![Sample our Politics & International Relations journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5947/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Politics-International-Relations.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
While often held up as a model of successful American counterinsurgency, the Greek Civil War presents a unique case. Peculiar local conditions and geopolitics contributed to the defeat of communist forces in Greece. A firm British and later American commitment to combating communism stood in contrast to ambiguous support from the Soviet Union in an area they considered outside of their sphere of influence. Strong nationalist feeling among the Greek population buttressed support for the government and undermined the ‘internationalist’ concessions of communist forces. These characteristics make the extrapolation of broader lessons focused on victory through the application of overwhelming American resources and the financing of local forces problematic. If lessons are to be gleaned from this case, they should focus on the critical roles played by internal political dynamics and geopolitics in undermining the strength of the insurgent forces and how these provided a stable platform from which the counterinsurgents could operate.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Gaddis, The Long Peace, 55.
2. TNA (UK), FO 371/61053, Minute by F.B.A. Randall, 10 March 1947.
3. FRUS, 1947. General, Memorandum by Bohlen, 30 August 1947, 763.
4. Ibid., 764.
5. Pepelasis and Thompson, “Agriculture in a Restrictive Environment,” 147.
6. Among other factors contributing to his pro-German stance, Constantine was married to Kaiser Wilhelm II’s sister.
7. Close, The Origins of the Greek Civil War, 19.
8. Stefanidis, Stirring the Greek Nation, 5.
9. Close, The Origins of the Greek Civil War, 20.
10. Gerolymatos, Red Acropolis, Black Terror, 25.
11. Kousoulas, Modern Greece, 165-6.
12. Cliadakis, “The Political and Diplomatic Background,” 129.
13. Under Mussolini, this practice was known as confino.
14. Petrakis, The Metaxas Myth, 51.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid., 52-59.
17. Gooch, Mussolini and His Generals, 451.
18. Close, The Greek Civil War, 1.
19. Convicts, including those with histories of violence and mental instability, were also recruited into these battalions.
20. Hondros, “Greece and the German Occupation,” 45.
21. Hondros, “Greece and the German Occupation,”47.
22. FRUS, 1942, Europe, Document 717, Secretary of State Cordell Hull to US Ambassador to the UK John Winant, 3 December 1941. Telegram 868.48/1172.
23. O’Ballance, The Greek Civil War, 50.
24. Smith, “‘The First Round’ – Civil War During the Occupation,” 58-9.
25. Gerolymatos, Red Acropolis, Black Terror, 73.
26. O’Ballance, The Greek Civil War, 51.
27. See note 25.
28. Close, The Origins of the Greek Civil War, 76.
29. Ibid., 103.
30. Hondros, “Greece and the German Occupation,”49.
31. Ibid., 51-2.
32. Close, The Origins of the Greek Civil War, 90.
33. Ibid., 102.
34. Woodhouse, Modern Greece, 251.
35. Ibid.
36. O’Ballance, The Greek Civil War, 67.
37. See note 35.
38. Roberts, “Moscow’s Cold War on the Periphery,” 60.
39. Maiksii quoted in Roberts, 60.
40. Iatrides, “George F. Kennan and the Birth of Containment,” 137.
41. According to many accounts, including Churchill’s own, he drafted the percentage numbers, and Stalin ticked them to signal his agreement. Such penciled affirmations were typical of Stalin, who condemned hundreds of thousands to death with similar tick marks on execution orders for the NKVD during the Great Terror of 1937-8 and the shooting of Polish prisoners of war in 1940.
42. Iatrides and Rizopoulos, “The International Dimension of the Greek Civil War,” 88.
43. Banac, The Diary of Georgi Dimitrov, 345.
44. Koliopoulos and Veremis, Greece, The Modern Sequel.
45. Close, The Origins of the Greek Civil War, 94.
46. Ibid., 113.
47. O’Ballance, The Greek Civil War, 92.
48. Baerentzen and Close, “The British Defeat of EAM, 1944-5,” 79.
49. Kalyvas, “Red Terror.”
50. See note 48.
51. Kalogrias and Dordanas, “Η αναγνώριση των μη εαμικών αντιστασιακών οργανώσεων (1945–1974) [The recognition of the non-EAM resistance group, 1945–1974].”
52. Baerentzen and Close, “The British Defeat of EAM, 1944-5,” 86.
53. Ibid.
54. O’Ballance, The Greek Civil War, 108.
55. Banac, The Diary of Georgi Dimitrov, 352-3.
56. O’Ballance, The Greek Civil War, 112.
57. Close, The Origins of the Greek Civil War, 166.
58. Ibid.
59. Richter, British Intervention in Greece, 240.
60. Close, The Origins of the Greek Civil War, 167.
61. FRUS, Diplomatic Papers, 1945, European Advisor Commission, Austria, Germany, Telegram from Kirk to the Secretary of State, 8 March 1945, 116.
62. FRUS, Diplomatic Papers, 1945, The Near East and Africa, Vol. VIII, Telegram from MacVeagh to the Secretary of State, 10 March 1945, 116.
63. FRUS, 1945, Vol. VIII, Telegram from MacVeagh to the Secretary of State, 10 March 1945, 117.
64. FRUS, 1945, Vol. VIII, Aide Memoire from the British Embassy to the Department of State, 126.
65. FRUS, 1945, Vol. VIII, Telegram from Alexander Kirk to the Secretary of State, 22 March 1945, 125.
66. Close, The Origins of the Greek Civil War, 162.
67. Close and Veremis, 97.
68. Close, The Origins of the Greek Civil War, 167-8.
69. FRUS, 1945, Vol. VIII, Telegram from Alexander Kirk to the Secretary of State, 15 April 1945, 126.
70. Close, The Origins of the Greek Civil War, 170.
71. Iatrides, “George F. Kennan and the Birth of Containment,” 138.
72. Ibid.
73. TNA, CREST-CIA, Central Intelligence Group, “The Greek Situation,” 7 February 1947, 4.
74. Mazower, 7.
75. Koliopoulos and Veremis, Greece, The Modern Sequel, 89.
76. Ibid, 90.
77. See note 67.
78. Koliopoulos and Veremis, Greece, The Modern Sequel, 103.
79. TNA, RG 59 Box 7057, “Aide Memoire,” 21 February 1947 from the British Ambassador.
80. FRUS, 1947 Vol. III, The Acting Secretary of State (Acheson) to the Secretary of War (Patterson), 5 March 1947, 197. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1947v03/pg_197.
81. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization came into effect in 1949. Greece and Turkey joined as part of the first expansion in 1952.
82. President Harry S. Truman’s Address Before a Joint Session of Congress, 12 March 1947, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/trudoc.asp.
83. Close, The Origins of the Greek Civil War, 139.
84. Jeffrey, Ambiguous Commitments and Uncertain Policies, 286-8.
85. FRUS, Citation1947, The Near East and Africa, Vol. V, “Editorial Note,” 204.
86. TNA, RG 49: Box 7057, American Mission to Greece, “Monthly Historical Report,” August 1947, 9.
87. Ibid., 1-3.
88. Karlin, “Training and Equipping is Not Transforming,” 50.
89. TNA, CREST-CIA, ORE 51, “The Current Situation in Greece,” 20 October 1947, 4.
90. Ibid., 5.
91. TNA, RG 59: Box 7059, DoD “Directive Governing the Establishment and Operation of the Joint US Military Advisory and Planning Group in Greece, Forrestal to Marshall, 5 January 1948.
92. Karlin, “Training and Equipping is Not Transforming,” 58.
93. FRUS, 1948, Vol. IV, Memorandum by the Director of the Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs (Henderson) to the Secretary of State, 9 January 1948, 14.
94. Ibid., 9.
95. FRUS, 1948, Vol. IV, Memorandum from Griswold to Marshall, 14 January 1948, 29.
96. TNA, CREST-CIA, “Consequences of Certain Courses of Action With Respect to Greece,” 5 April 1948, 1.
97. Close, The Origins of the Greek Civil War, 209.
98. Ibid., 214.
99. O’Ballance, The Greek Civil War, 180.
100. Close and Veremis, 108.
101. TNA, CREST-CIA, ORE 51, “The Current Situation in Greece,” 20 October 1947, 5.
102. Close, The Origins of the Greek Civil War, 120.
103. Close, The Origins of the Greek Civil War, 217.
104. O’Ballance, The Greek Civil War, 186.
105. Close, The Origins of the Greek Civil War, 219.
106. O’Ballance, The Greek Civil War, 200.
107. Ibid., 201.
108. Gerolymatos, Red Acropolis, Black Terror, 196.
109. Ibid., 197.
110. Geronimakis, “Post-War Economic Growth in Greece, 1950-61,” 258.
111. Thomadakis, “The Greek Economy.”
112. Iatrides and Rizopoulos, “The International Dimension of the Greek Civil War,” 101.
113. Truman, Harry S. Truman, 461.
114. Gerolymatos, Red Acropolis, Black Terror, 231.
115. Ibid., 232.
116. Ibid.
117. Karlin, “Training and Equipping is Not Transforming,” 92.
118. Close, The Origins of the Greek Civil War, 11.