F-5 Furor

By Hunter R. Clark

Washington gets mad at Athens

Since Greek Socialist Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, 65, came to power almost three years ago, his erratic and often acerbic pronouncements have exasperated his NATO allies. Washington, in particular, has grown increasingly irritated at what some officials regard as Papandreou's "anti-American, proSoviet, pro-terrorist" policies. Last week it was revealed that on June 26 the Greek Ambassador to the U.S., George Papoulias, was summoned to the State Department, where he was informed by Assistant Secretary of State Richard Burt that the U.S. was considering denying a Greek request for surplus military aircraft: 16 F-5 fighters, at present in Norway's possession. According to Administration sources, most of the F-5's may instead go to Greece's traditional enemy, Turkey. Said a senior official in Washington: "The Greeks have got to see that they've got to act like allies."

The Administration in the past had muted its criticism of the Greek government, in part because it wanted Papandreou to honor a defense agreement that went into effect late last year. The pact allows the U.S. to continue maintaining strategic military bases in Greece until at least 1988, although the functioning of the bases has in recent days been hampered by striking Greek workers. Moreover, U.S. Ambassador to Greece Monteagle Stearns, a personal friend of the Prime Minister's, had offered some sound advice: "Don't look at what Papandreou is saying but at what he is doing." For example, Papandreou has kept Greece in NATO, despite an earlier threat to pull out.

But Washington tempers flared in May after Papandreou, a former Econom- ics Professor at the University of California at Berkeley, called the U.S. "the expansionist metropolis of imperialism." He also asserted that the Soviet Union is incapable of imperialism because of the nature of its economic system. The remarks came on top of Greece's continuing opposition to the deployment of new NATO missiles in Western Europe, as well as Papandreou's refusal to condemn Soviet behavior in Afghanistan and Poland.

Tensions were further exacerbated over an incident involving a suspected Arab terrorist. The man, whose name is believed to be Fuad Hussein Shara, was suspected by American and British intelligence officials of planting a suitcase containing a bomb on a commercial flight from Athens to Tel Aviv. The bomb did not go off. Greek authorities failed to press charges against the man and allowed him to leave the country. But they expelled an American CIA agent for obtaining evidence illegally by breaking into the Athens apartment of Shara's unwitting British woman friend.

The Greeks contended last week that sending the F-5's to Turkey would upset the delicate balance of power in the Aegean. They regard their NATO partner Turkey, not the Communist bloc, as their greatest threat. Much of this animosity results from the political division of Cyprus, over which Athens and Ankara have been clashing for years.

Greek authorities insist that the CIA's activities in the Shara case have undermined their own investigation. Said one Athens official: "The accusations that we are protecting terrorists are ridiculous."

At week's end both sides appeared anxious to resolve their disagreements. An Administration spokesman emphasized that from the very first the surplus aircraft had been earmarked for Turkey, not Greece. "It's not like Greece just lost a squadron of airplanes," he said. "No one is writing Greece off." After meeting with Stearns in Athens, Papandreou noted, "I am optimistic that the problems can be surpassed." --By Hunter R. Clark.

Reported by Mirka Gondicas/Athens and Barrett Seaman/Washington

With reporting by Mirka Gondicas, Barrett Seaman