Just lately, supporters of the regime received a shot in the arm from the Soviet Union when it invaded Czechoslovakia. Ever since then they can point to that tragic incident any say, "So, aren't even you an anti-communist now?"

Widespread anxiety has slowed the Greek economy to a walk. The government keeps prices low, so most people can buy enough to live on. But no one is interested in buying anything, outside of subsistence goods, except land. Nobody has respect for the Greek currency. Many people said they were hoarding British Gold Pounds for the period after the regime. The junta's claim that the tourist trade was "much better in 1968 than in the previous year" is true but there still aren't nearly as many tourists as before the revolution.

I've saved the following fact for the end because it is the one thing so far that I didn't see myself. During the summer, however, I became very close to a young Greek enlisted man, and he swore that United States military aid was indispensible for the regime.

My friend said, "The Army is competely armed and supplied by the United States. Bullets are given to us from American boxes, lubrication oil for the American M-1 guns is given to us in American cans, visual aids for basic training are American drawings.

U.S. Defense Secretary Clifford has admitted that American is supplying the Greek regime with large amounts of munitions. He said that no matter how repugnant the regime's politics are to the U.S., the regime will continue to receive such aid because of its strategic place in the fight against communism. Some Greeks even believe the CIA played a decisive role in planning and contributing arms and money to the revolution. America does not send arms directly to Greece but rather uses the convenient agency of NATO, which supplies Greece with 75 percent of its weapons.

American influence undoubtedly had some part in the regime's decision to grant the Greek people a constitution, no matter how flimsy it is. Yet Greek people are desperately afraid that the document will be hailed the world over as a step towards democracy. The fact is, according to Greeks, that the fraudulent constitution is merely a trick by the regime to give their rule a legal rationale and to maintain the all important American support.

The Americans thus joined the distinguished tradition of the Romans and Turks who first adopted the vaucs of classical Greece and then, directly or indirectly, occupied the land of the Delphi because it happened to be a strategic piece of real estate