“A historic sham”: Zelensky’s speech to Greece’s parliament sparks national outrage, opens WWII-era wounds
By inviting an Azov fighter to address Greece’s parliament, Zelensky opened the country’s historic wounds and triggered angry demonstrations that have shaken its pro-US government.
by TJ Coles
Part 3 - “America is an elephant, Cyprus is a flea. Greece is a flea.”
In 1953, the CIA laid the foundation for Greece’s National Intelligence Service, the KYP, furnishing the outfit with computer-style technology to track the population. The KYP was so cozy with the CIA that the future CIA station chief in Athens, James M. Potts, referred to the Greek intelligence liaison, Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos, as “my son.”
Next, the CIA launched Operation (Red) Sheepskin, a subversive operation initiated through a mutual cooperation agreement between US General Lucian Truscott and his counterpart, Chief of Staff Konstantinos Davos. Over the course of a decade, Sheepskin and the KYP provided weapons and guerrilla warfare training to stay-behind rightist cells to pave the way for the coup that brought a military junta to power in April 1967.
Next, the CIA launched Operation (Red) Sheepskin, a subversive operation initiated through a mutual cooperation agreement between US General Lucian Truscott and his counterpart, Chief of Staff Konstantinos Davos. Over the course of a decade, Sheepskin and the KYP provided weapons and guerrilla warfare training to stay-behind rightist cells to pave the way for the coup that brought a military junta to power in April 1967.
“Greece is important to the United States because of its strategic location, its proximity both to the Soviet Bloc and to the Near East,” says a National Security Council (NSC) report from 1957. Also important is “its membership in NATO, and its ties to Yugoslavia through the Balkan Pact … Greece forms a land barrier to Soviet access to the Mediterranean.”
While granting the US and NATO basing rights, Greece was spending a third of its national budget on militarism. From the end of the war until 1958, US taxpayers had invested a whopping $1.1 billion to supply Greece with arms – around $11 billion in today’s money.
While granting the US and NATO basing rights, Greece was spending a third of its national budget on militarism. From the end of the war until 1958, US taxpayers had invested a whopping $1.1 billion to supply Greece with arms – around $11 billion in today’s money.
Under the NSC doctrine, the Greek Armed Forces were modernized with units inspired by the US Delta Force and the British Special Air Service. Daniele Ganser’s unparalleled history of NATO’s secret armies documents how, under the command of Field Marshall Alexander Papagos, the Hellenic Raiding Force (LOK, mentioned above) worked with the CIA to clear a path for NATO’s enduring presence in Greece.
Cyprus became a crucial issue. Given its close proximity to the Middle East, the US and Britain also used the island as a base. Turkey, a US ally whose population also suffered from clandestine NATO operations, lay claim to Cyprus. The Lyndon Johnson administration proposed splitting Cyprus to appease the Greeks and Turks. When the Greek poet and diplomat, Alexander Matsas, objected, Johnson infamously replied: “Fuck your parliament and your constitution. America is an elephant, Cyprus is a flea. Greece is a flea. If those two fellows continue itching the elephant, they just may get whacked.”
Three years later in 1967, Greek elites were paralyzed by worker strikes, averaging 24 per month. Four weeks before the presumed center-left political victory, LOK implemented NATO’s Plan Prometheus II: the rounding up of suspected communists culminating in the Generals’ Coup.
Three years later in 1967, Greek elites were paralyzed by worker strikes, averaging 24 per month. Four weeks before the presumed center-left political victory, LOK implemented NATO’s Plan Prometheus II: the rounding up of suspected communists culminating in the Generals’ Coup.
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