This book, first published in 1977, traces the origins of the left-wing Portuguese army rebellion of 1974 that overthrew the 50-year-old authoritarian regime of Prime Ministers Salazar and Caetano to the traditional political independence of the armed forces, their increasingly strained relations with the regime, and finally to the colonial wars which brought professional discontent to boiling point. The Portuguese revolution which followed provides a unique laboratory for the study of an army in crisis, the strains which the attempt by officers to direct the political life of the country after April 1974 placed on military organisation; the traditional career patterns and attitudes of soldiers and on discipline. It examines the role of officers in government and the day-to-day problems which political upheaval created in every barracks. This is a study both of the armed forces in politics and politics in the armed forces, placed within the larger context of the revolution.