Under the Eagle's Claw: Exceptionalism in Postwar U.S. - Greek Relations

(Hardback)

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The record shows that the United States often acts as if it has license to disregard the sovereign rights of other peoples and nations. Kofas argues the United States has used Greece as a means of satisfying its own interests for the past half-century, and that Greece has suffered mightily at the hands of its protector. The United States has deemed this strategically situated nation too important to its own geopolitical ambitions to allow it to realize the democratic freedoms so often espoused. Because of U.S. pressure, Greeks have been subjected to authoritarian regimes and have carried huge military budgets that have significantly weakened social programs. Kofas shows that Greece's own domestic and international interests were consistently subordinated to America's.

Reviews

"Jon V. Kofas has written an engrossing account of U.S.-Greek relations since the Second World War....this book, whose finding are solidly based on archival research in the United States, Britain, and Greece, should provide a timely reminder that the dilemma of seeking to make the world safe for democracy through the use of military power has been an enduring theme in the modern history of international affairs."-Akira Iriye, Charles Warren Professor of American History Harvard University
"With scrupulous use of documentary and historical evidence and impressive analytic skill, Jon Kofas provides a most impressive account of US-Greek relations in the post-World War II era....The lessons taught in this timely study could hardly be more timely...."-Noam Chomsky
"The strengths of this book are its tracking of the relationship between the American and Greek governments since the end of WW II and its noting of those aspects of the relationship that have aroused Greek hostility. For Kofas, Greece has been part of a patron-client relationship that has largely ill served its national needs because of the hegemonic behavior of its American patron....[t]he book is useful for its charting of post-WW II American-Greek governmental relations....Upper-division undergraduates and above."-Choice
[P]rovides the reader with a well-researched record of U.S. interventionist policies in post-World War II Greece and in the broader Balkan and Middle-Eastern region... [I]t is a good read for anyone who possesses some knowledge of modern Greek history and is interested in acquiring a new perspective on U.S. foreign policy in the Cold War era.-49th Parallel
In less-skilled hands, and with less-painstaking research, a book such as this one--interested in demonstrating one fundamental thesis, and an angry one at that--could easily sound a strident or repetitive note. Kofas does a superb job, however, of creating a clear, well-paced narrative, which relies on data rather than rhetoric to make its troubling point, A wide range of readers, academic and non-academic alike, will find it accessible and compelling fare.-Political Science Quarterly
The strengths of this book are its tracking of the relationship between the American and Greek governments since the end of WW II and its noting of those aspects of the relationship that have aroused Greek hostility. For Kofas, Greece has been part of a patron-client relationship that has largely ill served its national needs because of the hegemonic behavior of its American patron....[t]he book is useful for its charting of post-WW II American-Greek governmental relations....Upper-division undergraduates and above.-Choice
Whatever one may think of the views expressed, this splendidly documented book should be translated into Greek. It presumably expresses the feelings of many Greeks.-World Association of International Studies
"Provides the reader with a well-researched record of U.S. interventionist policies in post-World War II Greece and in the broader Balkan and Middle-Eastern region... It is a good read for anyone who possesses some knowledge of modern Greek history and is interested in acquiring a new perspective on U.S. foreign policy in the Cold War era."-49th Parallel
"[P]rovides the reader with a well-researched record of U.S. interventionist policies in post-World War II Greece and in the broader Balkan and Middle-Eastern region... [I]t is a good read for anyone who possesses some knowledge of modern Greek history and is interested in acquiring a new perspective on U.S. foreign policy in the Cold War era."-49th Parallel
"In less-skilled hands, and with less-painstaking research, a book such as this one--interested in demonstrating one fundamental thesis, and an angry one at that--could easily sound a strident or repetitive note. Kofas does a superb job, however, of creating a clear, well-paced narrative, which relies on data rather than rhetoric to make its troubling point, A wide range of readers, academic and non-academic alike, will find it accessible and compelling fare."-Political Science Quarterly
"Whatever one may think of the views expressed, this splendidly documented book should be translated into Greek. It presumably expresses the feelings of many Greeks."-World Association of International Studies

Author Bio

JON V. KOFAS is Professor of History at Indiana University Kokomo. He is the author of The Sword of Damocles: U.S. Financial Hegemony in Colombia and Chile, 1950-1970 (Praeger, 2002).