Not Completely Satisfactory

One day last week, the Sacred Cow (once President Truman's personal plane) landed in Athens. Out stepped Secretary of State George Marshall, who had left his wearisome business in Paris to have a look into the even more wearisome business of Greece. Assembled to greet him, plainly a little embarrassed, were U.S. Ambassador Henry F. Grady, U.S. General James A. Van Fleet and Greek Premier Themistocles Sophoulis (who wore dark glasses despite the day's grey overcast). The Premier remarked that Greece's fate rested in George Marshall's strong hands. He might have added that these hands were, as usual, expected to straighten out a sad mess.

Last summer, after the Greek army's victory in the Grammos Mountains, it looked as though the guerrilla power was broken and that only a mopping-up process lay ahead. This month, re-equipped by Greece's Communist neighbors, the guerrillas made a startling comeback by attacking government positions in the Vitsi Mountains (TIME, Oct. 11). The Greek army, which had heroically sustained casualties up to 13% in the Grammos operation, had little appetite for the Vitsi campaign. The guerrillas had a fresh, seemingly unlimited supply of land mines which they were using to the full; World War II veterans know what intensive mining does to a soldier's morale. Last month the Greek government sent an S.O.S. to Washington. Its gist: there are actually more guerrillas in Greece now than when the U.S. first started giving aid; continued U.S. aid is necessary.

As George Marshall drove through Athens, the people (who had not been told of his visit until just before his arrival) thronged the streets and cried: "Zeto [hurrah] Marshall!" He drove to the headquarters of the U.S. military mission --nicknamed the "Temple of Knowledge" by sour Greek officers--for talks with the U.S. staff. To correspondents, U.S. officers explained that no decisive action was possible this year because winter had already come to the mountains in northern Greece. All that could be done was to contain the guerrillas, and prepare a spring offensive. Remarked Ambassador Grady: "The situation ... is not completely satisfactory."

While Greeks and Americans tended to blame each other for the "situation," the truth was that both were faced with a very tough military and political problem: How to destroy an enemy when his base in a "neutral" country is immune from attack?

As George Marshall boarded his plane to return to Paris, a Greek newsman commented : "There goes the wisest statesman who has come to Greece in a long time. He promised nothing--and didn't try to tell us that the situation was fine."

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