Greek–Soviet relations 1959–1962: the Greek response to the Kremlin's challenge

Abstract

In 1959–62, relations between Greece and the USSR entered a new phase. The tactics of the Soviet Union regarding Cyprus in 1955–9 did not pay off, as the rift between Greece, Turkey, and NATO was largely bridged in the aftermath of the 1959 Cyprus agreements. However, the search for a Cold War détente engendered pervasive insecurity in a frontline state like Greece, always afraid that its larger allies might abandon it. Nuclear intimidation, Greek anti-communism on the one hand; on the other, the impressive development of trade relations, created a complex environment. This article, based on the archives of the Greek Foreign Ministry, and the personal archive of the Greek prime minister, Constantine Karamanlis, discusses Athens’ response to the new Soviet policy.

‘The English despot’: Francis Noel-Baker and his support for the Colonels’ regime

“…88 In the late 1950s and early 1960s, democratically elected Greek governments had been pleased to promote what Argyrios Tasoulas has recently characterised as the 'spectacular development of trade relations with the Soviet Union and the Soviet bloc'; but, equally, due to worries about the political Left at home, 'Athens was determined to keep the Soviets at arm's length as far as political relations were concerned.' 89 Over a period of just a few years, the wall had severed Berlin, crises had erupted in Cuba and the Congo, and Khrushchev had outraged Greeks by his response in the affirmative when asked whether using nuclear weapons against military targets meant he was prepared to destroy the Acropolis as collateral damage. 90 As a result, Gonda Van Steen has argued, 'Greece of the 1950s through to the early 1960s may be characterized as a police state that virulently persecuted communists.'…”