"A gift from God": Anglo-Greek relations during the dictatorship of the Greek colonels
Published:
Dec 5, 2014
Keywords:
Greek junta Greek Colonels Anglo-greek relations Greek foreign policy UK foreign policy Britain
Abstract
The focus of this article is an analysis of the Greek junta’s relations with the Wilson and Heath governments in the United Kingdom from 1967 to 1974. Emphasis is placed on diplomatic relations between the two traditional allies. The reactions of the military leaders of the regime in Athens and its representatives in Britain to policies pursued by London towards the establishment, consolidation and eventual demise of the colonels’ dictatorship are presented through the examination (for the first time) of official documents from both the UK and Greece. It is argued that the Greek military regime struggled to cultivate relations with Britain primarily for reasons of domestic and international prestige. Whereas Whitehall pursued a policy of “good working relations” with the junta in order to promote British interests vis-à-vis NATO, Cyprus and trade, the leadership in Athens was solely interested in using British support to gain legitimacy internationally and domestically.
Article Details
- How to Cite
-
Nafpliotis, A. (2014). "A gift from God": Anglo-Greek relations during the dictatorship of the Greek colonels. The Historical Review/La Revue Historique, 11, 67–104. https://doi.org/10.12681/hr.329
- Section
- Special Section
The copyright for articles in this journal is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. By virtue of their appearance in this open access journal, articles are free to use with proper attribution in educational and other non-commercial sectors. The Historical Review/La Revue Historique retains the right to publish papers that appear in the journal in collective volumes published by the Institute for Neohellenic Research/National Hellenic Research Foundation.
Sample acknowledgement: Reprinted with permission from the author. Original publication in the The Historical Review/La Revue Historique www.historicalreview.org
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Greece License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA
Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
References
Carl Barkman, Ambassador in Athens, London: Merlin Press, 1989
James Callaghan, Time and Chance, London 1987
David Childs, Britain since 1945: A Political History, London 2001
Stan Draenos, Andreas Papandreou: The Making of a Greek Democrat and Political Maverick, London and New York 2012
G. Helmis, Ταραγμένη διετία, 1973-1974 [The Troubled Two-year Period, 1973-1974], Athens 2006
William Mallinson, Cyprus: Diplomatic History and the Clash of Theory in International Relations, London and New York 2010
William Mallinson, Britain and Cyprus: Key Themes and Documents since World War II, London and New York 2011
Spyros Markezinis, Σύγχρονη πολιτική ιστορία της Ελλάδος, III: 1952-1975 [Contemporary political history of Greece, III: 1952-1975], Athens 1994
J. Meynaud, Οι πολιτικές δυνάμεις στην Ελλάδα [The political forces in Greece], Vol. II, Athens 2002
Alexandros Nafpliotis, “The 1971 Reestablishment of Diplomatic Relations between Greece and Albania: Cooperation and Strategic Partnership within Cold War Bipolarity?”, in O. Anastasakis, D. Bechev and N. Vrousalis (eds), Greece in the Balkans: Memory, Conflict and Exchange, Newcastle 2009
Alexandros Nafpliotis, Britain and the Greek Colonels: Accommodating the Junta in the Cold War, London and New York 2012
Alexandros Nafpliotis, “Οι αετοί, το λιοντάρι, το σφυροδρέπανο και ο φοίνικας. Οι εξωτερικές σχέσεις της Ελλάδας αμέσως πριν και κατά τη διάρκεια της δικτατορίας των συνταγματαρχών” [The eagles, the lion, the hammer and sickle and the phoenix: Greece’s foreign relations immediately before and during the colonels’ dictatorship], Μνήμων 33 (2013-2014)
Andreas Papandreou, Η Δημοκρατία στο απόσπασμα [Democracy at gunpoint], Athens 2006
Ilse Dorothee Pautsch, Jürgen Klöckler and Harald Rosenbach, 1967. Akten zur Auswärtigen Politik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Berlin and Boston 2013
Effie G. H. Pedaliu, “Fault Lines in the Post-War Mediterranean and the ‘Birth of Southern Europe’, 1945-1979: An Overview”, in E. Calandri, D. Caviglia and A. Varsori (eds), Detente in Cold War Europe: Politics and Diplomacy in the Mediterranean and the Middle East, London and New York 2014
Vassilis Pesmazoglu, “Ελληνική δικτατορία (1967-1974) και ΕΟΚ. Οικονομία, πολιτική, ιδεολογία” [The Greek dictatorship (1967-1974) and the EEC: Economics, politics, ideology], in G. Athanasatou et al., Η δικτατορία, 1967-1974. Πολιτικές πρακτικές – ιδεολογικός λόγος – αντίσταση [The dictatorship, 1967-1974: Politics – ideology – resistance], Athens 1999
Stavros P. Psycharis, Τα παρασκήνια της αλλαγής. Ιούλιος 1974 [Behind the scenes of the change: July 1974], Athens 2013 [1974].
Sotiris Rizas, “Εξωτερική πολιτική και Κυπριακό” [Foreign policy and the Cyprus Question], in V. Karamanolakis (ed.), Η στρατιωτική δικτατορία, 1967-1974 [The military dictatorship, 1967-1974], Athens 2010
Sotiris Rizas, Η Ελλάδα, οι Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες και η Ευρώπη, 1961-1964 [Greece, the US and Europe, 1961-1964], Athens, 2001
Sotiris Rizas, Η ελληνική πολιτική μετά τον Εμφύλιο Πόλεμο [Greek politics after the Civil War], Athens 2008
Sotiris Rizas, Οι Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες, η δικτατορία των συνταγματαρχών και το Κυπριακό ζήτημα, 1967-1974 [The United States, the dictatorship of the colonels and the Cyprus Question, 1967-1974], Athens 2002
A. Shlaim, P. Jones and K. Sainsbury, British Foreign Secretaries since 1945, London 1977
C. Svolopoulos, Η ελληνική εξωτερική πολιτική, 1945-1981 [Greek foreign policy, 1945-1981], Athens 2001
C. Svolopoulos (ed.), Κωνσταντίνος Καραμανλής. Αρχείο, γεγονότα και κείμενα [Constantinos Karamanlis: Archive, facts and texts], Vol. VI, Athens 1995
Ioannis Varvitsiotis, Όπως τα έζησα, 1961-1981 [The way I experienced events, 1961-1981], Athens 2012
Sotiris Walldén, Παράταιροι εταίροι: Ελληνική δικτατορία, κομμουνιστικά καθεστώτα και Βαλκάνια, 1967-1974 [Unseemly partners: Greek dictatorship, communist regimes and the Balkans, 1967-1974], Athens 2009
H. Wilson, Final Term: The Labour Government, 1974-1976, London 1979
H. Wilson, The Labour Government, 1964-70: A Personal Record, London 1971
C. M. Woodhouse, Modern Greece: A Short History, London 2000
C. M. Woodhouse, The Rise and Fall of the Greek Colonels, London 1985
John W. Young, “The Diary of Michael Stewart as British Foreign Secretary, April-May 1968”, Contemporary British History 19/4 (2005)
James Callaghan, Time and Chance, London 1987
David Childs, Britain since 1945: A Political History, London 2001
Stan Draenos, Andreas Papandreou: The Making of a Greek Democrat and Political Maverick, London and New York 2012
G. Helmis, Ταραγμένη διετία, 1973-1974 [The Troubled Two-year Period, 1973-1974], Athens 2006
William Mallinson, Cyprus: Diplomatic History and the Clash of Theory in International Relations, London and New York 2010
William Mallinson, Britain and Cyprus: Key Themes and Documents since World War II, London and New York 2011
Spyros Markezinis, Σύγχρονη πολιτική ιστορία της Ελλάδος, III: 1952-1975 [Contemporary political history of Greece, III: 1952-1975], Athens 1994
J. Meynaud, Οι πολιτικές δυνάμεις στην Ελλάδα [The political forces in Greece], Vol. II, Athens 2002
Alexandros Nafpliotis, “The 1971 Reestablishment of Diplomatic Relations between Greece and Albania: Cooperation and Strategic Partnership within Cold War Bipolarity?”, in O. Anastasakis, D. Bechev and N. Vrousalis (eds), Greece in the Balkans: Memory, Conflict and Exchange, Newcastle 2009
Alexandros Nafpliotis, Britain and the Greek Colonels: Accommodating the Junta in the Cold War, London and New York 2012
Alexandros Nafpliotis, “Οι αετοί, το λιοντάρι, το σφυροδρέπανο και ο φοίνικας. Οι εξωτερικές σχέσεις της Ελλάδας αμέσως πριν και κατά τη διάρκεια της δικτατορίας των συνταγματαρχών” [The eagles, the lion, the hammer and sickle and the phoenix: Greece’s foreign relations immediately before and during the colonels’ dictatorship], Μνήμων 33 (2013-2014)
Andreas Papandreou, Η Δημοκρατία στο απόσπασμα [Democracy at gunpoint], Athens 2006
Ilse Dorothee Pautsch, Jürgen Klöckler and Harald Rosenbach, 1967. Akten zur Auswärtigen Politik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Berlin and Boston 2013
Effie G. H. Pedaliu, “Fault Lines in the Post-War Mediterranean and the ‘Birth of Southern Europe’, 1945-1979: An Overview”, in E. Calandri, D. Caviglia and A. Varsori (eds), Detente in Cold War Europe: Politics and Diplomacy in the Mediterranean and the Middle East, London and New York 2014
Vassilis Pesmazoglu, “Ελληνική δικτατορία (1967-1974) και ΕΟΚ. Οικονομία, πολιτική, ιδεολογία” [The Greek dictatorship (1967-1974) and the EEC: Economics, politics, ideology], in G. Athanasatou et al., Η δικτατορία, 1967-1974. Πολιτικές πρακτικές – ιδεολογικός λόγος – αντίσταση [The dictatorship, 1967-1974: Politics – ideology – resistance], Athens 1999
Stavros P. Psycharis, Τα παρασκήνια της αλλαγής. Ιούλιος 1974 [Behind the scenes of the change: July 1974], Athens 2013 [1974].
Sotiris Rizas, “Εξωτερική πολιτική και Κυπριακό” [Foreign policy and the Cyprus Question], in V. Karamanolakis (ed.), Η στρατιωτική δικτατορία, 1967-1974 [The military dictatorship, 1967-1974], Athens 2010
Sotiris Rizas, Η Ελλάδα, οι Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες και η Ευρώπη, 1961-1964 [Greece, the US and Europe, 1961-1964], Athens, 2001
Sotiris Rizas, Η ελληνική πολιτική μετά τον Εμφύλιο Πόλεμο [Greek politics after the Civil War], Athens 2008
Sotiris Rizas, Οι Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες, η δικτατορία των συνταγματαρχών και το Κυπριακό ζήτημα, 1967-1974 [The United States, the dictatorship of the colonels and the Cyprus Question, 1967-1974], Athens 2002
A. Shlaim, P. Jones and K. Sainsbury, British Foreign Secretaries since 1945, London 1977
C. Svolopoulos, Η ελληνική εξωτερική πολιτική, 1945-1981 [Greek foreign policy, 1945-1981], Athens 2001
C. Svolopoulos (ed.), Κωνσταντίνος Καραμανλής. Αρχείο, γεγονότα και κείμενα [Constantinos Karamanlis: Archive, facts and texts], Vol. VI, Athens 1995
Ioannis Varvitsiotis, Όπως τα έζησα, 1961-1981 [The way I experienced events, 1961-1981], Athens 2012
Sotiris Walldén, Παράταιροι εταίροι: Ελληνική δικτατορία, κομμουνιστικά καθεστώτα και Βαλκάνια, 1967-1974 [Unseemly partners: Greek dictatorship, communist regimes and the Balkans, 1967-1974], Athens 2009
H. Wilson, Final Term: The Labour Government, 1974-1976, London 1979
H. Wilson, The Labour Government, 1964-70: A Personal Record, London 1971
C. M. Woodhouse, Modern Greece: A Short History, London 2000
C. M. Woodhouse, The Rise and Fall of the Greek Colonels, London 1985
John W. Young, “The Diary of Michael Stewart as British Foreign Secretary, April-May 1968”, Contemporary British History 19/4 (2005)
