Greece - US Department of State

Greece 721
The President then led the discussion toward the issue of U.S. military
posture, especially if the United States received a request for support
from Lebanon or Jordan. The President then returned to Greece
as follows:
“President: What about the King of Greece? What’s his situation?
“VP: It’s hard to judge, but . . .
“Tasca: He’s had many faults in the past. There is great opposition
to him among the younger and middle officers.
“President: What do they want?
“Tasca: They want a Republic. The Army is more of this mind than
the others because of their background. They think the King might put
in older exiled officers. If the King was prepared to make a statement
that he wants the Greeks to have arms, that could help reconcile the
various groups.
“President: I know him reasonably well. He has strong qualities.
His father was a decent man. He has good points but was pulled and
hauled by the radicals. He’s idealistic but he was exploited. Could he
be persuaded to do that? The symbol of the King is good in Greece. In
his self-interest, he doesn’t have the political sophistication to know
that those outside really don’t support him. If he could get a statement
on arms, action on arms, and go ahead with a promise to have a constitutional
government by the end of the year. ...
“Tasca: They never had made a promise before to do this by the
end of the year.
“Rogers: The NATO people don’t believe they’ll do it.
“VP: What is the Soviet attitude?
“Tasca: They are knocking on two doors: They’re trying to discredit
this government, and at the same time they’re trying to queer
its relations with the U.S. to get us out of Greece.
“VP: Who stimulates the public relations figures in the U.S.? The
Greek-American Committee is amazed.
“Tasca: The International Red Cross tell us—they have free access—that
they don’t believe the torture stories. This may have been
in the first 18 months—on Communists who were in the ’40s civil war—
but not anymore now.
“Rogers: We have to realize that regardless of the facts, the young
people in Europe believe them. We can’t afford to lose them all. The
Europeans say they haven’t done anything.
“Tasca: They do have serious problems. They don’t understand
their image problems abroad.
“VP: I don’t believe there are groupings of ‘young people,’ ‘poor
people.’ These constituencies don’t exist. They are diverse.