Greece - US Department of State

700 Foreign Relations, 1969–1976, Volume XXIX
274. Letter From Greek Prime Minister Papadopoulos to President
Nixon 1
Athens, April 9, 1970.
Mister President,
A year has elapsed since my last written communication with Your
Excellency. 2
During this period, Greece has proceeded along the road towards
state normality with steady steps. It has also been able to proceed satisfactorily
in its economic development, due to the untroubled internal
order. In the first sector, the achievements have been in accordance
with the dictates of the rules of national security in combination with
the promises given. In the second, they have been commensurate with
the potentialities offered by Greek reality.
In the meantime, the United States of America have effected a new
approach of the great problems of mankind, under your Presidency,
and have given a new content to their historical mission, with a high
sense of responsibility, broadness of spirit, and constructive realism.
Your February 18 Report to Congress on United States foreign policy
for the 1970’s, 3 and on a new strategy for peace, sums up this significant
fact in a manner extremely eloquent and explicit, and endows
the United States with a moral stature which is quite unprecedented.
I have studied your Report with the utmost attention, and am addressing
the present letter to you for the very purpose of expressing
the great satisfaction felt by the Greek Government for the principles
defined in it. As the Government of an allied and friendly nation—one
which has suffered the ordeals of war as few others have, and bears a
sincere love for peace—it shares these principles without reserve.
Our attention was particularly drawn by your enlightened observations
concerning the aims of the Atlantic Alliance, which remain basically
unaltered (“the defense of Western Europe against common
challenges, and ultimately the creation of a viable and secure European
1
Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 593,
Country Files—Middle East, Greece, Vol. I Jan 69–Oct 70. No classification marking. A
typed note at the bottom of the last page reads: “Official Translation, The Prime Minister’s
Office,” and a handwritten note by Tasca on the first page reads: “Given to HJ Tasca
personally evening of April 15—See Athens Exdis 1342, 17 Apr.” No indication of the
method of transmission to the White House was found. Telegram 1342 from Athens,
March 23, reported on discussions between Tasca and Papadopoulos on the state of
Greek-U.S. relations, including Papadopoulos’s comment that he might send a letter to
President Nixon. (Ibid., RG 59, Central Files 1970–73, POL GREECE–US)
2
See footnote 4, Document 249.
3
For text, see Public Papers: Nixon, 1970, pp. 116–190.