The Foreign Service Journal, June 2011

Caught Off Guard The Colonels’ Coup and the American Embassy: A Diplomat’s View of the Breakdown of Democracy in Cold War Greece Robert V. Keeley, The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2011, $74.95 (hardback), $55.01 (paperback), 306 pages. R EVIEWED BY P ATRICIA H. K USHLIS On April 21, 1967, a tight-knit group of shadowy colonels staged a coup d’état that set Greek democracy back seven years. In this memoir, re- tired FSORobert Keeley describes the coup from the vantage point of a mid- level political officer trying to keep up with a rapidly unfolding and confusing situation, while offering his own pre- scriptions for U.S. policy — none of which, he admits, were followed. This book is the first public account of the coup by a knowledgeable em- bassy insider. As such, it fills in several blanks in the history of Greek-Ameri- can relations. For instance, Washing- ton has often been accused of com- plicity in bringing about the coup, but Keeley persuasively debunks these claims. (An official who had been deputy Central Intelligence Agency station chief at the U.S. embassy in Athens told me the same in a 1971 in- terview for my dissertation research on Greek politics.) Keeley confirms that Embassy Athens had known about a potential generals’ coup planned for later in the month, but had no advance knowledge of the actions of these mid-level mili- tary intelligence officers. (The CIA did have an informant among the colonels, but this individual had stopped passing information two months before the coup.) He also tells us that embassy offi- cers had scant contact with the leaders of the country’s political opposition, led by the Center Union Party, before the coup. Nevertheless, it had long been obvious that the center would win the 1967 elections if they occurred. The problem was that the embassy had become so vested in the ruling po- litical right that it failed to expand its network of local contacts to be able to predict, let alone adjust to, the coming sea change. For example, Keeley met Center Union heir-apparent Andreas Papandreou through a friendship that had developed between their wives, but he had not known Papandreou well. Nor did his embassy superiors encourage him to cultivate the rela- tionship. If Keeley’s version of events is cor- rect — and I take him at his word — the embassy dropped the ball badly. Above all, State Foreign Service offi- cers should have been encouraged to develop contacts with Greeks across the political spectrum, not discouraged from doing so. Such outreach is cru- cial in volatile countries — and Greek politics are almost always volatile. Valuable as The Colonels’ Coup is in many ways, it skims over or leaves out some important events related to the turbulence. These include the behind- the-scenes maneuvering of Queen Frederica, widow of the politically as- tute King Paul, on behalf of her young son Constantine, who had assumed the throne at the tender age of 24 upon his father’s death in 1964. The author also gives short shrift to the devastating toll the political elite’s machinations took on the average Greek. Disruptive demonstrations and crippling strikes remain etched in my brain from the time I taught in Thes- The Colonels’ Coup offers lessons for American diplomats that remain valid 45 years after the fact. J U N E 2 0 1 1 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 61 B OOKS