Greece The Post War Legacy

Greece and the USA: 

Greece and the USA The Post-War Legacy

Greece and the USA: 

Greece and the USA The “Truman Doctrine” was presented in the US Congress on 12 March 1947. At the same time the Soviet Union had embarked on a radical reduction of the Red Army, from 12 million men in 1945 to about 4 million in 1947. The threat of the Communism was perceived as being linked not to military action but as a subversion from within.

Greece and the USA: 

Greece and the USA In the first cabinet of the new French Fourth Republic were four Communists, including the Minister of Defense. The colonial empires-British, French, and Dutch- were facing rebellions and campaigns for national independence. 1947-Britain cannot longer provide the 250$ million of military-economic support to Greece and Turkey.

Greece and the USA: 

Greece and the USA “The President also won over Congress with assurances that the United States would not only control every penny of America’s aid to Greece, but run the Greek economy by controlling foreign exchange, budget, taxes, currency and credit.” Walter La Feber, America, Russia and the Cold War, 1945-80, New York 1980:54

Greece and the USA: 

Greece and the USA The urgency of problems related to the Civil War, and the inability of a paralyzed government disposed Greek politicians to allow the United States a role in Greek internal affairs. American aid agencies begun to work in Greece. Marshall Plan- 1.7 billion $ in economic aid and 1.3 billion $ in military aid between 1947 and the 1960.

Greece and the USA: 

Greece and the USA American policy towards Greece, though primarily driven by defense considerations, was at first guided by liberal principles. The Department of State had discouraged admirers of authoritarian methods and viewed the Greek King as an obstacle to the reconstruction of a liberal democracy in the country.

Greece and the USA: 

Greece and the USA As Cold War tensions heighten, Greece is seen as a bulwark against Communist expansion, and its administrative, military, economic and political institutions were shaped to serve that purpose. Efficiency and modernization acquired priority over democratic ideals. American missions favored politicians eager to cooperate, irrespective of whether they might be lacking in stature and principle.

Greece and the USA: 

Greece and the USA Representatives of the American Mission to Aid Greece (AMAG) sat on the most important committees and boards while Americans were employed in top administrative positions within the Greek ministries and other government agencies. Members of the AMAG were granted extraterritoriality, inviolability of property and exemption from taxes, custom duties and currency controls.

Greece and the USA: 

Greece and the USA In March 1950 the Prime Minister Sophocles Venizelos, was compelled to resign in favor of Nikolaos Plastiras following an open request from the US ambassador. In June of the same year, the departing General Van Fleet communicated to King Paul his preference for a strong government under Field-Marshall Alexander Papagos, who had been commander in chief of the government forces in the Civil War.

Greece and the USA: 

Greece and the USA Greece’s accession to NATO was initially obstructed by Britain’s own concept of Western Defense in the Near East and the opposition of the Scandinavian members to an over-extension of NATO’s primary aims. When Greece and Turkey sent combat forces to South Korea in 1950, they were acting as members of the United Nations, but their motive was in fact to overcome objections to their entry into NATO. In September 1951 NATO foreign ministers in Ottawa approved Greek and Turkish entry in principle. NATO vs the Warsaw Pact

Greece and the USA: 

Greece and the USA Greece is of major strategic importance to the United States and NATO. Located at the crossroads of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, Greece is in a position to help control the sea- and airplanes of the Mediterranean. Bordering on the Warsaw Pact, Greece would block any attack toward the Mediterranean through Thrace and would join Turkey and other members of NATO in resisting a Soviet effort to seize the Dardanelles.

Greece and the USA: 

Greece and the USA Two years later the American military presence in Greece was consolidated by the signing of a bilateral base agreement, which gave the United States the right to establish and supply its bases and to use Greek airspace. The agreement also set out the legal status of US forces in Greece.

Greece and the USA: 

Greece and the USA The exclusive relationship between the Americans and the Greek ruling conservative party throughout the 1950s and early 60s estranged them from the liberal politicians waiting in the wings. The rise of the Centre-Union coalition under George Papandreou coincided with President John F. Kennedy’s policy of reform as a deterrent to Communist influence.

Greece and the USA: 

Greece and the USA Attempts of Democratization and autonomy. Restrictions of the activities in Greece of the CIA George and Andreas Papandreou

Greece and the USA: 

Greece and the USA The coup of 21 April 1967, which prevented the Papandreou(s) from winning the impending elections, was greeted by the Americans with undisguised relief. The fictitious justification of the coup was that it had prevented an imminent Communist take-over. This attitude disappointed many of the Americophile parliamentarians in Greece who had hoped that the US administration would recognize the inherent limitations, not to mention the brutalities, of the unpopular regime.

Greece and the USA: 

Greece and the USA Since no possible parliamentary alternative in Greece would have upset the status quo in Greek-American relations, America’s credibility suffered a steep decline. Visits of the NATO supreme commander General Goodpaster, Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird, Secretary of State William Rogers, the President’s brother Donald Nixon, Secretary of Commerce Maurice Stans and finally Vice-President Spiro Agnew.

Greece and the USA: 

Greece and the USA In terms of short-term gains America’s relationship with the dictators was rewarding. Its bases and Greek territorial and air space remained available during the June 1967 Arab-Israeli war and the September 1970 crisis in Jordan. In 1971-3 the Nixon administration negotiated important home porting privileges for the Sixth Fleet in Piraeus and Eleusis.

Greece and the USA: 

Greece and the USA On the 15th July 1974 the coup which was brought about by the Greek Military Junta against the Cyprus Government was used as an excuse by Turkey to invade Cyprus on the 20th July, 1974. Turkey alleged that it was their duty to proceed in this way in order to protect the Turkish-Cypriot community following a coup against President Makarios. In a public statement in 1964, , Vice-President of Turkey said: "Cyprus will be divided into two sections, one of which will join Turkey".

Greece and the USA: 

Greece and the USA Forty thousand Turkish troops embarked on the island in collaboration with the Turkish air and naval forces, in violation of the Charter of the UN and all principles governing international relations. Turkey launched a second attack on the 20th August, 1974 resulting in 37% of the Island being occupied, one quarter of the population being displaced and thousands of people (including civilians) being killed, ill treated or disappeared without trace.

Greece and the USA: 

Greece and the USA Around 200,000 Greek Cypriots were driven from their homes and villages to the southern part of the island. Ankara then used its military muscle to urge the Turkish Cypriots who were still living in the south to move to the north. Where once, the Greek and Turkish communities lived together in mixed towns and villages it was now divided into two ethnic zones.

Greece and the USA: 

Greece and the USA On 15 November 1983 Mr Denktash declared the so-called "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus". No country in the world except Turkey has recognized this illegal entity. After 28 years occupation, the island of Cyprus is still divided with 1588 people missing, 200,000 refugees in their own country.

A painting of Bulent Ecevit, prime minister of Turkey at the time of the 1974 invasion : 

A painting of Bulent Ecevit, prime minister of Turkey at the time of the 1974 invasion

Greece and the USA: 

Greece and the USA In 2002, the international community declared that it was running out of patience with the absence of an agreement which would end the division of the island of Cyprus. To bring about a solution the Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, put forward a plan to kick start negotiations between Cyprus’s Greek and Turkish leaderships which would culminate in the island’s reunification according to a strict time table. The prospective chronology for a solution was closely tied to Cyprus’s accession to the EU, planned for May, 2004.

Greece and the USA: 

Greece and the USA In March 2003, Mr Denktaş refused to call a national referendum on the Annan Plan as it stood but, on the 23rd April he surprised everyone both on the island and abroad by opening the border (the Green Line) between north and south thus allowing Greek and Turkish Cypriots to visit parts of the island that had remained out of bounds to them since 1974.

Greece and the USA: 

Greece and the USA Although the Annan Plan (as it is called) required referendums to be held in each part of the island to give it popular legitimacy, the admission of (Greek) Cyprus to the EU without a settlement between the two halves of the island was ratified by the 15 existing member states in Athens on 16th April 2003 and confirmed by a unanimous vote in the Greek-speaking Parliament of the Republic of Cyprus on 14th July, 2003.

Slide30: 

US complaisance towards the Greek military regime and subsequent inaction during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus opened the door to Andreas Papandreou’s criticism of USA. With the collapse of Communism in the Soviet Union and its satellites, the geostrategic value of Greece appeared to decline. United States demonstrated its unwillingness to maintain naval, air force and monitoring bases in Greece with the exception of the military base in Suda, Crete.