Portugal: State Secret

Austere old Dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar is still unaware that he was replaced 15 months ago while in a deep coma following a stroke—and he may never find out. No one in Portugal has so far been able to summon up the nerve to tell the old man that his 36-year reign is over. The task of preventing Salazar from finding out has fallen chiefly to his housekeeper, Dona Maria de Jesus Caetano Freire, and his physician. They deny him newspapers and television, explaining that such diversions would "tire" him. They...