Papadopoulos lasted six years, until last November, when the stifled anguish and outrage of the Greek people finally exploded, ending his tyranny. On November 14, several people were convicted of "resistance to authority" and "public mischief" during a memorial service held ten days earlier for George Papandreou. That night 5000 students occupied the Polytechnic School in Athens. The next day by 6 p.m. about 40,000 demonstrators battled armed police with fists and planks torn from nearby construction sites.

IT'S EASY ENOUGH to read all this--the words are startling, yet they're only black marks on paper; they won't wound you or make you cry out in pain. These events in Greece seem remote to us, who know them from the news, but some people know them from the streets. A friend wrote me a letter, and he tells the story better than dates or numbers. His name is Petros:

It's two o'clock in the morning and I can't sleep. My mind is full of thoughts that puzzle me and drive me crazy. What happened here in Greece last November really shocked me. All those years I participated to all the manifestations down town. I saw policemen running after us and hitting us violently. But that was not so tragic. After all I knew that we lived under a junta and that does not mean peace and easy life. I knew we were not free. But I didn't really feel it.

In the Polytechnic school I felt great and strong in a way. I had some responsibilities and I was running around shouting and encouraging my compatriots. I saw people, thousands of people in the streets shouting with us, bringing us food, throwing cigarettes, candy, chocolates and whatever we asked in the yard. I was proud of those people, proud of myself. I knew I was fighting for a certain goal. I knew that I might suffer if I was arrested, but that was all. I was not aware of the danger we were all in. Suddenly the scenery changed. Friday night. A few hundred people left outside after the armed cars invaded the area. We heard shooting. It was about nine or ten....And then I realized that we were not risking only a little pain from a club. We were risking our lives. Tear bombs filled the area, policemen were shooting at the few hundred people that were left in front of the Polytechnic School. What we heard was the continuous shooting the tear bombs falling, us shouting for freedom and bleeding or dying people shouting from pain and despair. That scene really blinded my mind and I didn't care about my life anymore. I was running around distributing vaseline (which helped against the tear gas), explaining to everyone I saw what he had to do to avoid gas, etc. From nine o'clock we knew that the soldiers would break in. We knew that if we managed to keep them away until the morning it would be very difficult for them to act. Five minutes seemed to us an hour as we heard our radio shouting for help and doctors until, at three thirty in the morning a tank broke in through iron and flesh. We went out, as many of us as were able to. Policemen and soldiers everywhere with machine guns in hand running after us, hitting, crippling unarmed children. Most of us found shelter in the surrounding buildings either as guests of the people living there or hiding under the stairs.

Well I came through all that safe, without loosing courage, not for a second. I did not lose courage because I had forbidden myself to think. I only asked him to fight. But when all that was over, when I had time to think, then that shock I told you about came. I could not stand what the Junta said (the army took out the few Communists without a single drop of blood.--The Communists are guilty of $30,000,000 damage in the Polytechnic!). It was the first time in my life I witnessed such a raw violence between people. Since I was born I'm hearing and reading about wars, about violence. But it was all in my unexperienced imagination, I never had the opportunity to realize what all that meant.

Now I think, 'Is that true? Is that not a bad dream? Is it possible that man has reached to such a point where in a "civilized" country people have to get killed in order to require their stolen freedom?'...

PETROS ESCAPED unhurt, but he has to live with the torment of others gnawing at him. At least 400 people died in Athens, Patras, Salonika; the regime admits to arresting 866 people, 475 of whom were listed as workers. Many of these people are being held in more than 250 detention and torture facilities that scatter the countryside for the first time since Nazi German occupation. Every little town and village has one; there are well known camps on the islands of Laros and Yiaros; six such facilities are tucked into the streets of Athens.

The new array of officers holding top government positions in Greece--Ioannides, Androutsopoulos, Gizikis--were all trained in the U.S. Tom Pappas of Boston, a Greek-American businessman, was instrumental in assuring Androutsopoulos his position as the new premier. Pappas is the largest single investor in Greek enterprise, and controls a bloc of industry with a clout like ITT's in the States. During an interview with the Greek newspaper Apogevmatini in 1968, he was asked whether it was true that he belonged to the CIA. His blunt reply reads, "Of course it is. And I am very proud of it."

More than one American entrepreneur has befriended the Greek military regime, and industrialists reap large profits at the expense of Greek laborers. Multi-national corporations, including Exxon, Coca-Cola (both represented by Pappas), Dow Chemical and Alcoa, are exempt from a variety of taxes and duties. This is specified in the Greek constitution. Trade unions have been scrapped or stripped of power by the government, in order to maintain the low wages that attract foreign monopolists. Such economic tactics have driven about 250,000 workers to seek jobs in West Germany.

Not only have Americans fomented economic repression in Greece, but they have imported repressive instruments of a more disturbing nature as well. Reports leaked from political prisoners claim that bicycles, patrol wagons, iron wreaths used to squeeze skulls, wire whips, and blankets at the camps are marked "made in USA" or "U.S."

There is a saying in Greece about the current situation: "In front the precipice, behind the torrential current." Repression grips the nation and will be hard to shake off. Yet the people have risen in anger once, and they won't forget their tragedy. My friend writes: "Do we that hate violence have to use violence in order not to be violated?... It seems we are going to wait for ages. That's our problem. To fight or not to fight? TO FIGHT!"