Greece - US Department of State

692 Foreign Relations, 1969–1976, Volume XXIX
he said he would consider so recommending, but that these officers
had already benefited from a previous amnesty (for their 13 December
1967 acts). When released then they had signed statements foreswearing
any intention of opposing the regime by force. He stressed, however,
that such acts of magnanimity must be at Greek initiative, and
for Greek reasons and not appear to follow foreign pressure. I concurred
fully with this thought.
9. I told him that I would not intervene in matters of internal security—which
is a Greek problem—but as the representative of an old
ally, I wished to give him friendly advice as to the need to strike a balance
between the security needs of the country, which might call for
someone’s arrest, and the damage to Greece’s reputation abroad, which
the arrest might cause. It might be better at times to accept a minor security
risk rather than arrest someone and then creating hostile feelings
toward Greece among her allies.
10. Ioannidis spoke of the need for greater economic and educational
progress before democracy could be restored, but listened attentively
to my counter arguments on the need for giving youth a
chance to participate more directly in national and public life as equally
important as economic progress in protecting against a resurgence of
communism.
11. In general, Ioannidis impressed me as tough within a modest
and polite exterior. He appears to see issues in fairly stark black-andwhite
terms, to hold very strong convictions about what is best for
Greece and to be a man of considerable tenacity and self-confidence.
His expressions of good will toward the United States and his advocacy
of reconciliation of all anti-Communist elements in Greece seemed
very genuine. On arrival he said that the way to persuade a Greek to
do something is to let him believe it is his own idea. I believe that Ioannidis’
receptivity to some of the points we subsequently discussed
augers well for his taking up at least some of them as his own.
Tasca