António de Oliveira Salazar
He ruled Portugal for almost 40 years, managing to keep Portugal away from the Second World War as well as preventing a Spanish invasion by keeping friends with both sides. Salazar died in 1970. Often called a fascist by his opponents, Dr Salazar's regime was instrumental in issuing Portuguese travel documents to thousands of Jews fleeing though Europe and to Portugal a boarding point for the ultimate destination in North America. Unfortunately Dr. Salazar's contribution to this humanitarian cause was never acknowledged as this activity had to be toned down in the later years of the war. Instead, the overzealous Consul to France Aristides de Sousa Mendes is often given credit, despite the fact that it was he who recklessly endagered the operation by issuing a flood of travel documents in assembly line fashion. Tens of thousands of such documents were issued by him in the months of June and July of 1940. Salazar's cease-and-desist orders to Mendes are often highlighted. Incidently, the United States had issued similar instructions to all its missions abroad many years earlier, purportedly because of the fear that Germany would smuggle in spies amongst fleeing Jewish refugees. President Hoover ordered U.S. consuls to strictly interpret the LPC clause of the immigration law. President Franklin Roosevelt failed to push for a change in immigration laws and policy.