Greece: The Ultimate Symbol

Ever since they seized power 18 months ago, Greece’s ruling colonels have waged a remarkably successful campaign to secure international acceptance of their stern rightist regime.

Though their coup was bitterly denounced in practically every capital in the world, the colonels have managed to win grudging diplomatic recognition from the major powers as the effective, if unloved masters of Greece. Last week Colonel-turned-Premier George Papadopoulos finally gained the concession that he and his fellow junta colleagues regarded as the ultimate symbol of acceptance. It was the resumption by the U.S. of heavy-arms shipments to Greece.

Shortly after the coup, the U.S. suspended shipments of heavy weaponry, such as tanks and jet fighters, to Greece’s NATO-committed armed forces—though the flow of small arms, ammunition and spare parts was allowed to continue. By so doing, the U.S. hoped to gain leverage over the colonels in order to persuade them to return the country to democratic rule. The effort failed.

Though Papadopoulos and his colleagues have enacted a new constitution and made other gestures toward a re-establishment of representative rule, the country remains under martial law. Furthermore, the junta shows no inclination to hold free elections any time soon.

Readiness. Meanwhile, political and military developments in Europe have given the colonels considerable leverage over the U.S. The growing Soviet naval presence in the Mediterranean convinced Pentagon planners of the need for a strengthening of NATO’s eastward flank. Even more important, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and the continuing threat to Yugoslavia were a clear indication that Greece’s armed forces should be brought up to a high state of readiness. Consequently, the U.S. State Department wrestled down its objection to the junta and agreed to renewed shipments of heavy arms. The first consignment will consist of two minesweepers and 60 aircraft, including 22 F-102 Delta Daggers and five F-104 Starfighters. Though Washington tries to insist that the ban is only partly lifted, other heavy equipment, including tanks and armored personnel carriers, most likely will follow. Making the most of Greece’s new strategic importance, the junta is demanding a 50% increase in U.S. aid, which prior to the coup had been averaging $65 million per year.

The U.S. decision dismayed critics of the junta, both in the U.S. and abroad. As the Washington Post put it: “In the name of defending the free world, Washington props up a government that withholds freedom from its own people.” Given the Soviet Union’s aggressive new stance, the Administration could argue that it had little choice, but a defensible choice is not necessarily a desirable one.