ATHENS MARSHALL PLAN EVENT BRINGS BACK POSITIVE MEMORIES,

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ATHENS 001261

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EUR/SE GCOWAN; EUR/PPD KGIUSTI; JRICKERT; MOKEEFE; LDAVIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KPAO KMDR PREL OIIP OPRC GR
SUBJECT: ATHENS MARSHALL PLAN EVENT BRINGS BACK POSITIVE MEMORIES,
MAINLY POSITIVE PRESS


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Summary
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1. On June 11, 2007, U.S. Embassy Athens hosted a gala reception in
honor of the 60th Anniversary of the Marshall Plan at the residence
of U.S. Ambassador Charles P. Ries. Over 300 guests came to
celebrate the Marshall Plan and its contributions to rebuilding
Greece after World War II and the Greek Civil War. Former Prime
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Reception Activities and Program
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2. U.S. Embassy Athens planned a June 11 reception as the kick-off
event in a series of programs designed to commemorate the 60th
Anniversary of the Marshall Plan. The 300 guests included an elite
group of top politicians, including Finance Minister George
Alogoskoufis and Minister of Public Order Vyron Polydoras, business
leaders, artists and writers, and Greek-American organizations.
Journalists and camera crews from all major local media also
attended.


3. As guests walked in to the reception, they were given full-color
information booklets about the Marshall Plan and its implementation
in Greece. This information was also available on our website.
Once they passed through the receiving line, they were shown inside
the Residence where a series of short documentaries on the Marshall
Plan was playing on a continuous loop, and on the veranda they saw a
12-panel paper show on the Marshall Plan in Greece, produced by the
Embassy's PA section in coordination with the Greek Ministry of
Foreign Affairs.

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Speakers
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4. The formal program began with remarks by U.S. Ambassador Charles
Ries, who introduced the three speakers. The full text of all
speeches is available on the U.S. Embassy website:
http://athens.usembassy.gov/relations/
marshall_commemoration.htm.


5. The first speaker, Honorary President of the New Democracy party
(ruling party) and Former Prime Minister Constantinos Mitsotakis
spoke from experience about the Marshall Plan in Greece. He said,
"If Greece had not been the recipient of the Marshall Plan and the
Truman Doctrine, it is certain that the civil war would have been
lost."


6. The President's Special Envoy for Sudan and former Administrator
of USAID Andrew Natsios affirmed that in implementing their
programs, George Marshall and Harry Truman "were creating the US
government's modern foreign assistance program."


7. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs R. Nicholas Burns
spoke last on the affect of the Marshall Plan on U.S.-Greece
bilateral relations. He called Greece the object of the "beginning"
of the Marshall Plan and Truman Doctrine, and he emphasized the
cooperation between our countries born at that time: "We
accomplished all these things not because the American people did
this but because
Greek peole rose up and won their own peace and built their own
democratic state."

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Press Coverage
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8. Greece is known as the most anti-American country in Europe.
Protests often start or end in front of the U.S. Embassy with angry
chants and Molotov cocktails. Twice, a statue of Harry Truman has
been knocked down. Consequently, one of the event's most impressive
results was to spark debate on this period, both objective and
subjective, in a wide-range of media outlets.


9. The Sunday (June 17, 2007) To Vima (center-left, circ. 193,000)
published an editorial entitled "Marshall Plan Memories," where
former PASOK party Minister George Romeos called "the prevention of
a communist victory" in the Greek Civil War "the collateral gain of
U.S. strategy at the time."


10. Centrist daily Kathimerini (circ. 136,000) published a Sunday

ATHENS 00001261 002.2 OF 002


interview (June 17, 2007) with James Warren, a leader in the U.S.
Economic Mission that implemented Marshall Plan assistance in
Greece. Warren said "...throughout its implementation, the U.S. was
'for Greeks,' the country that saved Greece."


11. Express, a respected, economic daily (circ. 30,000),printed a
positive op-ed asking Greeks to reconsider actions like tearing down
the statue of an American leader and to remember "the choices of
another America, the one of Truman, Marshall, Kennedy, and so many
others."


12. Of course, it wouldn't be Greece without a few negative
remarks. The Greek Communist Party issued a harsh critique of
Mitsotakis, which was covered in the press.

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Comment
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13. U.S. Embassy Athens's Marshall Plan reception provided an
opportunity for a broad range of Greek elites to rethink the
Marshall Plan years and the long history of cooperation and
assistance between the U.S. and Greece. In a pre-election climate,
the fact that op-eds in some highly respected papers actually
discussed the Marshall Plan itself and its meaning for Greece's
development was an extremely positive result.

COUNTRYMAN