Liberation of Goa

The Liberation of Goa, Operation Vijay

Goa was a Portuguese colony after the British left India. The Portuguese refused to give up their colonies in-spite of repeated requests of the Indian Government. Even though the Portuguese assumed that India had renounced the use of force, both the Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru as well as the defence minister, Krishna Menon made it clear that India would resort to force, if all diplomatic efforts to make the Portuguese give up Goa failed. After years of negotiation in 1961, the government decided to deploy the armed forces to evict the Portugese out of Goa and other enclaves. Even though they faced a modest air threat from the Portugese, the Indian Air Force amassed a huge detachment and gave support to the massive ground force. The Indian armed action was codenamed Operation Vijay. The Goa operations gave the Indian Air Force an opportunity to employ jet air power on a massive scale for the first time. However the Portuguese did not have any enough defences to protect their positions.

Portuguese Governor, Manuel Anonia Vassalo De Silva, finally surrendered on December 19th and 3306 Portugese troops laid down their arms. They were then repatriated to Portugal after a few months. The other Portuguese colonies that were liberated were Daman, Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli.