GREECE: THE SEEDS FOR A NEW VIETNAM?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP73B00296R000500090028-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 19, 2005
• Sequence Number: 28
• Publication Date: March 22, 1968
• Content Type: OPEN

ApprovedFbr Release 2005111/21 CIA-RDP73B00296R000500090028-8
S 3206 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - SENATE March 22,
The making of a new Viet Nam in Greece in and all of the other issues so graphically
the years ahead are all there. and realistically described by the report
JANEWAY. Csn Europe and the Mediter- of the President's National Advisory
ranean. countries muddle along on reduced Commission on Civil Disorders.
flows of Apgeriesn 4o11a,rs,.especially for mili-
tary assistance? What Marquis Childs does not say and
DEAerrRACQPOvi os. The expensive military which cannot be too often emphasized, is
establishments of the NATO countries have that all this tragic retreat from efforts to
competed with domestic economic develop- solve our domestic problems is due to
merit programs-hence the need for outside the inexcusable folly of our military
support. This support in my opinion should involvement in Southeast Asia. Mr.
continue until growth is sufficient to enable Childs suggests, after alluding to the
each country to maintain its own defense
forces, In 'Greece, United States aid should views of Chairman GEORGE MAHON, of the
be used forcefully and expertly as a lever to House Appropriations Committee, and
force the colonels ou of power since it will WILBUR MILLS, chairman of the Ways
no longer buy security. and Means Committee, that the Ameri-
J,ANEWAY. What are Greece's basic eco- can people are loathe to tax themselves to
nomic problems? carry out the great promise of our do-
DEMETRACOPOULOS. They are many. As mestic programs. The fact is that there
Richard Westebbe of the World bank, for-
would be no need for them to tax them-
merly senior foreign economic adviser to the
Greek government, says in his penetrating selves if it were not for the mounting
report, "Greece's long-run structural prob- drain of $3 billion per month to carry
lems concern deflciencces in .the structure on an indefensible and unwinnable war
of production, in public administration, in on the continent of Asia.
education, in financial institutions, and in The American people will be given no
the distribution of income." Frankly, I do opportunity to test their willingness to
not see how an unpopular government of appropriate for domestic programs be-
army officers, suffering as it does from uni-
versal foreign hostility and inability to at- ministration seeks to impose will go
tract competent economic experts, can solve
all those problems. Last year's refusal of the down the drain in this senseless war.
Common Market's European Investment The only way in which this dilemma
bank to grant Greece a promised loan of can be voided is for President Johnson
around 50 million dollars is an important to reverse his policy of escalation-
case in point. which, to date, has now cost the lives of
EFFECTS OF EXEMPTION 20,000 young Americans in combat-and
JANEWAY. What do you think of Greece's adopt a different formula than his pro-
exemption from President Johnson's recent posed and unchanged effort at a mill-
economic measures to strengthen the dol- tary solution.
lax? I have proposed such a way out and I
DEMETRACOPGULOS. It is most regretta- again present it, and I shall continue to
c that t Greek junta has been able , urge such a program or some variation
ca apitaliz ze o on n this position of the American'
government. Many people do and will inter- thereof until the realization comes home
pret this action as just another sign of that it is only by deescalation and a
American's support of the Athens dictator- resort to political approaches that there
ship. is any hope of averting an ever-deepen-
JANEWAY. What is the best that can be ing plunge into ever-greater disaster. My
hoped for in Greece? What is the worst? proposal suggests that the President
'DEMETRACOPOULOS. The best is that, thru go on nationwide TV and speak in ap-
sustained western pressure and support of proximately- the following terms:
the anti-junta elements who represent the
vast bulk of the Greek people, the colonels "My fellow citizens, I have tried for 4
will be forced out. The worst is that armed years and my predecessors have tried for
resistance will begin again in Greece, led by a decade previously to bring a semblance
the hard-core Communists, with the west of self-government and democracy to the
and America discredited among the masses. people of South Vietnam. It has become
Then, no matter who wins, Greece will in- clear beyond peradventure that it is not
deed be lost.
THE AUSTERITY THREAT WHICH
HANGS OVER OUR PARKS AND
OVER EVERY OTHER WORTH-
WHILE DOMESTIC, PROGRAM
AND WHY
Mr. GRUENING. Mr. President, a
thoughtful, important column by that
able newspaperman, Marquis Childs, en-
titled "Austerity Threat Hangs Over
Parks" appeared in this morning's Wash-
ington Post, He points out:
The whole r+iatural resource and conserva-
tion program already slashed in the Admin-
istration's budget will suffer,
Fie points to the, paradox that this is
happening just at a time when, to help
but Natipn's,klalalce-of-payments prob-
lem, the administration is urging that
people travel in the United States.
Of Course, it is not only the natural
resources and conservation program
which are suffering, but every other do-
mest}c program, including the most vital
antipoverty program, slum clearance,
their desire, and that the United States,
despite its prodigious efforts in man-
power and money, and the sacrifice of
thousands of American lives, cannot
achieve these desired results for them.
"I have today ordered the uncondi-
tional cessation of all bombing of North
Vietnam and of all offensive operations
in South Vietnam. In addition, I have
directed there be an immediate in-place
cease-fire in South Vietnam on the part
of the United States and have requested
the South Vietnamese Armed Forces to
do likewise, with only defensive action
authorized. I have called upon the forces
of the National Liberation Front and of
North Vietnam in South Vietnam to do
the same. It is my purpose, which I now
declare, to initiate a phased military
-withdrawal which should be completed
within a year. In the meantime, behind
the shield of American military forces
with the leverage afforded by U.S. mili-
tary and economic aid, U.S. representa-
tives in South Vietnam will insist that
the Thieu-Ky government broaden the
base of its government to include their
non-Communist opponents, represented
in large measure by those whom they
have now jailed and put in protective
custody, and that this broadened South
Vietnamese Government begin Immedi-
ate negotiations with the National Liber-
ation Front so that all these Vietnamese
components can work out their own
destinies.
"In addition, I have directed our Am-
bassador to the United Nations to work
with other nations there to find places
of refuge in other lands for those who
would not want to live in South Vietnam
under the new regime which will be
formed, and I will ask the Congress for
such additional authority as may be
needed to admit such refugees to the
United States and to assist in their re-
settlement elsewhere.
"Further, I have instructed our Am-
bassadors to Great- Britairi, the Soviet
Union,. Canada, India, and Poland to
propose a greatly strengthened Inter-
national Control Commission to super-
vise any elections to be held in South
Vietnam to obtain an expression of the
peoples' will.
"The United States will assist in the
reconstruction and rehabilitation of the
burned villages, destroyed buildings, and
defoliated fields, and give suitable fiscal
assistance to economic development. But
our military efforts will cease. We will
make every effort to assist the people of
both North and South Vietnam to estab-
lish whatever form of government they
can develop."
I ask unanimous consent that the ar-
ticle by Marquis Childs, entitled "Aus-
terity Threat Hangs Over Parks," in this
morning's Washington Post be printed
in the RECORD at the conclusion of my
remarks.
There being no objection, the article
was ordered to be printed in the RECORD,
as follows :
From the Washington Post, Mar. 22, 1968]
AUSTERITY THREAT HANGS OVER PARKS
(By Marquis Childs)
If the austerity program promised by the
President really does take hold it is not
alone the decaying core cities that will feel
the pinch' The whole natural resource and
conservation program already slashed in the
Administration's budget will suffer.
Here is an example paralleling the cities of
a fundamental asset. that is being eroded
away. At the very sae time we are being
told to stay home and see America first, the
national parks are overcrowded, their fa-
cilities run down, the traffic bumper to
bumper in the most popular parks. Federal
incentives to clean up polluted lakes and
rivers have been slowed and the air pollu-
tion program is cut back.
Combing through the Federal budget, the
Conservation Foundation finds that net
spending for natural resources will be re-
duced in the 1969 fiscal year from 1.38 per
cent of total Federal spending, which is the
figure for the current year, to 1.34 per cent.
This sounds like a small reduction but it
comes at a time when in almost every field
the need is for increases to save the dwin-
dling natural heritage from obliteration.
And Congress is likely to whack even further
at budgetary requests that seem vulnerable
in the economy drive. While the Administra-
tion repeats the call for parks already re-
quested, no new proposals for seashores or
recreation areas are included while specula-
tive developers constantly bid up the price of
land and builders crowd already congested
private beaches.
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 Approved For Release 2005/11/21: CIA-RDP73B00296R000500090028-8
March 22, 1968 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD -SENATE S 3205
and- lncrpasingly sophisticated network
of ,broadcast media, thereby giving the
address the dramatic appeal which at-
taes tp such person-to-person com-
nitt w1 i1 atiuns.
outd be far different from the Sec-
retary General's present annual state-
ment because that document, by neces-
sity, puts a good deal of emphasis on
housekeeping functions and is a far more
technical document than the state of
mankind address I envision. And further,
the present statement does not fulfill
the aims of Senate Concurrent Resolu-
tion 53 because it is addressed to an elite
audience-the U.N. delegates-rather
than to the people of the world as the
state of mankind address would be.
The United Nations, like any other
human institution, will not be able, in my
view, to maintain its present influence,
let alone achieve the strength all of us
hoped it would achieve back in the days
when the U.N. Charter was being written,
unless it rides the crest of the ongoing
technological revolution and particularly
the revolution in communications-and
rides it imaginatively. Senate Concurrent
Resolution 53 encourages a step in that
direction. It seeks to establish a voice
for the world's principal international
organization that everyone the world
over can hear clearly.
GREECE: THE SEEDS FOR A NEW
VIETNAM?
Mr. HARTKE. Mr. President, I have
had a strong and active interest in'
Greece, the ancient homeland of the
democratic spirit in a time of kings. Ever
since the Truman doctrine of 1947 con-
cern with present-day Greece-has been a
part of American efforts; to assist that
nation toward a modern fulfillment of
true democracy.
That is why in an interview given to
the political editor of the Athens Daily
Post, Elias P. Demetracopoulos, in an in-
terview published on August 10, 1966, I
asked for a full investigation of the U.S.
role in the Greek political crisis. At that'
time I also warned that there was an
imminent grave threat of a military dic-
tatorship in Greece. The event took
place 7 months later on April 21, 1967.
Last July I became the first U.S. Sen-
ator to visit Greece after the military
junta took over. At that time I met key
figures in the Greek Government, in-
cluding the Prime Minister. It is out of
this background of concern that I wish
today to call attenion to two excellent,
revealing and interconnecting articles.
One,' written by the well-known colum-
nists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak,
appeared in the Washington Post on
November 2, 1967. It describes accurately
and in detail the ordeal of my good
friend '44r, rtr u s uls,Greece's
foremost political editor until the junta
seized power there, whom I helped to
come over to the United States.
The other article is an interview given
by him to the distinguished columnist
Eliot Janeway of the Chicago Tribune,
whose columns also appear in the Wash-
ington Star. In that interview may be
seen the red signal that Greece very well
may be on the way to becoming a new
Vietnam in the years ahead, and a warn-
ing about the U.S. role there. These
articles might well bear the caption,
"How the U.S. Can Lose Friends and
Create New "Vietnams.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous con-
sent that the two articles referred to may
appear in the RECORD.
There being no objection, the articles
were ordered to be printed'fh the RECORD,
[From the Washington (D.C.) Post,
Nov. 2, 19871
STATE OFFICIAL AIDED GREEK JUNTA IN TRYING
To BAR POLITICAL REFUGEE
(By Rowland Evans and Robert Novak)
Shocking collaboration between the State
Department and the six-month-old military
dictatorship in Greece is exposed by the story,
concealed until now, of how, together, they
very nearly barred a prominent Greek politi-
cal refugee from the United States.
Ostensibly, U.S. policy is to keep arm's
length from the military junta which seized
power in Athens last April. Behind the
scenes, however, working-level State Depart-
ment officials cooperate with the junta in
Ways that can only encourage the Greek
Colonels to think Washington has little in-
terest in restoring a democratic regime.
Nowhere is this more obvious than in the
outrageous handling of the case of Elias P.
Demetracopoulos, an influential Greek jour-
nalist as political editor of three newspapers
and a militant foe of tyranny, both right and
left. A prisoner of the Nazis during World
War II after couageously helping downed
U.S. airmen (for which he was decorated),
Demetracopoulos was captured and then
wounded by the Communists during the Red
revolt of December, 1944.
When the Colonels staged their coup last
April on the pretext of fighting Communism,
Demetracopoulos went into hiding briefly,
then emerged as an outspoken critic of the
junta-but only by word-of-mouth. Rather
than submit to military censorship, he re-
fused to write for his newspapers.
His problems with the junta deepened in
August when the United Nations invited
Demetracopoulos to be Greek representative
at the U.N.'s annual Editors' Roundtable in
Warsaw, Sept. 12-15.
The junta made private overtures to De-
metracopoulos to be favorable or at least
neutral toward the Colonels in the Warsaw
discussions, even dangling before him the
Ambassadorship to a key Western country.
Demetracopoulos refused. The junta, ac-
cordingly, barred his trip to Poland by deny-
ing him a "special security exit permit."
U.N. officials quietly pressured the Colonels
by reminding them that the important in-
dustrial symposium scheduled in Athens
under U.N. auspices in November might be
endangered.
The junta responded with a dictator's
compromise. On Sept. 12, it confiscated
Demetracopoulos' passport (containing a
valid U.S. visa) and replaced it with a new
passport permitting him to travel to Poland
only and only for the Sept. 12-15 conference.
Demetracopoulos saw no future in Greece,
and once the Warsaw conference finished,
gained entrance to Denmark.
His plans were to attend a World Bank
meeting in Rio de Janeiro as an invited guest
and go from there to the United States.
That meant getting Brazilian and U.S. visas
stamped in his new passport.
Although Brazil has been ruled by its
military since 1964, it quickly granted a visa
to Demetracopoulos. But not the Americans.
Fearful of what Demetracopoulos would do
and say in America, the junta pleaded with
U.S. officials to keep him out. The U.S. Em-
bassy in Athens recommended the visa be
granted anyway, but a foreign service officer
named Daniel H. Brewster had other ideas.
Brewster, desk officer for Greece in Wash-
ington and the major formulator of U.S. pol-
icy on Greece, is an unabashed friend of the
colonels. He decided that Demetracopoulos,
staunchly pro-American and a visitor here
repeatedly since 1951, be denied a visa. The
incredible decision was revealed to Deme-
tracopoulos in Copenhagen Sept. 23.
That would have ended the story had
Demetracopoulos in Copenhagen Sept. 23,
been without friends here. He immediately
cabled for help to an impressive list includ-
ing Sens. Vance Hartke of Indiana and Jacob
Javits of New York, Speaker John McCor-
mack of Massachusetts, Rep. Emanuel Cel-
ler of New York, and former Gov. Pat Brown
of California.
Their queries were met by weak excuses
from the State Department, but collective
pressure from Demetracopoulos's friends
forced the issue over Brewster' head, all the
way up to the Secretary of State Dean Rusk
and the White House. Brewster's decision was
overruled and a visitor's visa was given Deme-
tracopoulos Sept. 28.
Demetracopoulos is now in Washington,
but the incident is not closed. There is inter-
est on Capitol Hill in a possible investigation
of the affair to probe State Department-junta
links that could perpetuate dictatorship in
Athens and, in the process unwittingly bol-
ster the reborn Communist resistance.
POINT OF VIEW-JANEWAY: POTENTIALLY
BOILING GREECE SIMMERS
(By Eliot Janeway)
NEW YORK, February 28.-The hotter Viet
Nam gets, the touchier the Mediterranean
gets-and the more explosive Greece gets.
This column has been identifying Greece as
an active nerve center and potential trouble
spot for America since before the crisis there
surfaced. Herewith is an updated audit of
present instabilities and exposures by Elias
P. Demetracopoulos, Athens' premier politi-
cal analyst-and-editor-in-exile and anti-
communist coordinator of libertarian re-
sistanpe to the\military dictatorship there.
JANEWAY. The junta now controlling
Greece has been cracking down on people
critical of it. Has it also been tying up their
property?
DEMETRACOPOULOS. The junta has been
ruthless with respect to its opponents re-
gardless of whether they belong to the right,
center, or left of the political spectrum. It
has not hesitated to take any measures, in-
cluding deprivation of rights guaranteed
under law.
JANEwAY. Can Greece subsist without for-
eign capital investment?
DEMETRACOPOULOS. Only at a much lower
standard of living and growth than would
otherwise be possible. Foreign investment is
essential if modern management and tech-
nology are to be introduced. Without these,
much of Greek industry will remain hope-
lessly backward and the great hope of join-
ing the European Common Market will not
be realized.
JANEWAY. Do you regard Russia as likely to
intervene in Greece?
RUSSIAN ENTRANCE POSSIBLE
DEMETRACOPOULOS. Russia would like noth-
ing better than to intervene in Greece as
part of hercampaign to penetrate the middle
east while reducing United States influence
there and in the Mediterranean. Since 1947,
America has played a decisive role in Greece,
and, beginning in 1959 with Ambassador
Ellis Briggs, now a strong advocate of the
Athens colonels, America has pursued disas-
trous, contradictory and vacillating policies-
too many and too complicated to go into
here. But because of these policies, largely
influenced by interservice and personality
rivalries, Russia can now for the first time
since World War II pretend to lead liberation
movements in Greece-ironically, in the
name of democracy and with the support of
noncommunist elements in western Europe.
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