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    "localId": "486499303",
    "label": "Report, Central Intelligence Agency, Greece, Situation Report 10",
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    "id": "486499303",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Report, Central Intelligence Agency, Greece, Situation Report 10",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/486499303",
    "collections": [
        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
        "Intelligence Files"
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    "levelOfDescription": "item",
    "productionDates": [
        {
            "logicalDate": "1948-03-01",
            "month": 3,
            "year": 1948
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{
    "seq": 8,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875501/875501-02-008.tif",
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    "ocrText": "SECRET\nroyalist parties gained a parliamentary plurality over the republican groups which was\nSO slight that the 15-seat representation won by the emergent Communist Party repre-\nsented the balance of power. General John Metaxas, head of a right-wing party, be-\ncame prime minister and soon imposed a dictatorship, alleging the Communist menace.\nMetaxas suppressed all opposition and exiled or silenced many political leaders.\nCovert opposition flourished, however, and the Communists were especially energetic\nin building up the KKE (Greek Communist Party) underground organization which was\nto prove SO effective during and following the war and occupation.\nDuring the first part of the resistance to the Axis, Greece enjoyed a period of in-\ntense national unity, but after prolonged occupation the old political differences, now\nintensified and complicated by the Communists, again came to the fore, resulting in\nthe bitterness and strife which have marked the unhappy period since liberation.\nC. Wartime Occupation and Resistance.\nGermany joined the Italian attack on Greece in April 1941, and by 1 June or-\nganized Greek military operations ceased. King George II and a makeshift cabinet\nheaded by Emmanuel Tsouderos fled to Cairo to begin a three-year exile for the royal\ngovernment. In Greece the various puppet governments set up by the occupation forces\nhad little control over the people, who soon formed underground resistance groups.\nThe leftist EAM (National Liberation Front) and ELAS, its military arm, be-\ncame the largest of these groups. By stressing patriotic motives and the popular front,\nits camouflaged Communist (KKE) leadership succeeded at first in enlisting the support\nof many liberals and republicans and even convinced some of the clergy and royalists\nthat EAM offered the best means of resisting the common enemy. EAM popular sup-\nport later declined with the realization by many that it was dominated by the KKE\nand had partisan rather than national aims. By then, however, its well-integrated\norganization had become strong enough to eliminate other resistance groups syste-\nmatically, until the only remaining one of consequence was the conservative EDES\n(National Democratic Greek Army) of General Zervas. By 1944 the ELAS and EDES\nwere in open armed conflict, both diverting matériel supplied by the British for use\nagainst the occupation forces. ELAS was almost invariably the aggressor.\nAlthough the resistance groups fought over their differences, which were accentu-\nated by German propaganda, all except EDES and a few minor groups were united in\ntheir dislike of the King and Tsouderos' isolated Government-in-Exile. Most Greeks\nhad not forgotten the King's violation of the constitution in condoning a dictatorship.\nFriction between the Government-in-Exile and the underground forces of resistance\ngrew steadily as approaching liberation raised the problem of postwar political control.\nWhat appeared to be a more successful attempt to unite Greek leadership took place\nin May 1944 - but only after the persistent refusal of the King and his cabinet to form\na coalition government and the King's stubborn insistence on his right to reign had led\nto general dissatisfaction and finally to mutinies in the Greek forces in the Near East.\nAfter helping suppress the mutinies and installing the anti-EAM George Papandreou as\nprime minister, the British organized in Lebanon a conference between the Government-\nin-Exile and representatives of all important resistance groups inside Greece. As\na\nSECRET\nI-2"
}