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

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.