Figure 1.--Modern dictatorships pay great attention to schooling as a way of controlling minds. This is the cover of a Portuguese school readings book during the Salazar dictatorship with took on Fascist trappings. It was a 1st grade reading book used in 1942. The image shows a boy and a girl wearing the uniform of 'Mocidade Portuguesa'.

Portugal like Spain during the 1930s moved strongly towards dictatorship. There was no election, nut António de Oliveira Salazar supported by Gen. António Óscar de Fragoso Carmona who became president seized control of Portugal (1932). The Salazar regime was aithoritarian which gradually took on Fascist trappings, especially after the advent of the Spanish Civil War (1936). Salazar's Ordem Nova (New Order) lacked many attributes of Fascism, nut it was a brital dictatorsghip--one that outlived Fascism in Europe. . The Goverment issued a decree establishing a nationalist youth group--the Mocidade Portuguesa (Portuguese Youth) (May 1936). We believe the Boys Scouts were banned, but do not have details at this time. Prof. Marcelo Caetono was apointed the group's leader (1940). We are not sure how extensive the group was. Many totalitarian states required partoicipation in a madatory youth group. Portugal was a dictatorship, but not a totalitarian state. Many Portuguese families, meaning most of the working class could not have afforded to purchase the uniform. The regime was officially neutralduring World War II, but was somewhat sympathetic toward the NAZIs and aided the NAZI-war effort during World War II. Somewhat protected by Franco's refusal to allow the Wehrmacht to enter the Ibrerian Peninsula. Portugal's major fear, however, wasthsat he Spanish my invade. , Portugal was able to maintain a different relationship with the NAZIs. The NAZis had to actually pay for shipments of strategic minerals. The group's motto was 'Deus, Pátria e Família' [God, Fatherland and Family]. There were four echelons according to age: lusitos ( 7 to 10 years), infantes (10 to 14), vanguardistas (14 to 17) and cadetes (17 up). Their uniform consisted of a green shirt with badges on the left side of the breast, beige pants and black shoes. A reader writes, "I have never come accross them in Portugal proper but I have seen some boys (black and white) in Angola during 1967 and 1968. They all had short pants, but I believe at the time that in metropolitan Portugal the older boys wore longs." Our Portugues archive is limited, but we notice some of the boys wearing knickers. They look like the infantes level. Caetono who led the Mocidade since 1940 became the acting Portuguese head of state after Salazar was incapacitated by a stroke (1968), The Mocidade were abolished on the very first day of the Socialist Revolution (April 25, 1974). A book Mocidade Portuguesa: Breve história de uma organização salazarista (1976) published after the Revolution seems to give a good account of the history and the activities of the "Mocidade".