Word: greek
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Unlike such dynasties as the Windsors in Britain and the Bernadotte kings of Sweden, Greek kings in this century have never been content to reign as figureheads; they like to rule too. Resentment over the Greek King's penchant for mixing in politics boiled over at the start of World War I, when the first Constantine exerted his influence on behalf of Greek neutrality. Constantine was forced into exile by a Cretan political wizard named Eleutherios Venizelos, and the feud went on for decades. The monarchy's popularity plummeted even further when George II backed the military dictatorship of General...
...times of trouble, Greeks have always looked to their king for spiritual unity. Such was the case after World War II, when the country faced economic ruin and a bloody civil war between the Greek government and Communist guerrillas supplied from neighboring Red-ruled countries. Greeks voted 2 to 1 in a plebiscite to call back George II from his wartime exile in London and to restore his throne. Though George died in 1947, his brother Paul, who succeeded him, traveled the breadth of the peninsula with his German-born wife Frederika, rallying support for the government. They went...
...considerable toughness. He decided that his job was not for a puppet or a figurehead, and that he would have to reign as his family had before him?within the constitutional rights of the monarchy but with the strength and determination of a modern king. In fact, the Greek King has considerably more constitutional powers than most kings. He is the supreme authority of the state and commander in chief of the armed forces, concludes treaties and declares war, convokes and dissolves Parliament and appoints and dismisses ministers...
...downfall of the conservative government of Constantine Karamanlis, who brought considerable stability to Greece for eight years even though his foes claimed that his elections were shams. A sweeping electoral victory in 1964 brought to power George Papandreou, the velvet-tongued leftist who has carved his image in Greek political life for a half century...
Papandreou's Center Union Party won an unprecedented 53% of the vote in national elections and carried 171 seats in the 300-seat Greek Parliament. Greece seemed about to enter another period of stable government under the new Premier. But no sooner had he taken over than Papandreou started a mass transfer of pro-palace military officers to the hinterlands, shuffling off no fewer than 2,350 officers to outlying districts away from the army nerve centers in the cities. Since the King must turn to the army when in trouble, Constantine did not like to see his loyal officers...