Greece - US Department of State

Greece 761
provide present regime with justification for maintaining authoritarian
government.
14. From here we judge that Greece will be even more important
to us in coming year on security grounds. Our concern about negative
aspects of Prime Minister’s speech should not distract us from our essential
aims or cause us to lose sight of nature of our primary interests
in Greece. Greece remains basically friendly to U.S., is a strong supporter
of NATO, and holds a key position in Eastern Mediterranean.
We must live with facts that our ability to influence internal developments
is limited not only by internal situation, including government’s
increasing confidence, as reflected in Prime Minister’s speech, that it
need no longer defer to outside pressures of the kind that had been
typical in Greek history, but also by the development, both in this area
and throughout the world, of new kind of nationalism. Finally, [garble—thrust]
of American foreign policy, as evidenced by Nixon Doctrine,
9 has not gone unnoticed here. The Greeks will welcome the opportunity
to play a vital part in the implementation of this new
approach of responsibility and self-reliance on country’s own strength
and resources in the first instance.
Tasca
9 Reference is to President Nixon’s statement regarding the U.S. role in Asia during
a July 25, 1969, press conference. For text, see Public Papers: Nixon, 1969, pp. 544–556.
See also Foreign Relations, 1969–1976, volume I, Foundations of Foreign Policy, 1969–1972,
Document 29.
303. Telegram From the Embassy in Greece to the Department of
State 1
Athens, February 19, 1971, 1101Z.
794. Subject: Report of visit of Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Staff consultants Lowenstein and Moose. Ref: Athens 705. 2
1 Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 594,
Country Files—Middle East, Greece, Vol. II 1 Nov 1970–31 Dec 1971. Secret; Priority;
Exdis. Repeated to USNATO.
2 Dated February 12, it stated that the Embassy was preparing a report on the mission
of Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffers James Lowenstein and Richard
Moose. (Ibid., RG 59, Central Files 1970–73, LEG 7 LOWENSTEIN)