UNTIL MONDAY, arguments that tyranny and repression by the military junta in Greece were matters for Greeks to resolve internally provided convenient, if feeble, justifications for continued American aid to Greece. But even these lame excuses were brutally destroyed this week when the popularly-elected Cypriot government of Archbishop Makarios was overthrown in a coup directed by the Athens dictatorship and executed by the 650 Greek officers who command the Cyprus National Guard.
The barbaric actions of the junta do far more than endanger the rights and sovereignty of the 400,000 Greeks and 115,000 Turks living on Cyprus--a fact which the U.S. government can ignore just as it now ignores the repression of the Greek people by an illegal junta that is propped up by American aid. The tender peace that now exists in the entire eastern Mediterranean powder keg is threatened by Athens's illegal aggression. The smoldering strife between Greece and Turkey could explode as a result.
In the face of Monday's act of international aggression and flagrant violation of the 1960 Cyprus Independence Treaty by a desperate and unpopular dictatorship, it is deplorable that the United States government has done relatively little to uphold its obligation to support democracy throughout the world. Our government has not seen fit either to condemn Greek interference and the new Cypriot government--led by a confessed murderer and terrorist whose loyalty and subservience to Athens is unquestionable--or to support, as Britain has done, Makarios's pleas for world powers to "assist the struggle against the rebellion and preserve the independence and democracy of Cyprus."
Yesterday, U.S. diplomats conceded that the Nixon administration has already begun negotiations with the new Cyprus regime and may soon consider diplomatic recognition. American officials said that Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger '50 had rejected appeals of many State Department subordinates to express support for Makarios--the Nixon administration has for years viewed Makarios as the "Castro of the Mediterranean," who turned too readily to the Communists for assistance. The overriding concern by U.S. officials continues to be the maintaining of NATO and American military strength in the Mediterranean. The United States fears alienating fellow-NATO member Greece because of the supposed need for air and naval bases in Greece to protect this area for the "free world." This rationale only lends credence to the assertion by Makarios's supporters that NATO and the United States opposed his government's independent policies and are more comfortable with a government that will be more accomodating.
Just as when Salvadore Allende was deposed and murdered in Chile last fall, the United States knew well in advance that the Greek junta intended to purge Makarios's government and set up its own puppet regime. Since November, when the Greek military ousted President George Papodopoulos, the State Department has received continued warnings of the junta's intentions. This spring, Makarios accused the Greek officers of the Cypriot National Guard of supplying arms and inspiration to a group of Cypriot terrorists fighting for union with Greece. Two weeks ago, he ordered the removal of all Greek officers from Cyprus because of "irrefutable" evidence that the military rulers in Athens were planning to murder him and overthrow his government.
Yet there is no evidence that the State Department even took up the matter with Greek officials. Since U.S. funds and hardware support the Greek junta, an American warning about such action surely would have carried weight and may have prevented a senseless action that may still bring all out war in the Mediterranean.
On the Contrary, State Department reaction this week has characterized the happenings in Cyprus as "internal strife," U.S. officials have insisted that they believe Makarios's overthrow was a result of his unpopularity and not of action on the junta's part.
Despite U.S. inaction and the State Department's feigned ignorance, supporters of Makarios continue to resist the illegal government of Nicos Sampson. Makarios, who was reelected in 1968 with 95 per cent of the popular vote and who faced no opposition in his last election, is now seeking world support through the United Nations. The United States is obliged by morality to support Makarios in the U.N., but with or without the United States, the United Nations must assist Makarios in his fight to regain his rightful position.
TOLERENCE of the Athens junta and its subversive aggression points out an irreconcilable contradiction in American policy: The government of the people of the United States supports values and actions that directly oppose those which Americans pride themselves in upholding.
The people of the United States expect that American foreign policy will reflect their universal concern for human rights and democracy. Yet, the U.S. government continues to aid the suppression of human rights in Greece and other corrupt and fascist governments in the name of freedom.
The Nixon administration and its supporters may consider foreign policy to be its saving grace: the bright spot that diverts attention from a Watergate-laden home front. This may be true of Kissinger's sensationalist exploits in the Middle East, but the foreign conduct that the American people do not see makes it clear that the Nixon administration and American policy-makers since World War II are guilty of the most shameful and treacherous of crimes against the people of their own country and people throughout the world.
Just as Makarios and the Cyprus people will fight back and one day triumph over those who seek to deny their human rights and democracy, the people of the United States must fight to take back their government from those who have so grossly perverted American ideals in the guise of national interest and "free world" imperatives.
