No American knew postWorld War II Greece more intimately and affectionately than Ambassador Monteagle Stearns. And no Greek leader had a more complicated relationship with the United States than the mercurial and larger-than-life Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou. In this fascinating book Stearns chronicles the rise and fall of Papandreou, his complex legacy for Greece, and his equally long and complicated relationship with the United States.
Nicholas Burns, professor of diplomacy and international relations at Harvard University and former U.S. ambassador to Greece
This is a great book about Andreas Papandreou, one of Greeces most important and controversial leaders. It is a firsthand account of his journey from U.S. academia to the modern Greek political circus written by Monty Stearns, a seasoned American diplomat who served in Athens and became one of the most astute and objective observers of the Greek scene. Racy and full of valuable anecdotesit brings to life Andreass adventurous and deeply torn charismatic personality.
Alexis Papachelas, executive editor of the daily newspaper Kathimerini (Athens, Greece)
Monteagle Stearns was one of the best and the brightest of postwar American diplomats and a true friend of Greece. His book paints a critical but fair portrait of former prime minister Andreas Papandreou while at the same time offering invaluable insights on Greeces turbulent postwar politics.
Constantine Arvanitopoulos, professor and Karamanlis Chair of Hellenic and European Studies at Tufts University
This is a superb history of twentieth-century Greek politics as this unique U.S. diplomat saw and lived it. It is also a personal memoir of his interactions over time with Andreas Papandreou, evoking the ambassadors legendary wit and wisdom. As for Papandreous years at Athens College (19291937), his schoolboy ups and downs are fully captured here and provide a taste of what was to come.
Richard Jackson, president of Athens College
ADST-DACOR Diplomats and Diplomacy Series
Series Editor: Margery Boichel Thompson
Since 1776, extraordinary men and women have represented the United States abroad under widely varying circumstances. What they did and how and why they did it remain little known to their compatriots. In 1995, the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training ( ADST ) and DACOR, an organization of foreign affairs professionals, created the Diplomats and Diplomacy book series to increase public knowledge and appreciation of the professionalism of American diplomats and their involvement in world history. Over thirty years and three assignments to Athens, Ambassador Monteagle Monty Stearns, one of Americas most admired diplomats, witnessed the transformation of Greeces first socialist prime minister from affable American economist to fiery anti-American Greek politician. Stearnss character study of Andreas Papandreou is the seventy-first volume in the series.
Gifted Greek
The Enigma of Andreas Papandreou
Monteagle Stearns
An ADST-DACOR Diplomats and Diplomacy Book
Potomac Books
An imprint of the University of Nebraska Press
2021 by Antonia R. Stearns
Cover designed by University of Nebraska Press; cover image: INTERFOTO / Alamy Stock Photo.
The opinions and characterizations in this book are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the United States government, the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, or DACOR .
All rights reserved. Potomac Books is an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Stearns, Monteagle, 19242016 author.
Title: Gifted Greek: the enigma of Andreas Papandreou / Monteagle Stearns.
Description: Lincoln: Potomac Books, an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press, 2021. | Series: ADST - DACOR diplomats and diplomacy series. | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020021090
ISBN 9781640123298 (hardback)
ISBN 9781640124233 (epub)
ISBN 9781640124240 (mobi)
ISBN 9781640124257 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH : Papandreou, Andreas George. | Prime ministersGreeceBiography. | GreecePolitics and government19351967. | GreecePolitics and government19671974. | GreecePolitics and government1974
Classification: LCC DF 854.32. P 36 S 74 2021 DDC 949.507/6092 [B]dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020021090
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
Contents
Antonia R. Stearns
Among many talents, my husband, Monty, was a gifted writer. He honed his reportorial skills in the Foreign Service but had been practicing them since fifth grade, when he composed, mimeographed, and peddled to the neighbors his satirical paper, The Screwy News. A voracious reader of all genres, he majored in English literature, and while serving in the Marine Corps, spent his off-duty hours with a rented typewriter, trying his hand at the Great American Novel.
Montys other passion was the cinema. Fresh out of college he took a job reviewing documentary films and went on to work as a motion picture officer for the U.S. Information Agency, then considered something of an upstart newcomer by the State Departments old-school diplomats. His first posting was to Turkey, where he roamed the hinterlands in a jeep and showed films on the virtues of American democracy to puzzled villagers and the occasional sheep. In time his perceptive reports on Anatolian conditions and attitudes caught the eye of our ambassador in Ankara. Summoning Monty to his office, he asked imperiously why he was working for USIA . My dear boy, youre a born political analyst and my advice to you is to give up this silly propaganda business, take the Foreign Service exams, and come in through the front door.
Throughout his diplomatic career and later in academia, Monty published numerous articles and two books on American foreign policy, all in the voice of the omniscient narrator. Gifted Greek: TheEnigma of Andreas Papandreou, however, is a much more personal book: a memoir and character study of Greeces first socialist prime minister, whose transformation from affable American economist to fiery, anti-American Greek politician Monty witnessed at close hand during three assignments to Athens, the last as U.S. ambassador.
The book is also a reflection on the Cold War era, its impact on Greek and American relations, and especially its impact on Andreas Papandreou, whom we met in Athens in 1959. Born and raised in Greece but a naturalized American citizen since 1945, Andreas was then chairman of the economics department at the University of California, Berkeley. At the invitation of the Greek government, he was spending a sabbatical year in Athens, studying Greeces backward economy and preparing a report on how to improve it.
As fellow Americans, coincidentally living on the same street, we soon became good friends with Andy and Maggieas Andreas and his midwestern wife, Margaret, still called themselvesswapping cups of sugar along with like-minded impressions of Greece. It was easy to praise its scenic beauties and agreeable way of life; less so to find a good word for its inefficient bureaucracy and Byzantine political system. Andreas, who had to deal with both, regaled us with tales of lost files, cooked figures, and incompetent officialsall of which left him in a quandary over whether to finish his report and go back to California or extend his stay and push for his economic reforms to be enacted.
