Greece - US Department of State

Greece 745
296. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in
Greece 1
Washington, October 28, 1970, 2147Z.
177500. From Secretary for Ambassador. Subj: Next Steps.
1. Now that the arms embargo has been lifted, and the Greek Government
reassured by our recent actions and by the visit of Secretary
Laird and others of the deep concern we have for the security of the Eastern
Mediterranean, we should have reached a new and more frictionfree
relationship.
2. I hope this new relationship will permit us to be even more persuasive
than we have been up now in influencing the Government to
move in the direction we wish to see it go. Though criticism of the regime
has lately been rather muted, it seems bound to arise again in serious
proportions and in a way which will once again threaten the smooth
functioning of NATO and create difficulties on the Hill. These considerations
are apart from our long-range policy interest in the development
of a more broadly based and supported government in Greece, which
offers a better prospect for long-range stability than a government whose
stability depends on the survival capability of one clever man.
3. We have publicly been taking the regime’s promises at face
value as I believe we should. But now we are faced with an instance
of failure to meet a commitment in an important particular—the lifting
of martial law, promised for last month. Palamas has now promised
that martial law will be lifted before the NATO meeting in early
December. I believe it essential that the Greek Government be reminded
of its default and that it take action very soon and in no case later than
the end of November to get rid of martial law.
4. More disturbing is the recent gambit announcing the “election”
of a “small parliament.” As you suggest (Athens 5815) 2 this seems a
move away from rather than toward meaningful elections. It provides
ammunition to the persistent skeptics about the regime’s intentions,
since it involves the pseudo-election of a pseudo-parliament. We have
been freely repeating Papadopoulos’ assertion that by the end of
December 1970 all the laws necessary to the implementation of the
1 Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 593,
Country Files, Middle East, Greece, Vol. I, Jan 69–Oct 70. Secret; Exdis. Drafted by Vigderman;
cleared by Davies, Tibbetts, Sisco, Eliot, Folger (H), and Abshire; NEA, EUR, S,
and H and approved by Rogers. Another copy is ibid., RG 59, Central Files 1970–73, POL
GREECE–US.
2 Dated October 19, it reported on the Greek Government’s announcement of the
creation of a “small parliament.” (Ibid., POL 14 GREECE)