Greece Under the Junta

Several weeks ago the Prime Minister of Greece invited me to visit his country and observe at first hand the conditions of life under the military junta that seized power on April 21, 1967. Accordingly in mid-April I spent a week in and around Athens, meeting with government officials, interviewing Athenian citizens, observing as much as possible of what seemed meaningful, and happily renewing friendships that go back to 1952 when I had the honor of flying in Korea alongside a detachment of the Royal Hellenic Air Force.

I have before me as I write this a newsletter from the U.S. Committee for Democracy in Greece. Prominent members of the Committee are Francis Biddle, Melina Mercouri, Rep. Don Edwards, Victor Reuther, and Michael Straight. The newsletter begins: “For the first time since World War II, a pro-Western European nation has fallen to a military dictatorship. Every free institution in Greece has been abolished. Thousands of men and women are in jail or concentration camps for their political beliefs alone. It has been documented that revolting torture is used to extract confessions. Greek schools, courts, churches, unions, communications media, the civil service, all branches oi the armed services, have been stripped of their democratically elected leaders or officers, and replaced with agents servile to the junta. Among mayors and city councilmen alone, the total purged is in the tens of thousands. Secret arrests and incarceration without charge or trial continue daily.” The newsletter is dated March 1968.

WR

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William F. Rickenbacker

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Several weeks ago the Prime Minister of Greece invited me to visit his country and observe at first hand the conditions of life under the military junta that seized power on April 21, 1967. Accordingly in mid-April I spent a week in and around Athens, meeting with government officials, interviewing Athenian citizens, observing as much as possible of what seemed meaningful, and happily renewing friendships that go back to 1952 when I had the honor of flying in Korea alongside a detachment of the Royal Hellenic Air Force.

I have before me as I write this a newsletter from the U.S. Committee for Democracy in Greece. Prominent members of the Committee are Francis Biddle, Melina Mercouri, Rep. Don Edwards, Victor Reuther, and Michael Straight. The newsletter begins: “For the first time since World War II, a pro-Western European nation has fallen to a military dictatorship. Every free institution in Greece has been abolished. Thousands of men and women are in jail or concentration camps for their political beliefs alone. It has been documented that revolting torture is used to extract confessions. Greek schools, courts, churches, unions, communications media, the civil service, all branches oi the armed services, have been stripped of their democratically elected leaders or officers, and replaced with agents servile to the junta. Among mayors and city councilmen alone, the total purged is in the tens of thousands. Secret arrests and incarceration without charge or trial continue daily.” The newsletter is dated March 1968.