Alcora Exercise

{{Infobox organization

| name = Alcora Exercise

| formation = 14 October 1970

| founder = {{flag country|Estado Novo (Portugal)}}
{{flag country|South Africa|1928}}

| dissolved = 25 April 1974

| merger =

| merged =

| type = Military alliance

| status =

| purpose = Internal and external defense

| headquarters = {{flagdeco|South Africa|1928}} Pretoria

| location =

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| region_served = Southern Africa

| membership = {{flag country|Estado Novo (Portugal)}}
{{flag country|Rhodesia|1968}}
{{flag country|South Africa|1928}}

| language = Afrikaans, English, Portuguese

| general =

| leader_title = Director-General, PAPO

| leader_name = Major-General Clifton

| leader_title2 =

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| key_people =

| main_organ = Alcora Top Level Commission (ATLC)

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}}

{{Campaignbox Portuguese Colonial War}}

{{Campaignbox Rhodesian Bush War}}

{{Campaignbox South African Border War}}

File:Flag map of Southern Africa in 1968.svg

Alcora Exercise ({{langx|af|Alcora Oefening}}, {{langx|pt|Exercício Alcora}}) or simply Alcora{{Cite book|title=A aliança secreta do apartheid, Rodésia e Portugal |last=Guardiola |first=Nicole |publisher=vho.org |year=2009 |language=pt}} was a secret military alliance of Portugal, Rhodesia and South Africa, formally in force between 1970 and 1974. The code name "Alcora" being an acronym for "Aliança Contra as Rebeliões em Africa" (Portuguese expression meaning: "Alliance against the rebellions in Africa").{{cite journal |last=Barroso |first=Luís Fernando Machado |date=2013 |title=Da Desconfiança à Aliança: Portugal e a África do Sul na defesa do "Reduto Branco" |url=https://digitalcommons.asphs.net/bsphs/vol38/iss1/10/ |journal=Bulletin for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies |volume=38 |number=1 |doi=10.26431/0739-182X.1125 |issn=0739-182X |hdl=10071/7770 |hdl-access=free |access-date=2021-04-02 |archive-date=2018-03-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180310074326/https://digitalcommons.asphs.net/bsphs/vol38/iss1/10/ |url-status=dead }}

The official goal of Alcora Exercise was to investigate the processes and means by which a coordinated tripartite effort between the three countries could face the mutual threat to their territories in Southern Africa. The immediate goal was to face the African revolutionary movements that fought guerrilla wars against the Portuguese authorities in Angola and Mozambique, to limit the spread of the action of these movements in Rhodesia and South West Africa and to prepare the defense of the Portuguese, Rhodesian and South African territories against an expected conventional military aggression from the hostile governments of the African neighbor countries.{{cite journal |last1=Meneses |first1=Filipe Ribeiro de |last2=McNamara |first2=Robert |date=2013 |title=Exercício Alcora: O que sabemos, e não sabemos, sobre a Guerra Colonial |url=http://www.scielo.mec.pt/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S1645-91992013000200010&lng=pt&nrm=iso&tlng=pt |journal=Relações Internacionais |number=38 |pages=125–133 |issn=1645-9199 |language=pt |access-date=2 April 2021 }}{{Dead link|date=April 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

Alcora was the formalization of informal agreements on military cooperation between the local Portuguese, Rhodesian and South African military commands that had been in place since the mid-1960s. Alcora was kept secret and referred to as an 'exercise' (not an alliance or treaty), mainly due to the pressure of the Portuguese government, that feared the external and internal political issues that would be raised if it appeared to be associated with the minority rule in Rhodesia and the apartheid government of South Africa, in contradiction to the official Portuguese doctrine of the existence of racial equality in Angola and Mozambique.{{cite journal|url=https://www.revistas.usp.br/ceru/article/view/125075 |title=Belicismo e desestabilização na África Austral: Exercício AlCORA e Operação Colt |journal=Cadernos CERU |last=Correia |first=Milton |date=28 December 2016 |access-date=2 April 2021 |language=pt |volume=27 |number=2 |pages=67–78 |doi=10.11606/issn.2595-2536.v27i2p67-78 |issn=1413-4519|doi-access=free }}

Under Alcora, Portugal, Rhodesia and South Africa cooperated in the Angolan War of Independence, the Mozambican War of Independence, the Rhodesian Bush War and the South African Border War.{{Cite journal|url=http://comum.rcaap.pt/handle/10400.26/3603|journal=Nação e Defesa |title=Guerra colonial : uma aliança escondida |last=Aniceto |first=Afonso |date=2009 |access-date=2 April 2021 |language=pt |issn=0870-757X}}

The Alcora alliance collapsed due to the Portuguese Carnation Revolution of 25 April 1974 and the subsequent independence of Angola and Mozambique that followed.{{cite book|last1=Afonso |first1=Aniceto |last2=Matos Gomes |first2=Carlos de |title=Alcora |isbn=978-989-8633-01-9 |year=2013 |publisher=Divina Comédia |language=pt}}{{cite web|url=http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/a-military-alliance-between-portugal-and-african-states-that-few-knew-about-1.1772940 |title=A military alliance between Portugal and African states that few knew about |publisher=Irish Times |first=Peter |last=Murtagh |date=25 April 2014 |access-date=25 April 2014}}