Américo Tomás Américo de Deus Rodrigues Tomás , GCC , GOA , GOSE ( ) , archaic spelling : Americo Thomaz , ( November 19 , 1894 – September 18 , 1987 ) was a Portuguese admiral and politician . He was the 13th President of Portugal . Early life . Américo de Deus Rodrigues Tomás was born in Lisbon to parents António Rodrigues Tomás and Maria da Assunção Marques . He married Gertrudes Ribeiro da Costa in October 1922 . The couple had two children , Maria Natália Rodrigues Tomás ( born 1925 ) and Maria Madalena Rodrigues Tomás ( born 1930 ) . Tomás attended the High School of Lapa , Portugal , in 1904 , completing his secondary education in 1911 . He then attended the Faculty of Sciences for two years ( 1912 – 1914 ) , after which he joined the Naval Academy as a midshipman . Military career . After Tomás graduated from the Naval Academy in 1916 , he was assigned to the Portuguese coast escort service on " Vasco da Gama " and later assigned to the " Pedro Nunes " and the destroyer s " Douro " and " Tejo " during World War I . In 1918 , he received a promotion to Lieutenant . On March 17 , 1920 , he was placed on the survey vessel " 5 de Outubro " , where he served for the next sixteen years . During this time , he was assigned to the survey mission of the Portuguese coast and was a board member of the Technical Commission for Hydrography , Navigation and Nautical Meteorology and a member of the Council for Studies of Oceanography and Fisheries . Tomás was also a member of the International Permanent Council for the Exploration of the Sea . He was appointed chief of staff to the Minister of the Navy in 1936 , President of the Merchant Marine National Junta from 1940 to 1944 , and Minister of the Navy from 1944 to 1958 . During his term as Minister of the Navy , he was responsible for the total reconstruction of the Portuguese commercial navy organized under Dispatch 100 . Fifty - six ships were ordered , with more than 300 , 000 tons of displacement . This dispatch included statutes that also allowed the formation of what is now the modern shipbuilding industry in Portugal . Tomás ' actions while Minister of the Navy created a positive reputation in the marine community , unlike the infamy created by several of his colleagues in the Portuguese Armed Forces ( FAP ) and the Portuguese government during their respective tenures . President of the Republic . In 1958 , he was chosen by then - Prime Minister António Salazar as the candidate of União Nacional party for the presidency of the republic , succeeding Francisco Craveiro Lopes . He ran against the opposition - backed Humberto Delgado . In a highly contested election he was elected president of the Portuguese Republic . He was officially credited with 52 . 6 percent of the vote to Delgado ' s 23 . 5 percent . Most neutral observers believed , however , that Tomás would not have won had the election been conducted honestly . Salazar was frightened enough that he pushed through a constitutional amendment transferring election of the president to the legislature , which was firmly controlled by the regime . He was re - elected by the legislature in 1965 and 1972 , both times as the only candidate . Although vested with sweeping — almost dictatorial — powers on paper , in practice Tomás was little more than a figurehead for his first decade in power . For most of the existence of the Estado Novo , Salazar , as prime minister , held the real power . Indeed , Salazar had chosen him because Craveiro Lopes had shown an independent streak that Salazar didn ' t like . The virtual powerlessness of his office under Salazar made him little more than a decorative figure at inaugurations and festivities . This , together with a natural inability for speech , made him target of frequent jokes . Tomás used his presidential prerogative just once during his first decade in office : to dismiss Salazar when he became incapacitated by a severe stroke in September 1968 . Tomás appointed Marcello Caetano to replace Salazar as prime minister . However , he never told Salazar about this , and Salazar reportedly died two years later still believing " he " was prime minister . Tomás took a much more active role in the government after Caetano took power , and became the rallying point for hard - liners who thought that even Caetano ' s cosmetic efforts to open up the regime went too far . Tomás , while President of the Republic and unlike his predecessor , always lived in his private residence , only using the Belém Palace as an office and for official ceremonies . Overthrow and death . When , on April 25 , 1974 , the " Carnation Revolution " deposed Caetano , Tomás was also overthrown and sent to exile in Brazil . He was allowed to return to Portugal in 1980 , but he was denied readmission into the Portuguese Navy and the special pension scheme currently in place for former Presidents of the Republic . Americo Tomás died at 92 in a Cascais clinic from complications after a surgery .