Greece–United States relations

Greece and the United States today enjoy strong diplomatic relations and consider each other an ally.

Diplomatic relations between Greece and the United States were established in the 1830s after the Greek War of Independence. Greece and the United States have long-standing historical, political, and cultural ties based on a common western heritage, and participation as Allies in global conflicts including World War I, World War II, the Cold War and the war on terror.Antonis Klapsis, "From dictatorship to democracy: US-Greek relations at a critical turning point (1974-1975)." Mediterranean Quarterly 22.1 (2011): 61-73. The governments of the two countries cooperate closely in the areas of finance, energy, commerce, technology, academics, sciences, judiciary, intelligence and military, as well as through many multilateral organizations such as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the United Nations; they are both founding members of the latter.

From 2013 to 2023, the United States was the 6th largest source of foreign direct investment in Greece.

History

From 1825 to 1828, the U.S. Navy conducted anti-piracy operations against Greek pirates in the Aegean Sea.

The first draft of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 included praise of the Greek rebels in their revolt against the Ottoman Empire. American opinion strongly supported Greece. However, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams strongly objected and that passage was dropped. The final text indicated the U.S. government had no intention of interfering in European affairs. However, as Angelo Repousis shows, private citizens including philanthropists, missionaries, and political activists, inspired by a vision of ancient Greece, were eager to become involved in Greek affairs.Angelo Repousis, Greek-American Relations from Monroe to Truman (2013)

On 9 November 1837, the United States recognized the independence of Greece when the American Minister at London signed a treaty of Commerce and Navigation with the Greek Minister at London. That act marked the first negotiation of the United States with Greece and represented the U.S. recognition of Greece as in the independent country in the early 1800s. The same year, the first American Consul Gregory Anthony Perdicaris took up his position in Athens. The mid-19th-century treaty established the Greek-U.S. relations in part to help liberate and establish Greece as a separate country from the Ottoman Empire.

World Wars

In 1914, on the eve of the First World War, the U.S. Navy sold two war-ready battleships to Greece, the former U.S.S. Idaho and Mississippi, which were renamed the Kilkis and Lemnos. The ships ensured Greece kept its naval superiority in the Aegean against Turkey, which was threatening to reclaim the islands it had lost during the Balkan Wars. The sale of the ships was arranged by the Wilson Administration, including then Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt, with Congressional authorization.Leonidas V. Georgiou, Conversations with FDR at his AHEPA Initiation: Frigates, Battleships, Espionage, and a Sentimental Bond with Greece, New York: Knollwood Press, 2019.

The U.S. was active in providing humanitarian aid to Greece after the devastation it suffered in World War I.Dimitra Giannuli, "American Philanthropy in Action: The American Red Cross in Greece, 1918-1923," East European Politics & Societies (1996) 10#1 pp 108-132.

During World War II, the U.S. opposed the British plan to restore King George II of Greece to the throne because he was closely associated with fascism. Instead, the U.S. helped to establish a regency but did not oppose British efforts to defeat the communist insurgents.Lawrence S. Wittner, "American Policy Toward Greece During World War II," Diplomatic History (1979) 3#2 pp p129-149. online

The British took a leading role in helping the Greek government fight the insurgency. When its financial crisis forced it to cut back, the British turned that role over to the U.S. in 1947, until the end of the Greek Civil War in 1949.

Truman Doctrine The U.S. had largely ignored Greece since it was in the British sphere but lent $25 million on easy terms in 1946. However, it complained that its financial system was chaotic. The far left boycotted elections in March 1946 that were held under international supervision. The US judged them fair and supported the new conservative government, just like the plebiscite that brought back King George II. Behind the scenes, American diplomats tried to convince the government to end corruption. Fighting broke out in 1946, with the communist element receiving arms and bases of support across the border in Yugoslavia. London secretly informed Washington in February 1947 that its funding would run out in a matter of weeks. A crisis was at hand, and the U.S. decided to act decisively.Robert Frazier, "Did Britain Start the Cold War? Bevin and the Truman Doctrine." Historical Journal 27.3 (1984): 715-727.

Administration leaders, believed that the Eastern Mediterranean was ripe for an armed communist takeover since Britain had to withdraw its forces and its money from Greece. In the Greek Civil War, communist partisans, who had been organized to fight the Germans, were by 1946 strongly supported by the Tito's Yugoslavia but received no support from the Soviet Union.Howard Jones, "A New Kind of War": America's Global Strategy and the Truman Doctrine in Greece (1989) If the Communists won, Turkey, with its large but weak and antiquated army, would be at very high risk.

Truman won bipartisan support in March 1947 for the Truman Doctrine, which gave $300 million in military and economic aid to Greece and $100 million to Turkey. They were grants, not loans. Truman declared to Congress on 12 March: It must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.see "Truman Doctrine" at Avalon Project

In a larger sense, the Truman Doctrine formalized a policy of Soviet containment in which the United States would oppose the further spread of Communism. The policy meant rejecting any rollback strategy to end communist rule where it already existed.Denise M. Bostdorff, Proclaiming the Truman Doctrine: The Cold War Call to Arms (Texas A&M UP, 2008).

The United States also contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild Greece's buildings, agriculture, and industry as part of the Marshall Plan.

Tito's split with Stalin and American aid helped the Greek government and Army to win the war; by 1949, the government forces had won the civil war. Greece joined NATO in 1952.Joseph C. Satterthwaite, "The Truman doctrine: Turkey." The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 401.1 (1972): 74-84. onlineŞuhnaz Yilmaz, Turkish-American Relations, 1800-1952: Between the Stars, Stripes and the Crescent (Routledge, 2015).

Postwar The U.S. provided Greece with more than $11.1 billion in economic and security assistance after 1946. Economic programs were phased out by 1962, but military assistance continued. In the fiscal year 1995, Greece was the fourth-largest recipient of U.S. security assistance, receiving loans totaling $255.15 million in foreign military financing.Judith S. Jeffrey, Ambiguous Commitments and Uncertain Policies: The Truman Doctrine in Greece, 1947–1952 (2000)

In 1953, the first defense cooperation agreement between Greece and the United States was signed, providing for the establishment and operation of American military installations on Greek territory. The current "mutual defense cooperation agreement" provides a continued U.S. military support to Greece and the operation by the U.S. of a major military facility at Souda Bay, Crete.

Relations between the two countries were later strained by the Cyprus dispute and after the end of the Greek junta, which particularly the Greek left considered to be backed by the U.S. In 1974, Greece temporarily left the military branch of NATO to protest the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. In 1980, it rejoined the military branch and remained a close (albeit not as close as pre-1974) US-ally during the remainder of the Cold War.Antonis Klapsis, "From dictatorship to democracy: US-Greek relations at a critical turning point (1974-1975)." Mediterranean Quarterly 22.1 (2011): 61-73 online.

Truman statue in Athens A 12-foot bronze statue of Harry S. Truman was erected in Athens in 1963, with the help from Greek-Americans. It is one of only eight statues of American presidents outside the United States. The statue has been a focal point of anti-Americanism in Greece. It has been toppled over several times, painted and vandalized. In March 1986, it was destroyed by a dynamite bombing by a group considering it as being a symbol of American imperialism. The statue was restored within a year by the government although it had originally been refused by the Athens City Council. More recently in April 2018, a group of students tried to topple the statue during a communist anti-American protest but were stopped by riot police.

Trade and foreign direct investment

Mainly the Greek products exports to the United States involve petroleum products, cement, tobacco, fur products, olive oil, marble, clothing articles, steel products, pipes, and refractory products. On the other hand, U.S. imports to Greece mostly are industrial and agricultural products and machinery, telecommunications equipment, computers and electronic equipment, timber, medical and pharmaceutical items, machinery and parts, skins, and wood-pulp. Even though the United States imposed restrictions on the importation of certain fresh or processed agricultural products, there is full freedom of sale of Greek industrial products in the whole U.S. market. The EU-United States Agreement signed in May 1993 allows Greek enterprises access to U.S. public contracts. Trade between the two countries amounted to nearly a billion US dollars in 2010. Due to the Credit Crunch Crisis of 2008 that has negatively affected the Greek economy, thousands of U.S. firms have shifted their productive activities from other Balkan countries and Italy to Greece due to lower costs of production. The Greece-US Economic & Commercial Cooperation Committee (ECCC) is also currently working to bilaterally expand trade flow and cooperation, and widen their market in Southeastern Europe, the Black Sea and the Middle East.

Military collaboration

Bilateral Greek-U.S. military relations can be dated back to the early 19th century when Greeks were fighting for their independence against the Ottoman Empire. During the movement of philhellenism, the two nations found commonality under their values of freedom and democracy, while many American philhellenes went also to help in Greece.

Military collaboration stemming from wars like World War I and World War II have set the foundation for the two countries as firm allies. Greece and the U.S. have also been allies through the Cold War as well as conflicts in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan within this past century.