Word: junta
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Brig. Gen. Stylianos Pattakos Minister of the Interior The Greeks are behaving themselves all right, but what Greek can be happy if he never does silly things? After its first 100 days in power, the junta that took over Greece in a lightning coup has restored order to a country that was torn by political strife. It has done so at the expense of much of Greece's exuberant, explosive spirit. The image of a surtaki-dancing, owzo-glass-smashing people is being replaced by that of a docile folk whose chief concern seems to be getting to church...
Down with Who's Who. Special military courts-martial have been set up all over the country to punish Greeks who offend against king, church or junta. In Athens a worker was sentenced to one year in prison for "behaving like a Teddy boy," a tradesman to six months for "disobedience to authorities." Mikis Theodorakis, the noted leftist musician who composed the score for the film Zorba the Greek, last week was sentenced in absentia to 5? months in prison for offending the honor of the royal family. An estimated 150 to 200 Greeks are already behind bars...
Ever since the coup overthrew the constitutional government shortly before the Greek national election campaign was to begin, the State Department has refused to apply pressure forcefully or openly for a restoration. The junta, with complete control of the Greek news media, has led both the literate urbanites and the rural people to believe that the U.S. was--and remains--solidly behind the junta. No matter what Secretary McNamara or Ambassador Phillips Talbot may tell the Greek diplomats in private, it comes back to the Greek citizenry in only one way: "approval...
...crucial materials which must be withheld in order to pressure the regime into calling elections. Opponents of a serious cutoff (Talbot is among them) offer three basic arguments; it could weaken the Greek defense, and hence, NATO; it could lead to civil war; and it is unnecessary since the junta is already moving to wards a new constitution...
...contention that the fall of the junta might lead to civil war is partially valid--it might. But to strengthen the present dictatorship with military aid in the name of stability would be morally unjustified and would also lead to a more bitter reaction from the people. The political polarization would be far greater than in 1965, when a large majority of the electorate bitterly opposed the King after he had dismissed Prime Minister George Papandreou...