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Greece–United States relations

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Hellenic-American relations
Map indicating locations of Greece and USA

Greece
United States

Greek-American relations are the transatlantic relations between the Hellenic Republic (Greece) and the United States of America. This article describes positive and negative aspects of Greek-American relations.

Historical ties

The United States and Greece have long-standing historical, political, and cultural ties based on a common heritage, shared democratic values, and participation as Allies during World War II, the Korean War, and the Cold War. The U.S. is the largest foreign investor in Greece; direct U.S. foreign investment in Greece was about $4.5 billion in 2006.

During the Greek civil war of 1946-1949, the U.S. proclaimed the Truman Doctrine, promising assistance to governments resisting communist subjugation, and began a period of substantial financial and military aid. The U.S. has provided Greece with more than $11.1 billion in economic and security assistance since 1946. Economic programs were phased out by 1962, but military assistance has continued. In fiscal year 1995, Greece was the fourth-largest recipient of U.S. security assistance, receiving loans totaling $255.15 million in foreign military financing.

In 1953, the first defense cooperation agreement between Greece and the United States was signed, providing for the establishment and operation of American military installations on Greek territory. The current mutual defense cooperation agreement (MDCA) provides for continued U.S. military assistance to Greece and the operation by the U.S. of a major military facility at Souda Bay, Crete.

Embassy of Greece in Washington, D.C.

However, there is also much anti-American sentiment in Greece as a result of what critics consider to constitute "meddling" on behalf of the United States in Greece's internal affairs. The United States intervened in the Greek civil war, supporting the Monarchists against the "National Liberation Army" (ELAS), which had carried out part of the resistance during the Nazi occupation of Greece, but started attacking all non-communist resistance groups to secure post-war domination after 1942. The centrists and right-wingers won, reinstituting the constitutional parliamentary monarchy and fending off the possibility of Greece falling behind the Iron Curtain. Communists and some leftists decry the United States for supporting the anti-communist Nazi Collaborators during the Greek Civil War.

Critics charge the United States with supporting the 1967-1974 military coup in Greece. The junta's officials were eager to present themselves as enjoying the full confidence of the United States government in several occasions, possibly in order to project a powerful image and discourage resistance. President Bill Clinton responded to the perception of US government involvement on his November 1999 visit to Greece: “When the junta took over in 1967 here, the United States allowed its interests in prosecuting the Cold War to prevail over its interests - I should say its obligation - to support democracy, which was, after all, the cause for which we fought the Cold War. It is important that we acknowledge that.”[1]

James Becket, an American attorney sent to Greece by Amnesty International, wrote in December 1969 that "a conservative estimate would place at not less than two thousand" the number of people tortured, usually in the most gruesome of ways, often with equipment supplied by the United States.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece Dora Bakoyannis.

Becket reported the following:

'Hundreds of prisoners have listened to the little speech given by Inspector Basil Lambrou, who sits behind his desk which displays the red, white, and blue clasped-hand symbol of American aid. He tries to show the prisoner the absolute futility of resistance: "You make yourself ridiculous by thinking you can do anything. The world is divided in two. There are the communists on that side and on this side the free world. The Russians and the Americans, no one else. What are we? Americans. Behind me there is the government, behind the government is NATO, behind NATO is the U.S. You can't fight us, we are Americans."'[2]

This American support for the military regime led to left-wing terrorist groups repeatedly attacking US targets, the most famous of which was 17 November, which started by killing the Central Intelligence Agency's station chief in Athens, Richard Welch in 1975. A significant percentage of the population did not even consider these activities as terrorist as anti-American sentiment was very strong during the Metapolitefsi. This continued throughout the 1980s, with the centre-left Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) party coming to power in 1981, with an election campaign centered on withdrawal of Greece from NATO and the European Economic Community.

Greek-American community

The 2000 US Census showed 1,153,295 Greeks living in the US. About 3 million Americans are of Greek ancestry.[3] Greek-Americans are an established, well-organized community in the U.S. (several notable politicians, including former Vice-President Spiro Agnew, and Senators Olympia Snowe and Paul Sarbanes are of Greek ancestry as well as 1988 Presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis), and they help cultivate close political and cultural ties with Greece.

Criticism

In the 1990s such harsh rhetoric had ceased in political debates, with the exception of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). Subsequent PASOK governments faced a contradiction by supporting NATO as a member state in the Kosovo war. This was a very unpopular move, leading to a sharp rise in anti-American sentiment and large demonstrations [2]. For this reason Greece only provided small naval support forces in the Adriatic sea and allowed NATO troops the use of the port of Thessaloniki. The 2003 invasion of Iraq and the 2004 recognition of the Republic of Macedonia with its constitutional name along with the recogniton of the Republic of Kosovo as an independent country by the United States has only expanded the view of the United States as belligerent in the eyes of many Greeks living in Greece.[4]

See also

References

  1. ^ Lacey, Marc (21 Nov 1999). "Clinton Tries To Subdue Greeks' Anger At America". New York Times. Retrieved 2012-07-15.
  2. ^ Becket, James. Barbarism in Greece: a young American lawyer's inquiry into the use of torture in contemporary Greece, with case histories and documents. Walker, 1970, p.16.
  3. ^ United States Department of State: Background Note: Greece
  4. ^ [1]
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