Greece - US Department of State

Greece 695
commitment. The nature of that independence, and how much will
eventually remain of the unique access the United States today now
enjoys to Greek facilities, will depend to a large extent on United States
attitudes and the manner in which Greece is weaned from past high
levels of dependence on the US.
Implications for the Future
Since his arrival in Greece in early January, Ambassador Tasca has
had his first round of discussions with Greek officials, emphasizing the
value to them and to us of moving ahead to implement the new Greek
constitution. He has pointed out the difficulties under present circumstances
of trying to maintain and strengthen ties on a bilateral basis
and within the NATO alliance.
Subject to Ambassador Tasca’s evaluation and recommendations,
our conclusions are that:
—for the foreseeable future we will be dealing with the current
regime in Greece in one form or another;
—the regime will continue to give top priority to Greek defense
needs and its economy will be able to sustain the present level of defense
spending (just under 25% of budget expenditures) while still
maintaining respectable economic growth;
—the Greek Government has shown some intention, and ability,
to slip the net of our arms embargo by negotiating to purchase arms
from West European sources, notably France. To the extent Greece succeeds,
our current policy of withholding arms will no longer exert major
influence on internal Greek developments;
—the considerations which led to the decision to resume arms
shipments in principle are even more impressive today than they were
in November, particularly as a result of the denial to us of Wheelus,
the Middle East situation, Turkish sensitivity regarding US fleet visits
and continuing Soviet activity in the Mediterranean. In other words
Greece is essential to NATO and Greek real estate is important to United
States interests elsewhere in the area.