A COUP IN GREECE; A BIT OF BLACKMAIL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP69B00369R000200290055-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 7, 2001
• Sequence Number: 55
• Publication Date: May 15, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release JM.. iOi i C1MR1Zb 69B00369R000200290055-3
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United Fcaturo Syndicate
AS IT '_'uR\ED out, the top=secret
meeting in \Vashiugton in mid-Fob).-uary
was like t::e lament of a Greek chorus
for the t.::gedy to come. Around the
table were =nilitary, intelligence, State-
all the powers dealing with the Greek
problem.
CL . reports had left no doubt that
a :aiutary coup was in the making with
the knowledge ii not the sanction of
Xing Constantine. It could hardly have
been a secret. S:nce- 1947 the Greek
army and the American military aid
group in Athens, numbering several
hundred, :lave worked as part of the
same ter.:a. The team has spent some-
thir.gq under $2 billion on the guns,
;lanes, tanks and ships of the Greek
be solenhn question was whether by
on-.a sub:e political intervention the
c.oult. be prevented. Could parlia-
cama.-y government be saved even
though George Papandreou and liis son,
Andreas, t' re driven from the political
scene? This last was the goal of the'
extreme right among the military. The
elder Papandreou had become some-
thing of a folk hero-he had obtained
tile only outright majority in the history
of Greek elections in modern times. To
throw him out would be to throw out
hale symso: of the democratic process.
"pion' laid been worked up, believed
largely t:;e fabrication of the military,
n Andreas was under investigation
r possible conspiracy to commit
reason.
THE CONSENSUS around the table,
after some ihand-wringing with agonized
appraisals of the consequences, was that
no course of action was feasible. As one
of the senior civilians present recalls it,,,
Walt Rostow, the President's advisor on
national security affairs, closed the
meeting with these words: I hope you
understand, gentlemen, that what. we
have concluded here, or rather have
failed to conclude, makes the future
course of events in Greece inevitable.
Those events have now run their
course and Greece is under a Fascist-
?type dictatorship like that in Italy in
the '20s and '30s. The knock on the
door, the stern dicta on dress and re-
ligion, thousands of arrests of political
figures ranging from left to right, all
the apparatus of fear and intimidation-
this is the grim shadow that has fallen
over an important piece of what is so
often glibly called "the free world."
In this is a supreme irony, For Greece
had successfully, with the help of mas-
sive and invaluable American aid, put
down a Communist?lcd rebellion and
:,cemed to have achieved stability with
.eedom despite quarreling political
:racoons and palace intrigues.
had r.ot .,ti .... e up, rile elections
late: ;..,a have returnee:
3 . -..._.~_.
So or , e :ub, ction from Wash
ington h,.:; .)oe:. more than atr,
of Defense
from a
said he told the
'Greer L-'-,.,!e;, that the United
States we .n st..,.. , a.oof until consti-
tutional rnr;.: i was restored.
The S', . Dc? .t ent line is that
any c:?itica. precipitate
a` civic w.:.. o';' -..dscohappen in
view of ,.. . ::amp of the military
with all t:a of mass destruction
in their harms . ?to sec.
One o I.:e ";-,v 1,i'c,tests came from
Sen. Cla" c,: n~. 'c.. who has a
background bat:: in diplomacy and pol-
itics. At the ver;,~ vrorst, he said, a gov-
ernn.ont controlled by Papandreou
ht have withdrawn Greece from
NATO and put the country in a neutral
position between East and West. While
this would be dismaying, if, a duly
elected government so decided, he went
on, it should take place.
c.11D
THE ATTEMPT to smear Andreas
Papandreou as a Communist goes back
a long way, joined by certain American
cornmentators, Objective observers who
knew him well in this country and for
many years in Greece call this nonsense,
although they readily agree he was inept
in the savage infighting of Greek pol-
itics. Iris economic views are those of
the American New Deal. Serving in his
father's cabinet he proposed basic re-
forms, including taxing the very rich.
The effect is of a scratched record be-.
ing played over once again. Col. Nitcolas
Makarezos, Minister of Coordination, in
a recent interview said the United
,States should hurry up and send more
military aid to keep Greece from com-
munism-two American ships with aid
have been held up: From another junta
source , Game the suggestion that if
Andreas Papandreou's friends wanted
to save him from execution they had
better see that this aid came quickly.
That is not so polite a bit of blackmail.
Approved For Release 2001/11/01 : CIA-RDP69B00369R000200290055-3