Greece - US Department of State

Greece 819
Nixon: “Émigré groups.
Agnew: “Yeah. But I think it’s possible to solve the thing. I, I hit
Papadopoulos head on with this.
Nixon: “Wish it were.
Agnew: “I think it looks encouraging. [Unclear]”
The President then referred to news summaries of the Agnew trip
before returning to Greek issues:
Nixon: “I was goddamn mad, you know, and after you were there,
the State Department was still extremely critical of the Greek Government
and so forth. And I [unclear] and I must say Rogers was good at
it too. But, I say anytime, I say ‘Now look here, I’m not going to criticize
the Greek Government. My interest is in what the government’s
attitude is toward the United States, not what it does in its own country.
I would prefer that they do other things, but that’s their, it’s something
I’m not going to get into.’“
After further discussion of this position, Agnew again brought up
the issue of the King’s future:
Agnew: “With the King—
Nixon: “I like him incidentally, he’s—
Agnew: “Constantine?
Nixon: “Yes I do. He’s precise.
Agnew: “Oh, yeah.
Nixon: “When I was out of office in ’63. Well, he [unclear]—
Agnew: “It’s a problem of non-communication. For example, the
King wants them to send him a colonel of their choosing. To stay with
him all the time in Italy. And send him some money. He says, I could
use some protection. Then he recites a case to show that he is violently
against Papandreou where . . .
Nixon: “He’s the bad boy.
Agnew: “Yeah. He is a bad boy. He points out a case where he was
king and George Papandreou was premier. Word came down that Andreas
was consorting as a member of the government with the Communists.
So, he braced George with this and demanded that George
stop it and get rid of him. Also he has, the King has said, authorized
us to say publicly, and this is something that the regime has never said,
that he supports our aid to NATO, or aid to Greece. He says it would
be an unpatriotic act for him to oppose aid to Greece.
Nixon: “Oh, good.
Agnew: “But that not generally, these things are not generally
known. But I was able to tell Papadopoulos in these 6 hours of private
conversations a lot of things, positions that the King took that he didn’t
really understand.