Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Eastern Europe; Soviet Union; Eastern Mediterranean, Volume VIII

781.551/5–854: Telegram

No. 458
The Ambassador in Greece (Cannon) to the Department of State¹

secret

Athens, May 8, 1954—noon.

2657. Following publication Athens press yesterday of articles reportedly from official spokesman referring to US–Greek “negotiations” and stating that in agreement with US military representative Minister Defense had issued orders reduce armed forces by 35,000, thus bringing army down to level not in excess 100,000 complement by end this fiscal year. I called upon Prime Minister this morning at my request to point out embarrassment caused by untimely publicity of subject I had continued to treat as highly classified and to inform him of my concern with the turn these discussions had taken.

I advised the Prime Minister that I do not consider that there have been any negotiations whatsoever on the subject of the capacity of Greece to sustain its armed forces, that it had been my impression that the military representatives were cooperating in a military study and that the problems raised in the Marshal’s memorandum would then be considered in the light of related economic factors which, I had expected, would also be studied by a joint team with a view in arriving at agreed recommendations. I stated that it now appears that the Greek Government had taken its decision unilaterally on the basis of the preliminary work of the military study only.

The Marshal interjected to state that the decision to reduce the army to the level of 100,000 had the approval of General Barth² (chief JUSMAG). I promptly replied that I knew General Barth to be a prudent man and that neither he nor I were in a position to state the American position with respect to the issues raised in the memorandum.³ The US position would be formulated in Washington where no action has been taken to date due to fact interested agencies have been waiting recommendations which Embassy would not be in position to forward until Greek Government had made necessary facts available. By this time we were joined by Ministers of Defense and Coordination. The former admitted that General Barth had not stated that US approved of any specific figure and that figure of 100,000 had been discussed, along with other alternatives, for purpose of illustrating problems and establishing pertinent facts.

Discussion was forthright on both sides. Marshal maintained Greek Government could not allocate one drachma more for defense than was allocated last year and argued that further reductions, possibly to level of a 70,000 man army (virtually a 50 percent reduction) might be necessary in order to permit Greece to provide adequately for civilian requirements and at same time meet NATO obligations (infrastructure). I avoided a discussion of details and reiterated that Embassy did not as yet have information with which to study alternate solutions to problems in question. Atmosphere gradually cleared and both Prime Minister and Minister Coordination assured me full cooperation would be forthcoming and that pertinent economic data would be made available promptly.

Next step will be economic study to determine facts and conversations are being arranged for early next week. Major issues and alternative proposals for solutions will then be forwarded interested US agencies and SAC for comment. At that point we would be in position to engage in final discussions with Greeks.

Cannon

1. Repeated for information to Paris and Rome.
2. Maj. Gen. George B. Barth, Chief of the Joint United States Military Aid Group in Greece.
3. Reference is presumably to the undated memorandum handed by Papagos to Cannon, Feb. 23; see Document 455.