Red Acropolis, Black Terror : The Greek Civil War and the Origins of Soviet-American Rivalry, 1943-1949

by Gerolymatos, Andre

• ISBN13: 9780465027439
• ISBN10: 0465027431
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-07-06
• Publisher: Perseus Books Group

Summary

From 1944 to 1949, tens of thousands of Greek soldiers and guerrillas fought and slaughtered each other and thousands of innocents in a civil war of unrelenting and shocking savagery. In the wake of the Allied liberation of Greece, the fighting transformed into a civil war, pitting Soviet-backed Communists against U.S.- and British-backed government forces. As the first proxy war between the superpowers, the Greek Civil War became the first hot zone of the Cold War.InRed Acropolis, Black Terror, historian Andre Gerolymatos recounts the full history of this divisive conflict, exposing old wounds that still fester beneath the surface of contemporary Greek society. He tells the stories of ordinary Greek men, women, and children caught up in turbulent times and by powerful foreign forces.In many ways, the Greek Civil War heralded America's future involvement in Vietnam: Not only did it mark the first time the U.S. used napalm, but it convinced U.S. policymakers that counterinsurgency operations were winnable.Red Acropolis, Black Terrorunflinchingly presents the personal horrors of this brutal war, while exploring the global issues that make this "little" conflict so significant.

Author Biography

Andre Gerolymatos holds the chair of Hellenic Studies at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. His previous books include Guerrilla Warfare and Espionage in Greece, 1940-1944, Espionage and Treason in Classical Greece, and The Balkan Wars. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
List of Terms	xiii
Chronology	xvii
Introduction	1	(12)
1 Historical Background	13	(40)
2 The Politics of Violence: From Resistance to Civil War	53	(46)
3 Bloody December: The Second Round of the Civil War	99	(50)
4 The Pogrom of the Left: The Prelude to White Terror	149	(38)
5 The International Civil War	187	(42)
Epilogue: Shadows Cast from Yesterday Full Circle: From Greece to Vietnam	229	(10)
Notes	239	(36)
Bibliography	275	(12)
Index	287