What can Portugal do to defend Goa?

[BigBlueBox]

Successfully paint nehru as a communist and get the west to put sanctions on India to cripple their economy
China US relations are formed earlier than OTL and India becomes an international pariah

India is too big to be a pariah. In any case that would just make India join the Communist bloc for real, so it would only be a pariah to the West.

 

[Lusitania]

Hi there in 1950s India and Portugal met regarding the status of the Portuguese Indian enclaves. These were happening at the same time as the Indians were meeting with the French regarding returning the French enclaves. When Portugal unlike France refused to negotiate with India and stated that they rather see the Portuguese enclaves as Independent state than part of India the Portuguese were on borrowed time. The first salvo against the Portuguese was in the 1950s when India blockaded Dadra and Nagar Haveli from Daman and in 1954 they were seized by Indian nationalists. So the Portuguese were unfortunately facing a dire situation and worse totally unprepared. Just like the African colonial wars the Portuguese were unprepared but were not facing a enemy with the resources and whereabouts the size of India. The Portuguese army took several years to build up their forces in Africa and the meager Portuguese military situation in 1962 was completely unprepared and ignorant of dangers.

So in summary there was nothing IOTL that the Portuguese can do.

 

[walmart]

Could Portugal develop nuclear weapons in conjunction with France and Israel before 1962 ?

 

[Lusitania]

Could Portugal develop nuclear weapons in conjunction with France and Israel before 1962 ?

Not iTOL the Portuguese economy was not developed enough and with Salazar in charge there was not the nucleus of educated scientists and other professionals to develop such a program. Plus till 1960s the Portuguese were ignorant of the dangers the country was about to face.