Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume XVI, Cyprus; Greece; Turkey

245. Field Information Report¹

[document number not declassified]

Athens, December 20, 1966.

COUNTRY

• Greece

SUBJECT

• Leadership of rightist Greek military conspiratorial group

DATE OF INFO

• 13 December 1966

PLACE & DATE ACQ

• [less than 1 line of source text not declassified]/15 December 66

SOURCE

• [1–1/2 lines of source text not declassified] Information on this group has been fairly reliable.

1. The leadership of the rightist military conspiratorial group met secretly on 13 December 1966 at the home of one of its members, Lieutenant Colonel Ioannis Ladas. This leadership, now loosely referred to as the “Revolutionary Council,” is composed of the following military officers—² ³

A. Lieutenant Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos

B. Lieutenant Colonel Ioannis Ladas

C. Lieutenant Colonel Dimitrios Stamatelopoulos

D. Lieutenant Colonel Dimitrios Ioannidis

E. Lieutenant Colonel Ioannis Lekkas

F. Lieutenant Colonel Mihail Roufogalis

G. Lieutenant Colonel Ioannis Mexis

H. One or two other officers unknown to source, one of whom is either a Brigadier or Major General, but whose name source did not know.⁴

2. The group discussed the current political situation, but did not make a decision concerning the establishment of a dictatorship. The merits of selecting a single leader for the group was also discussed but it was finally decided to leave the direction of the group in the hands of the Council as a whole for the time being. The group’s members also stated that they would continue their efforts to remove or isolate leftist and other unreliable persons from the Greek Army.

3. Roufogalis is suspected by some members of the group of reporting on its activities to the Deputy Chief of the Greek Central Intelligence Service /KYP/, Brigadier General Emmanouil Zacharakis, because the latter was responsible for the recent assignment of Roufogalis to a senior position within KYP.

1. Source: Department of State, Athens Post Files: Lot 71 A 2420, POL 15 GOVT. Secret; No Foreign Dissem/Controlled Dissem.
2. Field Comment—[document number not declassified] reported the continued concern over the political situation of the rightist Greek military conspiratorial group, which has been in existence since late 1963. One of the group’s leaders, Lieutenant Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos, stated on 22 November that if the political situation continues to deteriorate at the present rate, drastic action, i.e., dictatorship, will be needed. [Footnote in the source text. The document is dated December 13. (Central Intelligence Agency, History Staff Files)]
3. Field Comment—All of the persons named in para 1 were previously reported by the same source [document number not declassified]/7 March 1966/ as being members of the conspiratorial group. However, the leadership grouping was not referred to as a “Revolutionary Council” at that time. Concerning the unidentified General officer referred to in the same paragraph, source reported [document number not declassified]/October 1964/ that a Brigadier General Stamatios Skliros was a member of the group. [Footnote in the source text. The first document is printed as Document 225; the second has not been found.]
4. Field Comment—All of the persons named in para 1 were previously reported by the same source [document number not declassified]/7 March 1966/ as being members of the conspiratorial group. However, the leadership grouping was not referred to as a “Revolutionary Council” at that time. Concerning the unidentified General officer referred to in the same paragraph, source reported [document number not declassified]/October 1964/ that a Brigadier General Stamatios Skliros was a member of the group. [Footnote in the source text. The first document is printed as Document 225; the second has not been found.]