United States of America ECONOMIC COOPERATION ADMINISTRATION Office of the Special Representative in Europe
Paris, February 28, 1949
Personal and Secret
Dear Dean:
I am taking advantage of the willingness you expressed when I saw you last month to receive from me on an entirely personal basis certain expressions of my views. I have seen Ambassador Grady's telegram 319 of February 21 regarding the situation in Greece and I thought you would be interested in my reaction to it.
The reports which I get from ECA people in Greece who come to Paris and also from people of this office who have been recently in Greece are to the general effect that while there has certainly been some improvement in Greek governmental efficiency due to recent cabinet changes, we continue to encounter much the same difficulties as before in achieving concerted policies. Our people in Greece have to spend a great deal of their time working with individual ministries in order to get even an essential minimum of action and coordination. Both Sophoulis, the Premier, and Diomedes, the Vice Premier, are recognizedly too old and weary to pull their colleagues together effectively.
I am personally convinced that we must continue to exercise strong discreet pressure in this field. If we are to discharge the responsibilities which we have assumed both vis-à-vis the Greek people and our own, we must have, as long as the present emergency lasts, continued striving toward better leadership, greater efficiency and real coordination between some twenty ministries. My conclusion is that while there has been some improvement there are as yet no grounds whatever for complacency.
I am sending you the above on an entirely personal basis. I know that Ambassador Grady is aware of my feelings in the matter. I am not reiterating them to him at this time for reasons which I think will be obvious to you from a reading of his message referred to above. I would like as soon as possible to make another personal survey of the Greek situation and will probably take Phil Bonsal with me at that time.
Sincerely yours,
W. A. Harriman
(I am sorry to hear you have had the "flu." I do hope you are over it.)
March 15, 1949
PERSONAL AND SECRET
Dear Averell:
Thank you very much for your letter of February 28. As I said in our talk the last evening you were in Washington, it is and will be of tremendous help to me to have your personal views on all sorts of matters expressed with complete freedom and frankness. I am answering this letter as I said I would myself.
I think the cable you mention should be thought about from two points of view, the facts involved in it and the mood expressed.
As to the facts, I think the reports that both you and I get indicate that there has been some improvement in Greek Governmental efficiency and that probably the present Government is the best that Greece has had for some time. I think they also agree that it is still far from an efficient government and that discreet pressure should continue all along the line to get greater improvement. I think too that everyone agrees that Sophoulis is too old and weary to be an effective chief. However, the problem is that no younger and more vigorous leader who is capable of forming a government exists in the Parliament, and that the attempt to put into power a leader by extra-constitutional means would do more harm than good. It seems to me, therefore, that we are stuck with the present situation, that Sophoulis' age and prestige does put him somewhat above party strife, and that probably the best course is to try and get improvement under him.
As to the matter of mood, we shall continue to urge on Henry Grady, as I did at the time of the Nuveen incident, that vigorous and energetic assistance can be a help to him in Greece if he harnesses and directs their energy and sympathizes with their frustrations. People who go to the Middle East fresh from the vigor and energy of American business have a shock coming to them, and there is undoubtedly some tendency to transfer the frustration from the Greeks to their superior. However, I am hopeful enough to believe that Henry can use these people effectively, and if they in their turn will be tolerant we can get good and effective teamwork.
All of this on my part is speculation on a single telegram in the light of our conversations when you were here. I am most anxious to get your impressions after you have again been in Greece. I think the idea of taking Phil Bonsal is an excellent one.
Thank you for your good wishes about my brief but unpleasant encounter with what the doctors here call "Virus X." I am entirely over it and am feeling very fit again.
Please continue to write to me. With warmest regards.
Sincerely yours, Dean Acheson
S:DA:ma