Soviet Operations in Portugal

The role of Portuguese Communist  Party as a Soviet proxy during the Carnation Revolution years in Portugal, according to former Czech agent Ladislav Bittman in his book "The KGB and the Soviet Disinformation" - pages  41-42.

"Nevertheless, the Soviets suffered a series of setbacks in their worldwide offensive during the 1970s. In Western Europe, Portugal emerged as the key Soviet target country. After the coup by General Antonio de Spinola’s military junta in 1974, Alvaro Cunhal, the Secretary General of the small but well disciplined pro-Moscow Communist party, became a minister without portfolio in the new government. The Soviets hoped that the Portuguese Communist party would gradually gain dominant inliuence and the country would be- some loosely associated with the Soviet bloc. Permission to establish military bases in Portugal would give the Kremlin a major strategic advantage vis-a-vis the United States and Western Europe. Squeezed and threatened by the Soviets from two sides, the remainder of non-Communist Europe would live under growing psychological and political stress and eventually break completely with the United States. Despite intensive diplomatic maneuvering and massive covert Operations, the Soviets were unable to divert Portugal’s align. ment with the West. In Africa, the Soviets show a mixed balance sheet of successes and failures. With the help of East European satellites and Cuba, they expanded their influence in Angola, EthiOpia, and Mozambique, but they suffered major setbacks in Sudan, Somalia, and particularly Egypt, once considered the key to controlling North Africa and the Middle East. Amerilcan defeat in Vietnam and the Communist coup in Cambodia appeared for a time as another Soviet victory, but Pol Pot’s bloody regime preferred China to the Soviet Union as its major protector. The Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in 1978 resolved the problem but imposed additional pressure on the 
Soviet economy".