The Salonika Bay Murder. Cold War Politics and the Polk Affair (review)

254 Reviews syntagmatic structure. The relation consists of certain common elements of die syntagmatic chain that serve as joints. Cf. βάνει τις νιες για λεμονιÎ-Ï‚, τους νιουςγιακυπαϕίσσιαandκϕεμοϕνοινιεςταϕοϕχατουςκιοινÎ-οιτ'άϕματά τους. In my opinion, this array of distinctions usefully amplifies and refines the relations that may exist in oral verse between sense, metrics, phonology, and syntax. To these may be added a number of slighdy larger, primarily syntagmatic discriminations at a level that Sifakis labels "pattern." Briefly diese are parallelisms, tripartite and quadripartite figures that may structure just one line or a number of lines. Sifakis provocatively notes some of the points where types of formula seem to dovetail with larger patterns. An example would be that given at 5) above, which could equally be described as a parallel pattern. This convergence suggests something of the development of oral poetic grammar from small, primarily semantic units to broader syntactic patterns. Philologists concerned with the detailed study of the poetics of oral verse will find that this book offers them a well crafted tool enabling the pursuit of interconnections between various songs and between songs and texts such as Digenis Akritis, which may or may not have been composed orally. Charles Stewart Brunei University Edmund Keeley, The Salonika Bay Murder. Cold War Politks and the Polk Affair. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. 1989. Pp. xvii + 395. $45.00. Paperback edition with revised preface. 1990. Pp. xvii + 395. $12.95. Although there can be no doubt that Edmund Keeley's book is the most detailed and best informed on the Polk affair to date, it would be rash to regard it as the last word on its subject. No doubt the discussion will start again, this time on a much more solid basis than before. The facts of the case are in the book. Suffice it say here that the American journalist George Polk, who had declared his intention to find a contact to lead him to Markos Vafiádis, the Democratic Army chief, was found murdered in the Bay of Thessaloniki on 16 May 1948. Two well-known communists, Vangélis Vasvanás and Adam Mouzenidis, were found in absentia to be guilty of the murder, while a Greek journalist, Grigóris Stakhtópoulos, was sentenced to life imprisonment for having assisted the murderers. He was released in 1960, a broken man. After the restoration of parliamentary democracy in Greece, die official version of the case—already widely doubted—broke down. Stakhtópoulos' confession had been extracted under torture, and the whole edifice constructed by the Greek authorities was shown to have been a badly Reviews 255 executed frame-up. Widi painstaking detail Keeley now reveals the full story of a sinister conspiracy by Greek, American, and British authorities aided by a handful of top American journalists, including Walter Lippmann, and by General "Wild Bill" Donovan (of OSS and CIA fame), who had headed an independent investigation on behalf of Polk's colleagues. Keeley also shows that James Kellis, Donovan's assistant, was not recalled because he doubted the official truth; on the contrary, he was pardy responsible for Stakhtópoulos being singled out. The important role of former FBI agent Frederick Ayer is also particularly well documented. Keeley does not attempt to identify the murderer(s). What he proves convincingly from the documentary evidence now available is the frame-up and the collusion of those involved in the official investigation and trial. His verdict is especially hard on Polk's colleagues, who chose to close their eyes to the glaring inconsistencies and implausibilities in the official explanation; indeed, his story shows the corrupting influence of Cold War psychosis on the entire "Fourth Estate." For this reason the book should have an appeal beyond the narrow area of Greek affairs. I would like to suggest a few approaches that might prove useful in further debate. One of the most promising is the British factor. Further investigation is needed, for example, regarding the alleged admission by British information service officer Randall Coate that he was the last foreigner to see Polk alive. Then there is the KKE angle. Since (a) Keeley has not proved that the murder was perpetrated by the extreme right, and since (b) some people may still think...