Ernesto Geisel (1908-1996) was a Brazilian army general, president of Brazil's national oil company (Petrobras), and president of the Republic (1974-1979). As president he began the process of disengaging the military from control of the Brazilian government.

Ernesto Geisel was the fourth general to serve a term as president of Brazil during the so-called Military Republic (1964-1985). He belonged to a group of officers known as Castellistas (after President [General] Humberto de Castello Branco, 1964-1967) who did not favor continued military rule but who had lost out to those who did. Geisel's selection signaled the beginning of a nine-year process aimed at establishing a civilian presidency. He had the distinction of being the first Protestant to preside over the largest Catholic population in the world.

Son of a German Lutheran immigrant, Geisel and his brother, Orlando, used the military as the means of upward social and economic mobility...