Communist Greece

My question is post-WWII but it still relates to it. If Greece would have become a communist state, do you think it could have effected the Cold War with any significance?

 

I think so.

The balance in the Balkans would have been shaken ( vs the deal made between Stalin and Churchill on the countries "ruled" by either side ) and who knows the whole of Europe might have been in more chaos by the end of the war. All this might have escalated to who knows what.

Churchill himself went to Greece and took care that the communists would not take the power.

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BTW

I do recall that in Paris De Gaulle went to the extreme on the communist question that " I´d prefer the Germans to the communists" and as the Germans were retreating some heavy behind-the-scenes fighting was going on in Paris in late Aug 1944.

 

No. Turkey was far more important. Without Greece nothing would have really changed. Now, the Crete issue might have made a difference in the naval balance in the Mediterrainian in the 60's and 70's.

 

I beg to differ. Greece played an understated importance in the power balance of the Balkans, like Kai has stated. Allied air and naval bases made it much easier for Western Powers to observe Soviet movements and enabled us to keep such a close watch on the USSR during the Cold War.

Though there are different opinions regarding the value of Greece in the Balkans, as you can see what I believe, I think communism comes down to the people. Being half Greek, I can tell you that the Greek people would not have taken kindly to communism, at least the type enforced by the Soviet Union. Remember, the Greeks are the forerunners of personal freedom since years B.C. and it's practically in their blood. Yes, they had a military dictatorship but that lasted for 20 to 30 years before the people rose up and ousted them from power. The Greeks would have made the Soviet Union suffer under occupation and with their track record of assisting the Western Allies, in both WWI and WWII, unlike their neighbor Italy, Greece would have won the support of Western Allies if the USSR ever decided to launch an invasion.

 

Outside the major airbases on Crete, the US didn't particularly use any bases in Greece throughout the Cold War. Turkey on the otherhand, was used to base IRBM's in the 60's. The U-2 was regularly flown from there. The US had numerous listing stations, including several pivotal ones that monitored Soviet space and ballistic missile testing. The Turks also controlled the Bosporous. This made monitoring Black Seas Fleet movements very easy.
Thus, my assertion that Greek communisum would have made little difference.

 

As a full Greek myself -p) I have to say the civil war after WW2 was a close call. I think Communism had a lot of supporters here (who probably didn't realise at the time the difference between real Communism and Soviet Communism, ie dictatorship) and if they had won (perhaps if the USA gave less support to the nationalists) then Greece would be well established in the Communist ways. The Greek spirit you mention would probably evolve into a break with Russia similar to Yugoslavia's (Tito) break with them over the years, but Greece would happily have remained Communist in all likelyhood (though nothing is certain ofcourse).
Anyway, I think Gardner is right that Turkey was more valuable or at least more used, but I think he underplays Greece's importance as well. It was pretty much the only stabilising force in the Balkans, the only foothold. It was also a lot more trustworthy than Turkey, at least it would have been if the USA hadn't instigated the 1967-1974 dictatorship. Just like they got involved in Italian affairs and a lot of others.
In any case I think the 20 year period of dictatorship Professor mentions is probably the one just before WW2 not this one. Though I'm not sure that on lasted so long either. That one was also foreign imposed, basically the Kings of Greece were serving foreign powers and Greek politics were influenced by outside too much.

In other news, does anyone know why Churchil said that 'heroes fight like Greeks' as an homage to Greece? Was it because they fought outstandingly and stuff? Or was it because it was the first victory against axis land forces in the war (against Italy) and a nice delay to Germany's war machine and he also wanted to boost Greek morale and insure their involvement in the war to the bitter end? As a Greek I've only heard the biased views on the matter so I'm asking you.