During George Papandreou's eighteen month reign as prime-minister the problems between the Greek-Cypriots and the Turkish minority on the island of Cyprus come to a head. The island has been under British rule since 1878 and granted independence in 1960. There are some who want the island to unite with Greece (enosis), others who wanted to partition the Greek and Turkish Cypriots, and some who believe the two peoples could live together peacefully. In 1963 Archbishop Markarios (photo), the President of Cyprus, stirs up a hornets nest when he attempts to reduce the power of the Turkish minority in the Cypriot government. Turkey reacts with saber-rattling and prepares to invade the island when fighting breaks out between the two groups. This is brought to an end by President Lyndon Johnson who tells the Greek ambassador: "#@%$ your Parliament and your Constitution. America is an elephant. Cyprus is a flea. Greece is a flea. If those two fleas continue itching the elephant they may just get whacked by the elephants trunk. Whacked good....We pay a lot of good American dollars to the Greeks, Mr. Ambassador. If your Prime Minister gives me talk about Democracy, Parliament and Constitutions, he, his Parliament and his Constitution may not last very long." The UN sends in a peace-keeping force and the Turkish-Cypriots are sent to enclaves, instead of being spread all over the island. The US proposes a union of Cyprus with Greece in exchange for the Turkish-Cypriots having their own self-governing areas protected by Turkish bases. (Turkey would also get the island of Kastellorizo in the bargain.) This proposal is rejected by George Papandreou which does not win him any brownie-points with the Americans. He aggravates them even more when he begins releasing communists who had been languishing in prison since the end of the civil war.
The US also is nervous about his son the Harvard-educated Andreas, who after leaving his job as head of the Department of Economics at University of California at Berkeley, has returned to Greece with his American wife and his family to take part in his father's government. According to de-classified documents the CIA wanted to spend several hundred thousand dollars on candidates to defeat the Papandreou. In their words "we have kept an eye on Andreas Papandreou long enough to know, realistically speaking, that he belongs to the camp of individuals opposed to US interests. In contrast with the other candidates, Andreas is particularly strong in his views". Some officials in the Johnson administration believe the United States should take drastic measures to support a moderate government and weaken the political influence of the Papandreous to avoid a resurgence of the communists. The State Department is not convinced that Andreas Papandreou is such a threat that they should funnel money into Greece to help defeat him. According to Secretary of State Rusk "the risk of the covert operation being revealed is much greater than the political gain it predicted".
Read Full Article »