António de Oliveira Salazar
Despite the authoritarian character of the regime, Portugal did not experience the same levels of international isolation as Spain did following World War II. Unlike Spain, Portugal under Salazar was accepted into the Marshall Plan (1947–1948) in return for the aid it gave to the Allies during the final stages of the war. Furthermore, also unlike Spain, it was one of the 12 founding members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in 1949, a reflection of Portugal's role as an ally against communism during the Cold War in spite of its status as the only non-democratic founder. In 1950, Portugal joined the European Payments Union and participated in the founding of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) in 1960 and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 1961. It joined the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in 1962, and finally, Portugal signed a free trade agreement with the European Economic Community in 1972, still under the auspices of the "Estado Novo".
Time in Portugal
In the years 1942–1945, during World War II, Portugal, not only advanced clocks by 1 hour during DST, as also advanced them by another 1 hour during some months of those years, coming to have clocks 2 hours ahead of GMT, during that “double DST”. Situation returned to normality after 1945, with the end of World War II, and normal DST continued to be observed. In 1948, it was approved that DST should be observed from the first Sunday in April to the first Sunday in October.