to pronounce his Czech surname) years were ones of unprecedented progress. The car industry came from none to become the first in South America and one of the largest in the world; hydroelectric dams were built, industrial parks were opened, and a new capital, Brasília, sign of all this modernity, was to be open amongst the brushland. But all that prosperity came with a cost: corruption was blatant, public and private debts mounted, and inflation was out of control. A young, bizarre (he ate sandwiches in his speeches and his hair was unkempt and full of dandruff in the years of slick hairdos) and brilliant teacher of São Paulo, Jânio Quadros, a populist conservative, became mayor in 1953 and state governor in 1955, promising to sweep corruption (a broom was the symbol of his campaign). It was clear for everybody he would be the frontrunner for the 1960 race. And, for the first time, the anti-Vargas candidate was the favorite.

 

[Gukpard]

This scenario have the most accurate description of Brazil at the time I have ever seen in this forum, awesome start

 

[CardinalXiminez]

[Mexico 10 Building, Rio de Janeiro, Wednesday, April, 13, 1960]

Thank God for air conditioning, thought José de Magalhães Pinto, president of the UDN. Sweat is something bald men have to live with (and he was famously bald) and even if the weather forecast expected a proper autumn afternoon, with rain-drenched southerlies, the weather was excellent and (he could see it this morning, as he was being brought to work) some people even had their last sea baths before the arrival of winter. So, if there were not but by the whizzing Carrier machine, he would be sweating profusely, as he did almost everywhere. He thought again about moving to Brasília, officially happening in eleven days[1]. Madness! Absolute madness! Only Kubitschek, that teacher's son from Diamantina, could come with such a mad idea. And the corruption it brought! How could anybody leave Rio de Janeiro, the prettiest city in the world, for that place in the middle of nowhere! And leaving this! The contemporarily decorated office had, in truly Brazilian style, plenty of sober (and expensive) dark wood furniture. He had bought it himself to a Portuguese gentleman in Ipanema, Sérgio Rodrigues. Oh, madness again! And now, the best hope of ending that madness, lost at sea! Not that he was the best friend of Quadros (privately, he considered him a raving madman) but he could recognize a good politician when he saw one, and Quadros was a good one.

Behind the door (also paneled in mahogany) clicked the heels of the secretary, then the knocks:

- "Yes!", said Magalhães Pinto, with a raspy voice.

- "Mr. Lacerda is here, sir" - said Judite, the extremely efficient secretary. And behind her, Lacerda himself, with his usual pose: bakelite rimmed glasses, a light grey tropical suit and the air of busyness of a man who thinks he's the most important person in the room. And he usually was. But not here. "Bom dia, Magalhães", said him, sleekly as always. "What are you doing?"

Magalhães went to the point.

"What are YOU doing?", and lifted that day's Lacerda's paper, Tribuna da Imprensa, with his left hand. The headlines blasted: BRAZIL DEMANDS NOW THE TRUTH FROM CASTRO · Itamaraty believes the "accident" hypotesis and ignores the unanimous demand from the Brazilian people: "Who killed Jânio Quadros? · Where's the true opposition of this country? · Thousands of letters and telegrams ask for an inquest - "Look, fellow, I know you are grateful to Batista for accepting your exile in Havana[2]. But this is too much. The Cubans are our friends. This can create us a diplomatic crisis".

"Us? Who's US? If something, Castro will complain to Kubitschek, and that's HIS problem", said Lacerda, presumptously. "Of course, when we get to power, you'll have to break up with Cuba until we know the whole truth. If we hadn't yet because they have gone full commie".

"Oh, yes. Let us break the whole Latin American diplomatic map [3] because you are shouting that the Castros killed Jânio without an inch of proof!", said Magalhães with a scoff. And doubled the sarcasm with the next question: "You are selling newspapers like mad with all this".

"It was even more impressive than when Vargas died", confirmed Lacerda with a half smile. He got the sarcasm and chose to ignore it. "On Thursday, when the Americans confirmed they had found the wreck, we printed five extras and sold 200,000[4]".

"Anyway. I'm back to Minas to pass the rest of the Holy Week with my family at Santo Antônio", said Magalhães. "I've recalled you to say that you are out of the UDN campaign for the election. Absolutely out".

"What do you mean, out?", Lacerda raised his voice. "You can not win without me!"

"We can not win with you, either", said Magalhães. "Your style and Quadros' combined[5], but now you are a liability for our campaign. You are too firebrand, too temperamental. We are going with the Brigadier and we don't see you here".

"Oh, for Jeebus sakes!", Lacerda raised his voice even more. "The first time the PSD have a candidate that's more boring than ours [6] and we blow it away! Adhemar is going to kick our bottoms in São Paulo! Don't you know what you are doing?"

"I do", Magalhães said, and started to walk to the door, opened it and showed Lacerda the way. "We are the party of responsibility. We are going to show it. Jânio was OK because he could win. But he's not here anymore and we are not going to risk it all. We can and we will win this. Now, I'm leaving. That's why I've called you".

"I have better chances of winning than the Brigadier!", scoffed Lacerda, as he left, angrily, through the door.

And then Magalhães said the words he would regret the rest of his life. "Oh, yes? I'd like to see that".

The outer door slammed shut.
----------------------------------------
[1] April 21, 1960 was chosen as the official opening of Brasília. It also was Tiradentes Day, for the national hero from Minas Gerais. JK was from Minas Gerais, too.

[2] Lacerda exiled himself in Cuba in 1955, after the failure of the coup against Kubitschek.

[3] People were still looking the Castros with some caution in 1960. In 1961, then...

[4] Many more newspapers were sold when Vargas died, but, of course, not the 'Tribuna da Imprensa' (who almost was burnt that day)

[5] That's true.

[6] That's also true.

 

[Guilherme Loureiro]

Hmm. Lacerda splits from the UDN, going on his own? He's certainly going to split the UDN vote(already split in São Paulo by Adhemar de Barros), so this election will likely go to Henrique Lott. Lott should keep the military quiescent(he was respected in the military, even by those who disagreed with him). Even not knowing what would happen in a Lott government, I can say the 1965 elections will be... interesting; the PSD would probably put up JK as their candidate; the PTB would be split between Jango and Brizola, and I have no idea what the UDN would do.

 

[Gukpard]

and I have no idea what the UDN would do

Sit down and cry probably

 

[CardinalXiminez]

Hmm. Lacerda splits from the UDN, going on his own?

Well, it is plausible. Lacerda wanted a coup and wanted it badly. For him, the UDN leadership was weak just for that (and IOTL, he wasn't shy to saying so in his newspaper). IOTL, everybody were following the leader (and a rising tide lifts all ships), but here the obvious fracture between the more "institutional" side of the UDN (those who knew what being in power actually was) and the fireeaters (Clube da Lanterna, "banda de música") could explode at any moment. Here, it explodes.

 

[CardinalXiminez]

Brazil arrived at the 1960 election with an pretty good economic situation. The GDP has grown 9.8% at the end of 1959, and was expected to grow over 9% at the end of 1960; exceptional for a country who hasn't seen a war. The overabundance of development projects and new industries created full employment in the largest cities, and, over all it, the gigantic Brasília works, who absorbed literally tens of thousands of migrants every year. The result was a lack of manpower, a rise in salaries, and, consequently, that plague of the second half of the 20th century in Brazil: inflation. Prices went up a record 39.4% in 1959, and everybody expected it would close the year over 30% [1]. Also, the country was heavily dependent of foreign capital; the external debt was rising and economists worried about the time when the bill for all that economic growth had to be paid.

As usual in Brazil, prosperity generated other problems. In the large cities, infrastructure for all the newcomers who arrived daily from all corners of the country to work in the new industries simply wasn't there. In Rio de Janeiro, thousands of people lived in flimsy shantytowns (called favelas) in the large geiss-granite hills (or morros) who dotted the city. In São Paulo, the preferred form of living for the new working poor were the cortiços, tenements situated in old, central houses abandoned for the confort of new apartments in the suburbs. For those who had a real house, the situation wasn't better. The water and power infrastructure wasn't thought for all that new population; in the driest months of the year, water and electricity were rationed. Streetcar and suburban rail networks (no Brazilian city had any kind of subway system) collapsed and were complemented by a crazy (not other word was possible) hodge-podge of private buses and jitneys (called lotações in Portuguese) crowded and dangerous [2]. Food was expensive, and plans to enforce any kind of price controls withered away with the growth of a solid black market.

And then, there were the rural poor: places where life still was like in the early 20th century (and even earlier), lacking education, healthcare or any kind of amenity. These were the areas ruled by the coronéis, the local political bosses, looking for the government for money, help or a combination of both.[3]

In this situation, the main candidates presented themselves to the public. There were actually TWO elections at the same time: the presidential and the vicepresidential elections [4].

For the Presidential election:

​

Henrique Teixeira Lott (PSD-PTB). Juscelino Kubitschek owed his five years in power to Marshal Henrique Teixeira Lott's (counter)coup in 1955 (it could be called either way, depending who you were asking), and putting a military man at the new presidential palace in Brasília looked like a sensible strategy in a country (and a continent) where coups were the new rage. That was enough to convince the PSD that Lott was their man. The labourist PTB wasn't that happy, though. There was a strong wing in the party which preferred supporting Jânio in exchange of support from Jânio to their own candidate for vice-president (see below)[5]. The death of Quadros made many of the party swing their support to Adhemar de Barros (specially in São Paulo), but the party, officially, throw his hat for Lott's candidacy. Grandson of an Englishman (from Exeter) and military attaché in the United States during World War II, he was a rare specimen of man: a true democrat in an army with a penchant for authoritarism. The only problem: he was a somehow boring man, and a mediocre speaker (a problem in a country so vast that radio was the only effective method of campaigning). His campaign brought experts from the United States, to try to sell his image, not by what he said, but by what he WAS.

​

Adhemar de Barros (PSP). Before Jânio Quadros, there was Adhemar. A true specimen of that classic São Paulo political staple, the center-right populist, he played the same notes and aimed for the same public than his rival and also governor of São Paulo: firebrand speeches, an emphasis in public works and charity, and unashamed pandering to the ethnic communities in the state (specially the Italian). The difference between both men was that, if Quadros had made of his personal honesty his trademark, Barros was decisively and solidly branded as a crook. A popular song praised his "little box" of "campaign contributions" (Caixinha do Adhemar) and even his own supporters justified his behavior with a phrase who became famous nationwide: "He steals, but he does things" (Rouba, mas faz). His main problem was that the São Paulo brand of politics was not very popular outside the state [6].

Carlos Lacerda (MCpB - PTN - PST- PL): His enemies called him the Crow: always bearing bad omens. But the amount of enemies Carlos Frederico Werneck de Lacerda made at his long career as a journalist and a politician were simply a reflex of the passions he caused in friends and foes alike. Born as a scion of an important Rio de Janeiro political family (his father chose Carlos Frederico for Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels) he was a textbook example of one of the most radical kinds of right-wing politician: the converted Communist. In 1934, he was one of the speakers at the first meeting of the Aliança Nacional Libertadora (ANL, the Brazilian Communist Party attempt to create a Popular Front on the European style) and had to hide at a family farm near his hometown, Vassouras, when the ANL tried to topple Vargas the following year. In 1939 he repudiated Communism, and became an avowed enemy of Getúlio Vargas first, and almost everything at his left after. He spouted fire and brimstone from the columns of his newspaper, the Tribuna da Imprensa, and thanks to his gift of the gab, he became a favored speaker after the fall of Vargas in 1945, first at the radio and then at the new medium of TV. After the death of Quadros, his falloff with the mainstream UDN direction (relations never were good) pushed him to create a new party, the Civic Movement for Brazil (Movimento Cívico pelo Brasil) and, thanks to his popularity, present himself as a candidate for the presidency [7]. His main problem was that he had not many friends or a party as such. And that, outside Rio and São Paulo, was clearly a liability.

Magalhães Pinto (UDN - PDC - PR): Magalhães Pinto was the default solution from a party listening from all other potential candidates for the 1960 election the same two fateful words: "Cristiano Machado". Machado was an inexpressive lawyer from Minas Gerais, mayor of Belo Horizonte from 1926 to 1929, which became the PSD candidate for president in 1950. As candidate of the largest party in Congress, he had a good chance to sail to the Catete Palace, but then Vargas became candidate for the PTB and almost all the PSD, as a man, followed him. Machado, alone, received less than 10% of the votes. When Lacerda announced his candidature, none of the famous military men the party trusted wanted to suffer that kind of humiliation. Magalhães Pinto, former governor of Minas Gerais, became then the first civilian to become a UDN candidate to the presidency. Bad omens were everywhere.

At the vicepresidential election, though, there were only two candidates with chances, a rematch of the 1955 election: João Goulart, known by everybody as Jango, former Labor Secretary and heatedly hated by Lacerda and almost all the right-wing, who called him a fellow traveller with the Communists, and Milton Campos, former governor of Minas Gerais and a popular administrator.

---------------------------

[1] It did.

[2] IOTL, in 2013, protests ecloded against bad transportation in the cities. Some things never change.

[3] Arguably, in some places of Brazil it is still that way.

[4] A system still used today in some places like the Philippines.

[5] IOTL, this idea, called the 'Jan-Jan combo', was fundamental for Quadros' victory.

[6] It still isn't.

[7] IOTL, Lacerda became the UDN candidate for the government of Guanabara (the former Federal District, basically a glorified mayor of Rio de Janeiro) and won handily.

 

[Gukpard]

Go Teixeira Lott!

 

[CardinalXiminez]

[The White House, October, 5, 1960, 10 a.m. Recordings courtesy of the Dwight E. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Records, Abilene, Kansas, all rights reserved.]

"THE PRESIDENT: Well, now. About Brazil. Hello there, Mr. Cabot. So, Mr. Herter, how certain we are of these results?

THE SECRETARY OF STATE: Very much sure, Mr. President. These are almost the final returns. Marshall Lott has won with a quite small plurality, less than 30% of the vote. The opposition was very much divided.

MR. CABOT [John Moors Cabot, Ambassador of the United States to Brazil, Trans. by phone.] Mr. President, personally I am surprised of the success of one of the opposition candidates, Mr. Magalyns Pinto [sic]. He has gathered the strength of his party in the rural areas and kept his own. Of course this was against Mr. Lacerda, other of the candidates.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, Mr. Cabot, we know Marshal Lott already, he looks like a true military man. Looks like an English surname?

MR. CABOT: English, Mr. President. From his grandfather. His father was born in Brazil, also a military man.

THE PRESIDENT: Do we know him enough?

THE SECRETARY OF STATE: Very much, sir. He was a military attaché in Washington during the war and have some friends here. Everyone here has vouched for his honesty and sympathies for democracy and the United States.

THE PRESIDENT: Remind me, where does he stands about the Castros?

MR. CABOT: Well, he's not as hostile as others, but not friend either. As the public opinion in Brazil has been souring against the Cubans during the last months, he has been quite more stronger in his words against the Cuban regime and in favor of Pan-American solidarity against Communism. We can expect business as usual: support, yes, but in a way that it benefits Brazil. He will probably need money soon to pay for the new capital, so there's a leverage we can use.

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, yeah, the new capital. Astounding, isn't it? How's it?

MR. CABOT: Hot as a rat's nest, Mr. President. The swimming pool is not a luxury here: is a necessity. Please let it know to these folks at Congress! [Laughter].

THE PRESIDENT: Everybody seems to be moving these days. The Pakistanis said they will build a new capital too. Maybe I missed that: changing the capital to somewhere in Kansas... [Laughter.] Sorry, Mr. Cabot, proceed, please.

MR. CABOT: Of course, we have to consider that Goulart, a known fellow traveller, has won again the race for Vice-President, and with a quite stronger showing than the new president. But he, Lott I mean, looks healthy, and most of the military respects him as a strong leader.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE: Most...

MR. CABOT: Yes, of course, there are some malcontents, mostly the losers of the coup in fifty-five and specially in the Air Force and the Navy. But nothing make us think there could be a stern change.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, then, business as usual then. About that U. N. resolution again..."

[Cuts].

 

[Gukpard]

THE SECRETARY OF STATE: Very much sure, Mr. President. These are almost the final returns. Marshall Lott has won with a quite small plurality, less than 30% of the vote. The opposition was very much divided.

"From east to west
From south to north
In the Brazilian land
It is a flag
Marshall Teixeira Lott!"

 

[Unknown]

What's the PoD here?

 

[Guilherme Loureiro]

What's the PoD here?

Jânio Quadros dies before the 1960 Elections, instead of winning them and setting the scenario for the events of 1964.

Lott getting 28.3% of the vote is somewhat bad; there will be an outcry that Lott is illegitimate. OTOH, the fact that Lacerda has split from the UDN may be a bonus here; Lott can co-opt the UDN against Lacerda. Were the congressional elections the same as in OTL? Building a coalition will be crucial for the stability of the government.

 

[CardinalXiminez]

Although he would be inaugurated only at the end of January 1961, Lott had to work hard from day one to form his government and tackle the immediate problems ahead. First of all, he would have to work with Congress, elected in 1958. Of course, the basis of his cabinet would be the PSD, the party which elected him, and it would have the largest number of ministers. But he also had to woo other parties to forge a coalition. The PTB, the junior member of the Lott coalition, was controlled (almost) by the Vice-President, João Goulart. Goulart was elected with a stronger plurality than Lott, so the President-elect obliged to him to choose two members of the Cabinet: the Labor Secretary, Almino Affonso[1], and the Health Secretary, Estácio Gonçalves Souto Maior [2].

Lott was an economic nationalist, but also a frugal military man. He wanted to curb the excesses of the JK years (mostly because the bills of those excesses were starting to arrive). As Lott wanted a healthy economic relationship with the United States, control of the economy was given to banker and diplomat Walther Moreira Salles [3] as Treasury Secretary. The elegant Moreira Salles was an expert, negotiating the external debt under Vargas and Kubitschek. Wishing to woo the ailing UDN (now without its powerful "music band", the noisiest, most rightist wing of the party, which moved to Lacerda's MCpB), Lott nominated a very young (30 years old) congressman from the northern state of Maranhão, José Sarney [4] (representative of the most centrist wing of the party) as Industry and Commerce Secretary. These nominations were enough to bring under the government banner 22 of the 28 UDN remaining deputies, but alienated the most progressive wing of the PTB, which declared itself "neutral", deciding its support of the government "as circumstances allow". To give the support of his PSP to the government in Congress, Adhemar de Barros asked simply for a free hand in São Paulo; Lott also obliged, but some PSP deputies pulled out of the agreement.

With this negotiations, the Congress composition was to be this one:

The most difficult part of marshal Lott's cabinet formation was, paradoxally, the military. Lott admired the idea of a Defense Secretary in the American model; led, as the Americans did, by a civilian. That was a bold maneuver. The only time a civilian led the Brazilian military since the imperial times was in 1919 and almost brought down the government with it. The proposed candidate, respected economist Celso Furtado[5], had military experience (he fought in World War II in Italy with the Brazilian Expeditionary Force), but the Army complained, saying that the position was to be occupied by one of their own, or, at least, a civilian with a degree from the Superior War School (ESG), controlled by the military. But Lott knew the ESG very well and knew that the few civilians there were mediocrities wanting to pander to the military, Lacerdist fanatics, or both. In a meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Lott reportedly said: "You don't need a soldier in the ministry when you have one in the Alvorada [the presidential palace]. You want it all, gentlemen!". Finally, Lott hammered a compromise: the three military chiefs (Army, Navy and Air Force) would be the same as under Kubitschek, would keep their ministry ranks (and pay) and could be present in Cabinet meetings "at will". Odílio Denys, ministry of the Army, declared himself satisfied, but Francisco de Assis Correia de Mello, ministry of the Air Force, was concerned: "When the officers know, here you will have your first mutiny". "It is not a matter of "if", but of "when", answered the president-elect.

-------

[1] Although IOTL he was president from 1961 to 1964, until 1963 Goulart was hampered by the military on his choice of ministers. Affonso was his choice for the Labor department then, so I think it's logical he was his first choice ITTL.

[2] Also Health Secretary under Goulart IOTL.

[3] Moreira Salles would be Treasury Secretary under Goulart IOTL.

[4] IOTL, Sarney would be governor of Maranhão and president from 1985 to 1990. And yes, even that young, he was one of the leading men of the so-called 'bossa nova' group at the UDN.

[5] IOTL, Furtado became Planning Secretary under Goulart.

 

[TimTurner]

watched

 

[CardinalXiminez]

[Duque de Caxias Building, Rio de Janeiro, November, 4, 1960, 7.30 a.m.]

Moving the Brazilian capital to Brasília had a silver lining to Rio de Janeiro: more real estate. The massive War Department building, towering over the Praça da República, where the Republic was proclaimed 71 years and a few weeks earlier, was slowly but painfully being reconverted to becoming the Central Command of the East, a less important role which required less manpower. That gave enough space for reserving the 11th floor for its previous boss, the former War Secretary, now President-elect, Henrique Teixeira Lott. Furnished with an hodge-podge of official-issued military equipment, the only impressive thing in the cabinet of the president-elect was the size. Two maps, one of Brazil, the other of the world, decorated one of the walls. And everywhere, on tables, chairs, stools and easels, mountains of papers, the humongous fruits of a state burocracy this serious, 66-year-old man was about to lead. A stern knock hit the door.

— Come in!

Ushered by an Army lieutenant who silently saluted and left, a man with white hair, blue eyes and dark, huge eyebrows entered cautiously in the room.

— Welcome —said the president-elect in English. Family heritage and the years in America had given the marshal a strange accent, full of Brazilian idioms, but quite passable compared with other Latin American politicians of the age.— We have met before, I believe in '58...
— Yes, that's correct, mr. President-elect. —answered the man, with its Midwestern American English. — During a party. Let me, first of all, congratulate you for your victory.
— Thank you. Please, sit down. —said Lott, showing the man one of the confortable chairs in front of his desk, one of the few luxuries. — You are probably asking why I called you before your return to the United States.
— Yes, indeed. —replied the man. —Your envoy was particularly... terse about your request.
— And with good measure. My political enemies could strike me hard if news of this meeting are leaked. That's why I asked you for discretion.
— I understand. I know how to read Portuguese and know what the 'Tribuna da Imprensa' write about you and me, general. If they just add two and two...
— Of course, I have read your letters to General Sardenberg.
— As everybody did.
— As everybody did. —nodded the president-elect—. Engineer Link, people may not like you, I may not like you, but you know oil. And this is what I want to know. Is this true? Are we actually throwing lots of money in vain looking for oil?

The American looked sternly to the marshal.

— You are. Lots of money spent in vain in the Amazon, a sandy soil who will yield nothing. As you know, I strongly recommend looking at your continental platform.
— Our guys say our land fields can yield something.
— All due respect, your guys don't know this stuff. I've been in this business for decades and I know where is oil and where is not, and, for sure, you don't have it in the Amazon. You probably have it in the sea.
— You can't move anybody to the sea. We want oil towns to lure our people out of the northeast and into the country. That's our official policy.
— Well, you will not find any oil there. I've done my job, I've spent five years here, when I could be back home in Indiana —Link noticed the anger on his voice and toned down— But, of course, now I am leaving. That's a problem for the next guy.
— Well, engineer Link, I am the next guy. And I, first and foremost, need oil for my country. We will have to look for it where we think it is. I will consider this report [1]. Lots of flak will fall over me, but nobody can say I want Petrobras to fail. I've been one of its strongest defenders all these years. Thank you, engineer. Is there any chance you could reconsider...
— Not at all, mr. President-elect. I'm going back home.

-----

[1] American Walter M. Link, an oilman with decades of experience under Standard Oil, was brought from semiretirement in 1955 to work as a prospection chief for Petrobras for five years. At the end of his term, he sent a memorandum explaining where he thought oil could be found in Brazil and advised ending prospections in the Amazon. IOTL, under pressure of the nationalists and with their own oilmen resenting Link's influence, the memorandum was shelved by Petrobras and ignored. Only at the end of the sixties, after millions of dollars more were poured in vain in inland prospections, Brazil started to look under its continental platform...

 

[Gukpard]

sandy soil

That is one of the most insulting things that someone could say for a member of the PSD-PTB coalition

— Well, engineer Link, I am the next guy. And I, first and foremost, need oil for my country. We will have to look for it where it is. I will consider this report. Lots of flak will fall over me, but nobody can say I want Petrobras to fail. I've been one of its strongest defenders all this years

Awesome!

 

[CardinalXiminez]

Well, how is it going? If it looks too wanky, please let me know; I don't want this to become a wank. Lott's problems have just begun...

 

[Gukpard]

Well, how is it going? If it looks too wanky, please let me know; I don't want this to become a wank. Lott's problems have just begun...

My God, sorry for the delay, I only saw your comment now

So I like the scenario a Lott..... sorry for the Joke, I didn't see it as a wank, at least not until now, I apologize for not being more precise and relevant in my comments, but this doesn't mean that we are not taking this scenario seriously, in fact it got a lot of potential, it is also one the first scenario about this subject here, along with "Tropical queen"