Re: Classicists and dictatorship, Greece 1968

Good to find Calder on the right side. Reminded me of Osbert Lancaster's poem. https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcorfublues.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F01%2Fosbert-lancaster-on-not-going-to-greece.html&data=02%7C01%7CCLASSICS-L%40LSV.UKY.EDU%7C36ce35f39fda4988727c08d6d0b43cd4%7C2b30530b69b64457b818481cb53d42ae%7C0%7C1%7C636925869901662559&sdata=%2B5jYbOyQm5RKRNGGTMsHJ1JWat9nZ7DvS0BmquaTV%2Fo%3D&reserved=0.
OC

-----Original Message-----
From: Classical Greek and Latin Discussion Group <[email protected]> On Behalf Of DANIEL P. Tompkins
Sent: Saturday, May 4, 2019 9:54 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Classicists and dictatorship, Greece 1968

This email originated outside Colorado College. Do not click links or attachments unless you know the content is safe.


From the Finley Papers in Oxford.  Moses Finley and some colleagues were active opponents of the Greek dictatorship, 1967-74.  I just came across a note from William Calder to Finley that names some names, possibly stirring memories.

Dan

10/1/68

"... American action grows daily more dismal. The Canadian Malcom MacGregor [at American School, in a public lecture, reportedly] compared the present regime of Colonel Papadopoulos with Periclean Democracy at its most glorious.  This man will automatically be made President of APA... In the Director's (Henry Robinson) Report to the Managing Committee of the School for May 1967, Robinson actually wrote that we Americans would find a rightist regme far more cooperative toward our archaeological needs.  I introduced a motion that this paragraph be struck from the Report and after much hemming and hawing it was largely through the votes of the philologists.  I hope to see w.G. Forrest shortly and have him speak to our students here [Columbia U] on how to boycott Greece.

"P.S. One oxford letter informs me that the Regius Professor there has had an interview with Colonel Papadopoulos and expressed in print his naive approval of the colonels...."

That general split in the profession is what I remember as well.  We made an effort -- not well planned, I fear -- to persuade the APA board in '69 to intervene on behalf of imprisoned or fired Greek colleagues, to no avail.

Dan