Greece - US Department of State

Greece 697
2. Relations Between the United States and Greece. Friendship between
the U.S. and Greece is still deep, indeed unsurpassed in my experience
of our relations with the peoples of other countries. It rests on the broad
foundation of over two million American citizens of Greek extraction;
some 25 years of close economic and military association, begun under
the Truman Doctrine in 1947, which contributed about 3.5 billion dollars
to Greece’s postwar rehabilitation, economic progress and defensive
reenforcement; substantial U.S. private investment in Greece and
an expanding market in it for U.S. exports; and a strong identity of views
on the defense of the Free World against further communist encroachment.
In consequence Greece is a resolute member of NATO, has committed
forces to the defense of the Alliance’s S.E. flank, and granted the
U.S. valuable facilities in support of our strategic objectives in the increasingly
critical Eastern Mediterranean region.
Greece’s Other Foreign Relations. The Western Europeans, especially
those countries with influential socialist parties and narrow governmental
majorities, have been politically antagonistic toward the present
Greek regime. This reaction culminated in forcing Greece to withdraw
from the Council of Europe in December 1969 on the charge of
having violated political and human rights. While this European pressure
may have played some part in engendering constitutional progress
in Greece, on balance it appears to have been psychologically counterproductive.
Having driven Greece out of the Council of Europe, the
Europeans are now showing signs of shifting their attack to the more
critical NATO forum. They have however not allowed such moral indignation
to prejudice bilateral trade with Greece, which happens to
be a substantial net importer of EEC goods. France’s attitude has been
characteristically apolitical; and the GOF is willing to sell Greece Mirage
military aircraft and possibly tanks. The Soviet Union has bided
its time politically with respect to developments in Greece, and otherwise
maintained a business-as-usual stance. The present Greek Government,
shaken by the November 1967 Cyprus crisis, has made a concerted
effort to improve relations with its important Turkish neighbor
by working constructively toward a solution of the unstable Cyprus
problem. Greek relations with Yugoslavia are good; tolerable with Bulgaria;
and the GOG has recently made overtures for commercial relations
with Albania. The GOG, finally, plans to establish full, de jure
diplomatic relations with Israel soon.
II. Present U.S. Policy Toward Greece
For the lack of other tangible leverage—U.S. economic aid having
been terminated in 1962 2 —and as a mark of official USG disapproval,
2 For documentation, see Foreign Relations, 1961–1963, volume XVI, Eastern Europe;
Cyprus; Greece; Turkey, Documents 320–338.