FORMER PRESIDENT RICHARD M. NIXON RECEIVED SECRET CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MILITARY GOVERNMENT OF GREECE IN HIS 1968 ELECTION CAMPAIGN, ACCORDING TO A NEW BOOK BY A PRIZE-WINNING REPORTER.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000402830016-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 28, 2012
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: June 2, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/29: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402830016-1
ASSOCIATED PRESS
2 June 1983
WASHINGTON
NIXON-KISSINGER
BY. W. DALE NELSON
Former President Richard M. Nixon received secret campaign contribution from
the military government of Greece in his 1968 election campaign, according to a
new book by a prize-winning reporter.
The book, The Price of Power," by Seymour M. Hersh, also reports that Henry
A. Kissinger may have blocked a Senate investigation of possible Central
Intelligence Agency involvement in the political donations.
Hersh says the Greek campaign contributions were -confirmed by Henry J. Tas ca,
a career Foreign Service officer who had been ambassador to Greece, during the
Nixon administration, in "secret testimony before the House Intelligence
Committee in 1976.
Such contributions were legal in 1968.
On Sept. 22, 1970, the Nixon administration lifted an embargo on arms
shipments to Greece that had been imposed after a military junta seized power in
1967. The junta, strongly criticized for its human rights record, collapsed in
1974 and parliamentary elections were held.
Hersh says Tasca, who died in 1979, testified that Greek-American businessman
Thomas A. Pappas served as a conduit for the campaign contributions. He quotes
Elias P. Demetracopoulos, a Greek journalist who moved to Washington after the
junta took power, as saying the money amounted to "hundreds of thousands of
dollars."
Pappas, who has homes in Boston and Athens, could not be reached for comment.
Demetracopoulos charged in interviews in 1975 that money from the Greek
central intelligence agency, known as the KYP, had been funneled into the
Nixon campaign.
In an interview Wednesday, Demetracopoulos said he knew the money came from
the KYP "through the same sources who tipped me off about the transaction in the
first place."
Hersh says Tasca's information "raises the question whether the CIA, which-
was financing the Greek intelligence operations at the same time, was aware that
some of its funds were being returned to the United States for use in its
presidential election."
In a 1968 interview with the pro-junta Athens newspaper Apogevmatini, Pappas
was quoted as saying, "I have worked for the CIA anytime my help was
requested.
"
"It would be inconceivable for Tom Pappas to have done this transaction and
not to have notified his CIA contacts," Demetracopoulos said.
The book quotes unnamed sources "close to" the Senate Intelligence Committee
as saying an investigation of the possible . CIA role was called off at the
request of Kissinger, then secretary of state.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/29: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402830016-1