Athens is lovely. The perfect weather and ancient history enable such activities as last night’s open-air concert by the Vienna Philharmonic in a 2000-year-old marble amphitheater underneath the Acropolis. Everyone speaks English. When in the company of a local it is very difficult to pay for meals or entertainment. I asked one of these hospitable locals how come the Greeks are reported to hate the U.S. so much. His answer: “It depends on one’s party affiliation. The Left Wing hates the U.S. because of its support for the Right Wing against the Communists 50 years ago.” That’s wonderful, I thought. Only half of these guys hate us! “Actually, no,” he continued, “the Right Wing was sympathetic to the Serbs in Bosnia and Kosovo and after Bill Clinton’s bombings in support of the Muslims they hate the U.S. too.”
15 thoughts on “Why the Greeks hate the U.S.”
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It certainly doesn’t help that the CIA aided the “Colonels’ coup” that set up a junta between 1967 and 1974. The American public may have short memories (when it bothers to know in the first place), but most foreigners don’t.
Actually, the colonel’s coup could be included in the “Left Wing hates the U.S.” part mentioned by Phil. The truly fscked up thing is that the Right Wing hates the U.S. too; it seems like one of those cases of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t”.
No, it isn’t “damned if you do, damned if you don’t”. The US is apparently hated by two separate groups for two separate actions. The US could’ve not engaged in either action, and would then not be hated by either group.
The coup/military dictatorship (1967-74) was the one I think that sticks in most greeks’ memory esp. on the left. The perception that the US is/was so powerful that orders from far away washington would change the fate (and practically ownership) of an entire nation still is a bitter memory. The coincident 1974 invasion of cyprus (Turkey was thought to be given the go ahead by the US), the massive US bases, the strong influence of a european and to a lesser extent middle eastern view of the world, (as well as many other causes) I think have combined to create this very negative view of the US. Also, this has been well magnified by a pretty sensationalistic media.
Anyway, I dont know what your itinerary is like, but if you havent already planned it, you might drop in a absolutely lovely town about 2.5 hours south of Athens called Nafplio. It is surrounded by some fascinating ancient sites, is very picturesque and very lively at nights as well. (P.S. it’s also my folks’ home town 😉
Just a simple observation from my us bound point of view… But I think that Greeks (right an left wing) have a certain love-hate relationship with the us. A us born friend of mine has an extreme affection for her greek roots. Just the mention of a person with turkish heritage will bring a quick spit and utterance of ‘scato turko’ for no more reason than an empassioned understanding of greek history. Is this really hatred? probably not.
The reason that she is us born is that her left-wing father fled persecution in greece to live in america. While here he raised a family, had a career that he retired from and waited out the right-wing dominance of greece. Now that he is retired, he has returned to his home island where he enjoys his us retirement and acts as the mayor.
Is there a chance that he may express ‘hatred’ of the us… Certainly… Does he love his american family, friends and pension? probably…
Just my observation here, but I think that most of this hatred of america stands as an emotional front that could easily be bypassed on a personal level. If you are considering a trip, then surely you will enjoy yourself without even having to act canadian.
I second Demetri’s suggestion about Nafplio. I was there just a few months ago, and it was wonderful. Stay at Hotel Kapodistrias.
And while you’re in Athens, make sure to have a meal at the restaurant on the roof of Hotel Grand Bretagne, preferably as the sun goes down. Watching the Acropolis as dusk arrives and the floodlights turn on is otherworldly. Especially over an excellent meal. Make a reservation.
Have fun in Greece!
Demetri answered the question much better than your friend in Athens.
When in Santorini dont forget to eat at “Koukoumavlos” (but if you have greek friends they will arrange it anyway).
Have fun 🙂
Mike Linksvayer:
“The US could’ve not engaged in either action, and would then not be hated by either group.”
Or, perhaps, the Right-Wing Greeks would have resented the US for not supporting them against the Communists and Left-Wing Greeks would be outraged that the US didn’t do enough to fight the Serbs.
This most certainly *is* a case of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t”.
I polled my Greek buddies (6). The universal answer to why the Greeks “hate the US” was…
“Because the US supports Turkey” (to Greeks evidently the “evil empire”).
Joe Grossberg: I stand by my statement. There are an infinite number of things the US (or an entity generally) could do. Generally not doing any one of them is not a reason for resentment, unless there was some pre-commitment. Please come up with some concrete examples where the US is _hated_ for not intervening.
Mike L.:
OK, sure. Here’s one from today’s New York Times (via DanDrezner – http://www.danieldrezner.com/archives/001635.html ):
“Siddiqul Farooq, a spokesman for the anti-Musharraf faction of the Pakistan Muslim League political party, blamed Western countries for the situation.
“If the West does not believe in double standards and if the West believes in the democratic system, then it should also like to see the same system in Pakistan,” he said. “The West should put pressure on Musharraf.””
Maybe “hated” (your word, not mine) is too strong. But maybe not — you have a Muslim leader blaming the West (gee, I wonder which country in particular) for perpetuating his own country’s corrupt dictatorship through inaction (not forcing Musharraf to step down at the end of his term).
Ref: [for] “not forcing Musharraf to step down at the end of his term”.
Yikes. Pakistan is a nuclear power. In the name of “democracy” we should uphold “election” even though a possibility exists that such an A-bomb equipped regime could spell the end of humanity as we know it?
While we’re all injecting quotes, here’s mine…
“Better the devil you know, than the devil you don’t know”.
Yeah we’re off-topic but let me conclude by saying I would prefer my life’s demise to be caused by a method other than “vaporization”.
I dunno Paul, (tongue in cheek) vaporization, at the end of a long productive life, wouldn’t be such a bad thing.
But really, the us and (apparently) the western world in general had no idea how to deal with the middle-east after the fall of the soviet union.
In fact, the us in particular has largely set themselves up for a series of bitter lessons while fighting the ‘evil empire’ with an ‘at all costs’ attitude.
It was our determination to get a ‘quick launch’ ability on Moscow that led us to befriend Turkey (and piss of all Greeks, set the stage for the Cuban embargo, etc…). The cold war also made us happy bedfellow with the Taliban, bin Laden, Mushareff (would supporting Benazir Bhutto have hurt our relationship with the Taliban?), The Shah, etc…
Oh yeah, and don’t forget about our current obsession with maintaining a petroluem-based society (is this _really_ good planning) that leads us onwards into continuing relationships with despots (and all of the resulting shenanigans).
In foreign matters the us has proven itself to be largely a nearsighted idiot that gets overly focused on its ambitions, fawns favoratism on those that can provide immediate benefit and forgets their ‘friends’ if it is convenient. In most ‘after school specials’ the us would be that pimple-faced kid that was just about to get some good ‘life lessons’
Hopefully we can accomplish that without any ‘vaporization’.
” and Left-Wing Greeks would be outraged that the US didn’t do enough to fight the Serbs.”
What? Most Greeks supported the Serbs in both of the recent wars – Socialists the world over sympathised with Milosevic, not least to mention the Greek-Serb brotherhood.
Nik is right – all Greeks are going to support the Serbs, at least against Albanians and Croats. Serbs are Orthodox Christians. There are also blood ties.