Reds in the Middle

The first effects of the new Kremlin twist--back to Popular Fronts--was felt in Greece last week. There, with a national election only a week off, the Communists were switching to middle-of-the-road political parties. The orders came via "bandit radio" from Rumania, with the voice of exiled Communist leader Nicholas Zachariades telling Greeks to vote for Premier Nicholas Plastiras' National Progressive Union of the Center in the Nov. 16 general election. While naming Plastiras "a traitor ... an enemy of the people and an agent of American-ocracy," Zachariades said Communist voters must aim at "getting the highest possible democratic concentration," particularly on local slates. The reason: "The [Communists] personally despise the executioner, Papagos, much more."

Collapsing Coalition. Despise was hardly the word. The Communists mortally hate and fear aging (68) Field Marshal Alexander Papagos, who in 1949, with U.S. help, defeated the Communists on the battlefield. Greece's No. 1 military hero (commander in chief of Greek forces in World War II) might long ago have been Greece's No. 1 political leader but for a personal quarrel with King Paul. His Greek Rally Party polled the largest number of seats in the last election, but the King snubbed the Field Marshal and handed the government to a coalition of Plastiras Progressives and Venizelos Liberals. The coalition fell to pieces when it became apparent that it could govern only with the tacit support of the crypto-Communist Democratic Union Party.

Last week John Passalides, head of the party-line Democratic Union, called on Premier Plastiras, who has recently suffered two strokes. Said he: "Without entering at this moment into any criticism of what you have done or failed to do . . . I hereby propose . . . for the sake of democracy and the nation, that we cooperate in the coming elections." If Plastiras was embarrassed, he did not show it. He did not formally agree to accept Communist support, but his election propaganda took a sharp, easily recognizable turn: it charged the opposition Greek Rally Party with being a Fascist organization.

Counter-Fury. Field Marshal Papagos (who fought and beat Mussolini's armies in 1940 and was imprisoned by the Nazis for two years) was angry, but not so furious as the newspapers supporting him. Said Athens' Apogevmatini: "If the United Center should gain power through Communist support, Papagos will not permit you to climb to power." At week's end Papagos had to tone down his supporters' exuberance: He would stand by the election results whatever they were, he said. Actually the Communist switch, aimed so nakedly at taking over the machinery of the middle-of-the-road parties, may do the Papagos forces more good than harm.

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