GREECE: THE FALL OF THE PHOENIX:
Roberts, Cokie
0000000000**** freely. The Press Ministry, which used to call reporters only to tell them...
...Lower echelon weren't here under the dictatorship...
...as a special friend...
...That's hard, dirty work extending the blanket amnesty to Nixon, the recluse of to be done in the engine-room...
...And, significantly, President Ford nominated NelThere's bedrock to build on-the principle of ac- son Rockefeller as Vice President...
...The government saw only one U.S...
...The temper of the new governors Nixon Presidency...
...Most of those who junta to stay in power forever...
...safety valve to rely on and now we don't know where U.S...
...Many Greeks believe that the CIA installed years, it was to a wildly joyful city...
...And it's been greatly inflamed by ported government could extricate it...
...shouting "democratia," "Elftheria," "exo i Amerikani" In addition to large and sometimes violent demonstra- or "democracy," "freedom," "Americans go home...
...Two days before the only lay the blame on foreign powers...
...mately suggest that political euphoria is no substitute for The President may have made this offer with a view to undertaking institutional repairs...
...press itself, the contented cows of the status quo...
...Much to the Several versions are told of how and why the generals surprise and private dismay of the left their traditional relinquished power, some include a heavy dose of Amer- conservative enemy, Karamanlis, is moving to take over ican pressure...
...or "No...
...The military tried to and firing Gen...
...But at this point it doesn't matter who is in office American bases here and the toying with the Soviet either in the embassy here or in the White House at Union's peace proposal for Cyprus...
...The results of that frustration are seen in the the State Department's mistakes which he helped formu- withdrawal from NATO, the continuing threat to the late...
...that Karamanlis has made the generals disappear...
...COME ROBERTS country where we are normally treated with the utmost (Cokie Roberts is an American newspaper and radio kindness...
...It has now disappeared...
...didn't Premier Constantine Karamanlis returned to lead a prevent the invasion in the first place and ceasefire violacivilian government for the first time in seven-and-a-half tions later...
...The next day he became Minister of De- feel especially hurt by what they see as America's abanfense...
...what Greeks see as American support of Turkey on Ioannides out and called the politicians in...
...All of this is not to say United States...
...are against this action...
...Gizikis, arrived at the Parliament build- told to curtail its role in Greece has been circulated here ing, the few boos were shouted down by cheers of "All as evidence of widespread CIA activity...
...He appeared before the VFW, A Rockeford Administration would have us believe a major professional veterans outfit, to raise the possibilwe are entering an era of good-feeling...
...There may The work of reconstruction involves the executive and have been unspoken "linkage" in the President's amlegislative branches of the federal government-and the nesty remarks...
...The sour from the White House to the Capitol on short notice in smell has blown away...
...One waiter told me, "The Greek people to exert...
...hopefulness and much of that spirit remains alive today...
...No Karamanlis moves certainly but cautiously-some on heed was given to the moral question of supporting a the left say too cautiously-but most people are willing dictatorship, and the U.S...
...Embassy officials weren't killing of the U.S...
...They Greeks have experienced great emotional shifts since are still there, waiting in the barracks for any sign of the hot Monday morning when word came that there political unrest...
...There was little evi- the original military coup of George Papadopoulas...
...He traveled the mile along Pennsylvania Avenue Rockefeller has been a closet conservative during most 20 September 1974: 494...
...Ambassador to Cyprus, Rodger the only ones sluffing off the old politicians...
...No one was surprised when the Turks invaded...
...The that politically the Avenue is a two-way street, instead of world of Washington feels itself re-established in its the embargoed thoroughfare it had been during the familiar pathways...
...The specific targets of the hate might be Henry ger's attempts to placate Greece-disparagingly called Kissinger (the demonstrators shout "Kissinger Murderer" love notes in the local press-have been met with and "Kissinger Give Back Your Nobel"), and the Karamanlis' hearing aid turned off...
...And Greece, Karamanlis had undercut his main political mesone normally hospitable neighbor screamed at me, "Tell sage by withdrawing Greece from the military wing of your country to stop supporting the barbaric Turks, who NATO...
...One recently returned As democracy creeps home to Greece it carries fresh exile said to me, "Greece hasn't changed since I was air in which to breathe deeply and speak freely...
...They forced Gen...
...and, of course, the fury culminated in the journalist presently living in Athens...
...On the day Davies...
...reaching Congressional offices, is generated (1) by his President Ford has made an effort to suture a few role as Governor in the Attica prison uprising...
...When Former Cyprus...
...and (3) his "liberalism...
...They don't understand why the U.S...
...caucus" for discussion...
...where the more realistic generals, who had opposed the Dislike and distrust of America has grown in Greece Cyprus coup from the beginning, realized the mess the through the years as the Nixon Administration endorsed country was in and thought that only a popularly sup- the military regime...
...Many Greeks could work...
...Greeks before the change in government Evangelos Averoff were generally shocked and much of the heat has gone stopped by one of the news agencies to look at the out of the desire to demonstrate...
...Some Athenians even broke which could cause it...
...Actually, regime...
...interest in Greece: to maintain the military bases...
...A reporter asked him to step aside so people that the anti-Americanism has died down...
...acted as though it expected the to give him the benefit of the doubt...
...Regardless of together now...
...But Karamanlis did American bases, but after a daily and often irresponsible hear the night he returned to Athens-the crowd was press campaign against the U.S., any American will do...
...Good sources here describe a scenario their most popular political stance-anti-Americanism...
...Otherwise, bygones may San Clemente who down the road could have appeared become fore-gones...
...But the Greek tumultuous crowds received secondary play in the people knew their own military leaders had caused the newspapers to Karamanlis' headlined "Oxi...
...When the And a New York Times story saying the CIA had been President, Gen...
...Some diplomats always warned that the civilians donment, because they saw the U.S...
...It is the work of the military Karamanlis is well aware of that pressure and has regime...
...But that is not to say wires...
...The President told each may become common criminals before too long...
...Ioannides...
...And now they seem to be vindicated...
...The Press Ministry, which used to call reporters only to tell them to leave the country, now keeps us Greece...
...But including members of some leftist groups in the Cabinet, hatred of the Turks runs deep and the announcement of overthrowing the top figures in the military command, a ceasefire brought relief but no joy...
...Police looked by as politician who had spoken out against the new governthugs destroyed the ground floor of the British Embassy ment, leftist leader Andreas Papandreou, arrived in and roughed up foreign newspersons, including me...
...The tall informed...
...and how will that affect its relationship with the nobody talked on the telephone...
...what happens next internally in seven years...
...Previously banned newspapers publish couraged from making contacts with persons who are Commonweal: 493 now in the Greek Cabinet...
...what is past may become prologue...
...dence that night of bitterness or revenge...
...What he didn't know is that they hadn't for how did it all happen...
...2) his political and societal wounds, inflicted by the Nixon views on abortion...
...The mean-minded men of the order to chat briefly and separately with the Senate and White House are now common citizens, although a few the House of Representatives...
...He called in the Congressional "black speaks of letting bygones be bygones...
...would resent the American attitude if they returned to As my landlord told me, "We always thought we had a office...
...In some ways the shooting was cathartic...
...True, the im- ity of offering "earned" amnesty on an individual basis to mediate nightmare is over...
...It inherited a disastrous situation in their accustomed silence to dare whisper their distress Cyprus and a highly inflationary economy...
...Henry Kissinger's invitation to Washington...
...in courtrooms as the defendant in the dock...
...Karamanlis and most are cynical about the new regime don't live here, or other former politicians were ignored...
...to problem in the first place and the generals knew it too...
...And all of Kissinhome...
...Changes show up officers in the American Embassy were specifically diseverywhere...
...taken steps to head it off: granting amnesty to all politiThe Greeks mobilized and the mood grew dimmer, with cal prisoners, allowing Communist newspapers to publish, no one wanting to fight a war for the despised junta...
...Ambassador Henry Tasca was the first to pay for to turn...
...He tions all of us have personal incidents to report in a might be joining in the chants...
...People kept their voices muted in cafes and Greece...
...WASHINGTON REPORT ~• POST-WATERGATE RECONSTRUCTION-1 The political flood-waters have receded...
...In this last home, the people still argue passionately about new atmosphere of freedom people are asking questions: politics...
...And it must that the military government here in Athens would over- add to those the pressure that the political left is expected throw Makarios...
...And even Papandreou's triumphant return to have never done anything for civilization...
...However, one may legiti- draft-dodgers of the Vietnam war (but not to deserters...
...Rockefeller, alcountability of a President has prevailed, somewhat by though a political chameleon, appears to have as much inadvertence and, even then, not to the extent that solid support among Congressional Democrats as among Clare Boothe Luce recently assured her National Review Republicans...
...The abhorred symbol of the military regime, a Phoenix rising from flames guarded by a soldier, formerly adorned public hearings, roadsides and hillsides Of the Phoenix as pervasively as "Jesus Saves" signs in the American South...
...Criticism directed against him, that is readers...
...And this government faces problems had been a coup on Cyprus...
...Some cries of "Down with the Junta" who engineered the junta, there is no question that could be heard, but the general mood was one of happy America backed it...
Vol. 100 • September 1974 • No. 21
