326. Editorial Note
On October 26, 1971, President Richard Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew discussed the results of the latterʼs trip to Greece, Turkey, and Iran. The editors transcribed the portions of the tape recording printed here specifically for this volume. Here follows the portion of the conversation related to Greece:
Agnew: “I think we did some good in these conversations. First of all, Constantine has matured a tremendous amount since he was here at the EISENHOWER funeral. Heʼs much more realistic about his situation. He wants to go back. Very much.
Nixon: “But, they donʼt want him?
Agnew: “Uh, they donʼt want him except under certain circumstances and maybe not circumstances he can reach, but they were, he made a definite proposal. What heʼs suggesting is heʼll go back and that Papadopoulos [will] come to welcome him, come to the palace and present his resignation as Prime Minister. He will have in his pocket a reappointment as Prime Minister. To provide a, something to cut out all this criticism about the steps to returning to democracy. Papadopoulos doesnʼt trust him very much. Heʼs afraid of him.
Nixon: “Too soft. [Unclear]
Agnew: “Well, he says he has consorted too much with—
[Page 819]Nixon: “Émigré groups.
Agnew: “Yeah. But I think itʼs possible to solve the thing. I, I hit Papadopoulos head on with this.
Nixon: “Wish it were.
Agnew: “I think it looks encouraging. [Unclear]”
The President then referred to news summaries of the Agnew trip before returning to Greek issues:
Nixon: “I was goddamn mad, you know, and after you were there, the State Department was still extremely critical of the Greek Government and so forth. And I [unclear] and I must say Rogers was good at it too. But, I say anytime, I say ‘Now look here, I’m not going to criticize the Greek Government. My interest is in what the governmentʼs attitude is toward the United States, not what it does in its own country. I would prefer that they do other things, but thatʼs their, itʼs something Iʼm not going to get into.ʼ”
After further discussion of this position, Agnew again brought up the issue of the Kingʼs future:
Agnew: “With the King—
Nixon: “I like him incidentally, heʼs—
Agnew: “Constantine?
Nixon: “Yes I do. Heʼs precise.
Agnew: “Oh, yeah.
Nixon: “When I was out of office in ʼ63. Well, he [unclear]—
Agnew: “Itʼs a problem of non-communication. For example, the King wants them to send him a colonel of their choosing. To stay with him all the time in Italy. And send him some money. He says, I could use some protection. Then he recites a case to show that he is violently against Papandreou where …
Nixon: “Heʼs the bad boy.
Agnew: “Yeah. He is a bad boy. He points out a case where he was king and George Papandreou was premier. Word came down that Andreas was consorting as a member of the government with the Communists. So, he braced George with this and demanded that George stop it and get rid of him. Also he has, the King has said, authorized us to say publicly, and this is something that the regime has never said, that he supports our aid to NATO, or aid to Greece. He says it would be an unpatriotic act for him to oppose aid to Greece.
Nixon: “Oh, good.
Agnew: “But that not generally, these things are not generally known. But I was able to tell Papadopoulos in these 6 hours of private conversations a lot of things, positions that the King took that he didnʼt really understand.
[Page 820]Nixon: “Do you think you [fazed?] him?
Agnew: “I think we did, yes. He had a very conciliatory, I didnʼt press him. I tried to get his confidence.
Nixon: “Yeah, yeah [unclear].
Agnew: “And I said…
Nixon: “How did the Ambassador [unclear]. Whatʼs his name?
Agnew: “Tasca, Tasca.
Nixon: “Oh, Henry Tasca. Of course, I forgot. Iʼm impressed with him. Whatʼs the trouble? He just doesnʼt—
Agnew: “He talks to you, he talks your game. He talks to someone else, he talks their game.
Nixon: “Ah!
Agnew: “Itʼs the old State Department routine.
Nixon: “Really? Thatʼs—son of a bitch, Iʼm surprised at that.
Agnew: “I may be wrong, but thatʼs my—
Nixon: “I gave, he knows exactly what I, what I told him.
Agnew: “Going over there, he came back to me three times. They had a reception, and he and State wanted invite some people that the regime was on the ‘outs’ with, that had been highly critical of them, and I said: ‘No, don’t invite anybody thatʼs going to make them leave the reception. Iʼm going out to make friends, get as many people in as you can but donʼt insist on people that theyʼre not going to get along with. After all, this is a state visit.ʼ
Nixon: “Yeah.
Agnew: “He came back to me three or four times trying to cancel the reception. It was bad business. We stuck it out and finally we got only about five people that had no [unclear] and these were people who had greeted me on my arrival with a public statement asking me what the hell I was doing in Greece.” (National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, Recording of conversation between Nixon and Agnew, October 26, 1971, Oval Office Conversation No. 601–36)