At the apex of international Cold War tension, an alliance of Greek military leaders seized power in Athens. Seven years of violent political repression followed in Greece, yet as Cold War allies, the Greek colonels had continued international support- especially from Britain. Why did successive governments, those of Harold Wilson and Edward Heath, choose to pursue an alliance with these military dictators? Alexandros Nafpliotis' book examines British foreign policy towards Greece, exposing a guiding principle of pragmatism above all else. This is the first systematic study of Britain and the Greek military Junta of the early 1970s to be based on newly released National Archive documents, US and Greek sources and personal interviews with leading actors. Comparing and contrasting the attitudes of both Labour and Conservative governments towards the Junta in Greece, Nafpliotis outlines a great degree of continuity, as well as showing where and how moral and public relations issues were overcome in order to facilitate a close relationship with the colonels. 'Britain and the Greek Colonels' is a comprehensive history of international diplomacy and realpolitik in the Cold War period and will be essential reading for students and scholars of Cold War history, the history of modern Greece and International Relations.

The so-called Colonels&’ coup of April 21, 1967, was a major event in the history of the Cold War, ushering in a seven-year period of military rule in Greece. In the wake of the coup, some eight thousand people affiliated with the Communist Party were rounded up, and Greece became yet another country where the fear of Communism led the United States into alliance with a repressive right-wing authoritarian regime. In military coups in some other countries, it is known that the CIA and other agencies of the U.S. government played an active role in encouraging and facilitating the takeover. The Colonels&’ coup, however, came as a surprise to the United States (which was expecting a Generals&’ coup instead). Yet the U.S. government accepted it after the fact, despite internal disputes within policymaking circles about the wisdom of accommodating the upstart Papadopoulos regime. Among the dissenters was Robert Keeley, then serving in the U.S. Embassy in Greece. This is his insider&’s account of how U.S. policy was formulated, debated, and implemented during the critical years 1966 to 1969 in Greek-U.S. relations.

The long history of Anglo-Greek relations has deservedly attracted much attention. One of its most controversial -- yet least explored -- phases was that spanning the Greek Colonels' seven-year military junta, from 1967-74. Drawing on a corpus of diverse, original and largely primary material, Maragkou provides the first comprehensive analysis of British policy towards Greece during this tumultuous era. Not only does she contribute to the historiography of Anglo- Greek relations, but her book also serves as a case study of British foreign policy within the Cold War. And by demonstrating that national history can be best understood by analyzing the relationship between a nation state and factors beyond its control, the conclusions drawn can be applied beyond the strictly regional or the exclusively bi-lateral, as they also fit into a transnational paradigm. It was in the 1960s when what we now term 'globalization' was in full swing. Henceforward, no nation -- and no foreign office -- was an island: it was part of a whole, in which both state and non-state actors internationally played their part in the evolution of thinking on foreign affairs. Here is the key to understanding the tortuous history of Britain and the Greek Colonels -- one that has many echoes in our own time.

When in 1821, the Greeks rose in violent revolution against the rule of the Ottoman Turks, waves of sympathy spread across Western Europe and the United States. More than a thousand volunteers set out to fight for the cause. The Philhellenes, whether they set out to recreate the Athens of Pericles, start a new crusade, or make money out of a war, all felt that Greece had unique claim on the sympathy of the world. As Byron wrote, 'I dreamed that Greece might Still be Free'; and he died at Missolonghi trying to translate that dream into reality. William St Clair's meticulously researched and highly readable account of their aspirations and experiences was hailed as definitive when it was first published. Long out of print, it remains the standard account of the Philhellenic movement and essential reading for any students of the Greek War of Independence, Byron, and European Romanticism. Its relevance to more modern ethnic and religious conflicts is becoming increasingly appreciated by scholars worldwide. This new and revised edition includes a new Introduction by Roderick Beaton, an updated Bibliography and many new illustrations.

"At the apex of international Cold War tension, an alliance of Greek military leaders seized power in Athens. Seven years of violent political repression followed in Greece, yet as Cold War allies, the Greek colonels had continued international support- especially from Britain. Why did successive governments, those of Harold Wilson and Edward Heath, choose to pursue an alliance with these military dictators? Alexandros Nafpliotis' book examines British foreign policy towards Greece, exposing a guiding principle of pragmatism above all else. This is the first systematic study of Britain and the Greek military Junta of the early 1970s to be based on newly released National Archive documents, US and Greek sources and personal interviews with leading actors. Comparing and contrasting the attitudes of both Labour and Conservative governments towards the Junta in Greece, Nafpliotis outlines a great degree of continuity, as well as showing where and how moral and public relations issues were overcome in order to facilitate a close relationship with the colonels. 'Britain and the Greek Colonels' is a comprehensive history of international diplomacy and realpolitik in the Cold War period and will be essential reading for students and scholars of Cold War history, the history of modern Greece and International Relations."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

Putting Greece back on the cultural and political map of the “Long 1960s,” this book traces the dissent and activism of anti-regime students during the dictatorship of the Colonels (1967-74). It explores the cultural as well as ideological protest of Greek student activists, illustrating how these “children of the dictatorship” managed to re-appropriate indigenous folk tradition for their “progressive” purposes and how their transnational exchange molded a particular local protest culture. It examines how the students’ social and political practices became a major source of pressure on the Colonels’ regime, finding its apogee in the three day Polytechnic uprising of November 1973 which laid the foundations for a total reshaping of Greek political culture in the following decades.

The complicated and dramatic course of the Civil War in Greece had, for lack of parties interested in reconstructing the truth of its events, never been narrated prior to the appearance of this volume. It closed a gap in the history of our times, and did so with thoroughness and vivid journalistic immediacy. In addition to the known sources and unpublished documents, the author relied on testimony painstakingly collected from survivors of the tragedy who were scattered throughout the world. It remains the authoritative account of the kapetanios, the guerrilla chiefs who organized the partisans in the Greek mountains.