Open letter from Portugal to Oliver Stone

Oliver Stone visited Portugal in 2014 and asked to speak with the Portuguese President during the first Gulf War. I then wrote this open letter to him.

Dear Mr. Oliver Stone,

I’ve just read an article on the Portuguese newspaper “Expresso” about your recent visit to Portugal. Knowing your work “The Untold History of the United States” I thought how ironic it was that your only interview in Portugal was to television SIC and newspaper “Expresso” – both of the same communication group – because they are the best exemple of what’s not told to the Portuguese public about their past and contemporary history.

"Expresso" said that you’ve visited Mário Soares at his home in Vau, Algarve. And you did that because you asked who was the President of Portugal during the first Gulf War (1990-1991). Well, I don’t know if they informed you that a Portuguese President doesn’t have the same executive power as the US President. The power to decide the Government’s foreign policy and Defense strategy are in the hands of the prime-minister. If you were told that in 1990-1991 the prime-minister was someone named Aníbal Cavaco Silva, you bet you could have film material!

Aníbal Cavaco Silva, before beeing elected Portugal’s prime-minister for the first time in 1985 was the Finance minister in 1980. And he was present on the last meeting with the then Portuguese prime-minister Sá Carneiro and Defense minister Amaro da Costa, on December 4, 1980. That was the day when these last two died on a plane crash.

A plane crash that was caused by an explosion on board – a fact only given as proven in 2004.

Nowadays, the Portuguese Parliament is investigating a possible link between their death and an investigation commanded by Sá Carneiro to an ilegal guns deal to Iran before the Reagan/Bush 1980 election. The 1980 “October Surprise” deal, remember? Cavaco Silva had been ordered by Sá Carneiro to investigate a financial flow of ilegal money among the militar in Portugal, but he never carried out the investigation. Instead, after the death of Sá Carneiro he became prime-minister in 1985 and, like Mário Soares, who also was prime-minister before him, Cavaco Silva was submissive to the power in Washington and was finnaly elected President of Portugal in 2006.

That’s why, Mr Stone, you can see the name of Portugal and, in particular, the Lisbon airport mentioned as a third country in the Iran-Contra affair of 1986. Cavaco Silva is also personal friend of Bush senior, the former CIA director. As a matter of fact, Bush senior was present in the inauguration ceremony of Cavaco Silva as President of Portugal in 2006. That’s him next to Durão Barroso, who was Portugal’s prime-minister when George W. Bush had the meeting with Blair and Aznar at the Azores Islands (Portugal territory) before the invasion of Iraque in 2003. Barroso then become president of the European Comission and now is working for Goldman Sachs.

So, the name of the person who was in control of the Portuguese policy during the first Gulf War and who’s also a close friend of Bush senior was then the prime-minister Aníbal Cavaco Silva, President of Portugal, between 2006 and 2016. That’s the story, Mr. Stone.

I hope you can come a second time to Portugal. There’s a lot more of an “Untold” history of the US in Portugal that you would really like to know. It’s also your history that’s hidden here, in Portugal.

All the best.