WI a more successful Carnation Revolution?

[rfmcdonald]

Today, my MP made sure that her social media followers would know that today was the anniversary of Portugal's Carnation Revolution. Portugal's aging, colony-happy autocracy has been brought down by this, the first successful revolution of western Europe in the 1970s. Did this revolution set a precedent for later peaceful transitions to democracy, in Latin America and in central Europe and beyond? Surely.

Here is a challenge: How can we make it better? Is there a single POD that might allow Portuguese democracy to consolidate itself earlier, perhaps? More, is there any way that Portugal's hasty decolonization might be made to occur in a way that would leave its colonies better off? Aborting the civil wars in Angola and Mozambique and saving East Timor from catastrophe would be very good. Can this be done?

 

[walmart]

Aborting the civil wars in Angola and Mozambique and saving East Timor from catastrophe wo

You’d need a pod in the 1950s

 

[SealTheRealDeal]

East Timor is easy: stay a little while longer.

There was no war going on there. The local groups agitating for independence weren't particularly strong and, more importantly, they certainly weren't prepared to take over when the Portuguese up and left.

Suharto was many things, but he wasn't going to invade a NATO member's possession without a good reason. If Portugal hangs around long enough to have a proper transition of power and establish a new military there, then at the very least Indonesia won't have America's blessing if it invades anyways.