July+1965

Home February 1964 July 1965 Methods of Torture Greece 1967 CIA Coup (Involvement in Greece)

George Papandreou was pushed out of office by royal prerogative and King Constantine II due to some dissagreements and the King discovered a plot by Papandreou that said that he would take over the Kings seat. The king had a coalition of breakaway Center Union Deputies (who were mostly composed of rightists to counterattack Papandreou's radical ways) to come in and form a new government. It was later revealed that CIA agent John Maury part of the CIA Coup (Involvement in Greece), helped form the CUD and topple Papandreou's government. After he was removed many rivals of George were worried about his less radical son Andreas Papandreou, who had been a minister in his father's cabinet and was destined for a leading role in the new government. He publicly questioned the wisdom of the country remaining in NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), or at least remaining in. Andreas was contemplating on opening relations with the Soviet Union and other Communist countries on Greece's border. But Andreaus was just a talker and never really pulled through with some of the things he said like pulling US bases out of Greece. This made Pres. Lyndon Johnson very unhappy because you had to be totally on Pres. Johnson's side. LBJ responded by "We gave the son of a bitch American citizenship, didn't we? He was an American, with all the rights and privileges. And he had sworn allegiance to the flag. And then he gave up his American citizenship. He went back to just being a Greek. You can't trust a man who breaks his oath of allegiance to the flag of these United States." It was later revealed that Andreas Papandreou was reported to have worked with the CIA in the early 1960s. Of course Andreas questioned the publication and said that is was false. Elder Papandreou made many speeches around the country to get moral up for the next election and he was favored to win. The election never happened and he was sent to house arrest. George was pressured by the US but did not give in. He talked with the Soviets on a possible war with Turkey which made the US question him. This was an attempt by Papandreou to "heal the wounds from the earlier civil war". Andreas Papandreau after being exhiled, assumed his duties (later became PM) in 1964 and finally realized fact of life for every techno-industrial state in the world: an intelligence service gone wild, a shadow government with powers beyond the control of the nation's nominal leaders. The Government had many diffaculties and obstacles trying to carry out Andreas policies.

(//Third World Traveler: Greece 1964-1967 by William Blum//. http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/Greece_KH.html ) //(History of Greece:George and Andreas Papandreou by Dmitri Kessel// http://www.ahistoryofgreece.com/biography/index.html )