Another Good Communist

Alvaro Cunhal, a former leader of Portugal's Communist Party, has died.

Cunhal applauded the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, praised the Soviet war effort in Afghanistan, and rejected the reforms of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

He clung to his Communist ideals long after the Soviet "perestroika" of the 1980s and, perhaps as a consequence, the party's influence gradually faded. Its 7 percent share of the vote in 2002 general election was its lowest point.