The Colonels' Coup and the American Embassy: A Diplomat's View of the Breakdown of Democracy in Cold War Greece

Part Seven: Dealing with the New Government

Seven DEALING WITH THE NEW GOVERNMENT A CALL ON KOLLIAS With John Day in Washington attempting to explain things to Rockwell and Brewster, it fell to me to accompany the ambassador (at his request) on his first formal call on Prime Minister Constantine Kollias on the morning of Wednesday, April 26. Because the king had attended the swearing in of the new cabinet and been photographed with them, Washington had apparently accepted the inevitable and decided to carry on more or less normal relations with the coup regime. It pretended that no gesture of recognition was needed, as the king still sat on his throne and the ambassador was accredited to the king. Because my spoken Greek was not yet adequate to fulfill the role of official interpreter (although I had no difficulty in following the Greek side of the conversation), we took along Stephen Calligas, the Embassy’s longestserving local employee. Prior to and even after the McCarthy period and its resultant paranoia about security, Calligas served as interpreter for a succession of American ambassadors in Athens for their most sensitive conversations with Greek leaders. Stephen was the proverbial soul of discretion; had anyone ever accused him of repeating an embassy secret, even to his wife, he would have fainted dead away and gone straight to the corner of heaven reserved for loyal local employees of American embassies. As it turned out, Stephen did not do the interpreting that day, for Prime Minister Kollias had with him his own quite competent man. While I sat poised to take notes, Ambassador Talbot and Kollias exchanged the usual stiff pleasantries indulged in by two personalities conscious of their roles but lacking any human content in their mutual relations. They had met only once before that day, a brief encounter on the evening after the coup. The amenities completed, Kollias turned to business. Sober of mien, he asked the ambassador if it was true that the American Sixth Fleet was on its way to Phaleron Bay. No, replied Talbot, not so far as he knew; in some perplexity, he asked why the prime minister wished to know. Because, said Kollias, a rumor was circulating in Athens that the American Sixth Fleet was on its way to Piraeus and on arrival would order the resignation of the government headed by Mr. Kollias. With his somewhat inexpressive smile, Talbot responded that this rumor was of course ridiculous. Regardless of where the Sixth Fleet was at that moment, which he did not know, it was not going to intervene in Greek internal affairs, and the prime minister could rest assured that there was nothing at all to this story. Visibly relieved, Kollias relaxed. Only when the tenseness went out of his body could one see how much his hands, clasped on his desk in front of him, were shaking. ‘‘Excellency,’’ he said, ‘‘would you be willing to issue a denial of this rumor in the name of your embassy?’’ Thinking quickly and most adroitly, Talbot replied, ‘‘Mr. Prime Minister, you know as well as I do that there are a great many rumors circulating in Athens these days, more than the usual number. If I started issuing denials of rumors, there would be no end to it, and the rumor that would then be believed would be the one that I had not heard about and had therefore not been able to deny. That is a losing proposition, Mr. Prime Minister, I assure you.’’ ‘‘I can see your point,’’ responded Kollias. ‘‘But would you have any objection if I issued a denial?’’ ‘‘None at all,’’ said Talbot, ‘‘but I think the same strictures would apply in your case. And you might just give it more currency by denying it.’’ Kollias said he understood the ambassador’s point quite well, but the situation he had to cope with was that a large group of people at that very moment were standing on the broad sandy beach at Phaleron Bay, some with binoculars, waiting for the fleet to come in to depose the government. And according to the rumor, these people were preparing to guide our marines up the hill to the Parliament Building, where the prime minister and the ambassador were meeting. The ambassador, he added, could understand what anxieties such a situation might give rise to, even if it had no basis in fact. a call on kollias 119 The...