Eagle, I don't want to form an alliance anymore.

The final reason the Soviet Union did not help Greece was that Greece's economic structure had a fundamental flaw—it had almost no manufacturing sector.

Greece is an import-dependent country, with imports far exceeding exports. It does not have an export-oriented manufacturing base like South Korea, northern Italy, or Germany. This means that Greece cannot earn foreign exchange through exports to repay its foreign debt. Its trade structure dictates that it will always be a net importer and will always need to obtain funds from outside to make up for its trade deficit.

This kind of ally is more suitable for the United States than for the Soviet Union.

The director said, "Greece is NATO's Achilles' heel. We just need to make it bleed. As long as the United States is unwilling to give up Greece or allow it to leave NATO, the United States will have to continue to provide financial support to Greece. The cost of this financial support will eventually weaken the United States' resource investment in other areas."

Therefore, the Soviet Union decided to fuel the flames, accelerating the tipping point of the Greek crisis and forcing the United States to bleed in Greece in order to maintain NATO unity.

America, you don't want NATO to have its first "North Korean defector," do you?

The United States certainly doesn't want future history to write that "Greece's withdrawal from NATO in 1995 was the first domino to fall in the dramatic changes in Eastern Europe," so Gephardt gritted his teeth and stood firm!

Since the United States was so patient, how could the Soviet Union possibly let go of this golden opportunity to strike at America's testicles?

It's important to understand that the majority of Greek government bonds are denominated in foreign currencies—the West German mark and the US dollar. Why? Because the interest rates on bonds denominated in the local currency (drachma) are too high. International investors don't trust the stability of the drachma and therefore demand higher interest rates to compensate for the risk.

Greece, in a moment of brilliance, discovered a bug: if it issued government bonds denominated in German marks or US dollars, the interest rate could be lower because investors trusted the marks and dollars.

However, there is a fatal trap here: if the drachma depreciates, the debts denominated in marks and dollars will instantly inflate when converted into drachmas.

You owed 10 billion marks. Previously, one mark was worth 150 drachmas, so your debt was 1.5 trillion drachmas. Now the drachma has depreciated by 30%, so one mark is worth 200 drachmas—your debt has become 2 trillion drachmas!

The change in exchange rates resulted in Greece owing hundreds of billions more. It would be unreasonable for Slava and Nyanko-Sultan, as the greatest financial manipulators in Soviet history, not to give Greece a good thrashing. The United States and Japan did not escape the couple's clutches, and Greece was no exception.

The Soviet Union then quickly and secretly stirred up trouble internationally, releasing a large number of seemingly plausible but ultimately false messages: on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, it claimed that Greece could not repay its debts; on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, it claimed that the European Community rejected Greece's accession to the Eurozone; and on Sundays, it manipulated the Greek exchange rate through the international futures market.

Greece, a country heavily reliant on imports, had never seen anything like this before. Many panicked foreign exporters demanded that Greek importers shorten payment terms or settle accounts in US dollars earlier. Greece did not want to deplete its precious foreign exchange reserves, but international banks, due to Greece's extremely poor credit, refused to refinance its maturing foreign currency debt.

By May 1995, Greece's foreign exchange reserves had fallen to the brink of collapse, prompting it to appeal to the United States for help.

At the same time, the Greek government made a decision that later proved disastrous: to remove the remaining controls on short-term capital flows ahead of the EU unification deadline.

Why? Because of the Maastricht Treaty. The Maastricht Treaty, signed in 1992, set a series of convergence standards for the European Economic and Monetary Union—member states must meet these standards to join the future Eurozone.

The standards include an inflation rate not exceeding a certain level, a fiscal deficit not exceeding 3% of GDP, a gradual decrease in public debt, and a stable exchange rate within a certain range...

Greece fails to meet any of the criteria. However, the Greek government is eager to join the Eurozone because joining would mean the protection of a larger community, the elimination of exchange rate risk (everyone uses the same currency), and lower borrowing costs (the EU's credit would back you up).

In order to demonstrate to the EU that Greece is implementing reforms, the Greek government has decided to open its capital account ahead of schedule and remove restrictions on short-term capital inflows and outflows.

This decision sends a signal to the market: Greece is ready to reform and open up!

Another signal the market is hearing is that Greece's economy and currency are not yet ready.

As a result, a large number of international speculators, including but not limited to hedge funds, currency traders, short-term capital, and the largest speculator, the Soviet Union, set their sights on Greece.

The Soviet Union's methods of currency attack were simple and straightforward:

The drachma is overvalued. Greece's economic fundamentals (high inflation, high debt, low growth) do not support the current exchange rate and it will depreciate sooner or later. So, if I borrow drachmas now and exchange them for marks or dollars, and then exchange the marks or dollars back for drachmas after the drachma depreciates, the difference between the borrowed amount and the exchange rate is my profit!

This is the simplest way to short a currency, and it's a basic operation in the international market.

Speculators then began to sell off large quantities of drachmas, causing the exchange rate of the drachma to plummet in the foreign exchange market. The Bank of Greece wanted to use its foreign exchange reserves to buy drachmas in the market to stabilize the exchange rate, but the central bank had very little foreign exchange left.

Speculators flocked from all over the world like sharks smelling blood, and Soviet-controlled foreign financial entities dumped large quantities of drachmas on the foreign exchange market.

The Soviet Union only needed to inject a few hundred million rubles into the foreign exchange market to create an explosion, while the United States had to pay billions of dollars to avert the subsequent avalanche!

By June 7th, the Bank of Greece had lost its ability to intervene in the foreign exchange market. It could no longer buy drachmas or stabilize the exchange rate, which was now in freefall. Meanwhile, the peak of maturing foreign debt was approaching; a large number of foreign currency bonds issued by the Greek government in recent years were about to mature and had to be repaid—in Deutsche Marks or US dollars!

What if we lose all our marks and dollars?

Borrowing new money to repay old debts? The World Bank has long listed Greece as one of the lowest-credit-rating economies. What idiot in the world would lend money to a country with a teetering exchange rate and depleted foreign exchange reserves?

Issuing new government bonds? Greek interest rates have already soared to over 30%. Issuing bonds at this rate is like drinking poison to quench thirst, because the debt will balloon even more terrifyingly.

At this time, the Soviet Union added fuel to the fire by using its cyber security network to amplify the news of the Greek economic collapse through its propaganda channels in international media and on the Internet.

Headlines like "Greece is about to go bankrupt!" and "The third Great Depression?" appear in various financial news and forums.

Having learned from the lessons of the Great Depression in the United States and the bursting of the Japanese bubble economy, international investors and creditors no longer consider the idea that "a country's economy can really collapse" to be a fantasy.

They quickly made their own judgment: many creditors began demanding that Greece repay its debts early, an international bank run quickly occurred, a large amount of capital fled Greece, Greek banks experienced a liquidity crisis and collapsed in large numbers, and domestic depositors lined up at the remaining banks to withdraw their money—the real bank run had occurred.

Gephat was dumbfounded.

Dude, Congress was still discussing how many billions to send to save you, and you died? Why didn't you tell me sooner? Why did you only ask the US for help when the fuse was just millimeters away from burning out?

At that time, Congress was still discussing giving Greece 40 billion euros, but then Greece collapsed and they said 40 billion euros was not enough and it would probably need 80 billion euros.

Washington immediately backed down, saying anyone who paid for it was a fool, and that the international community should share the burden! The Soviet Union had always refused to join the IMF, so why not offer them some preferential treatment and beg them to join the IMF to save Greece?

The Soviet Union was certainly not going to be taken advantage of; wouldn't it have been better to use that money to repair railways and build the Ivanovsky Tower?

Left with no other option, Washington, along with the other NATO allies, had to set conditions for Greece:

First, Greece must remain in NATO and must not engage in any form of military cooperation with the Soviet Union or the Warsaw Pact.

Second, Greece must accept the IMF's structural adjustment plan.

If the above conditions are met, the IMF will provide Greece with an emergency loan of $80 billion.

The Greek government accepted it, but the Greek people refused, because they saw the IMF's restructuring plan as nothing short of treason.

The IMF of the 1990s was not the IMF of today. The IMF of that era followed the so-called "Washington Consensus"—prescribing almost the same remedy to every country in need of aid:

Drastic cuts to public spending – education, healthcare, and social welfare cuts of 20 to 30 percent;

Tax rates will be increased—the value-added tax will be raised from 18% to 23%, and the high-end tax rates for personal income tax will be raised.

Privatization of public enterprises—power companies, telecommunications companies, port authorities, and everything else that could be sold were sold to foreign investors;

The labor market is becoming more flexible – reducing layoff protections and allowing companies to lay off workers more easily;

Pension reform – raising the retirement age and lowering the pension replacement rate.

...

Each of these measures is like rubbing salt into the wound for an ordinary Greek already suffering from the economic crisis.

You're already unemployed, and the IMF says it's easier for companies to lay off employees; you can't afford healthcare, and the IMF says it's cutting healthcare budgets; you're nearing retirement, and the IMF says working a few more years will reduce your pension; your power company is state-owned, and your electricity prices are relatively cheap, but the IMF says it should be sold to foreigners, and the market should dictate the price...

Poverty is the soil of communism. The reason why the social democratic parties in Northern Europe can manage class reconciliation is because their economies are relatively healthy. Given the current situation in Greece, how can the Panhellenic Socialist Party, which has been in power for many years, manage?

That leaves us with the classic three-way solution: either Marx, Malthus, or Maxim. The middle one is too time-consuming and difficult to understand, so we're left with only Marx and Maxim as options.

With Soviet support, the left wing of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement and the Communist Party of Greece began to act. They released the full text of the IMF terms ahead of schedule. At that time, the Greek government was still negotiating with the Americans, but the KGB managed to obtain the document and immediately had the left-wing coalition release it. The Communist Party of Greece claimed that someone within the government had leaked the document—indeed, in a government on the verge of collapse, loyalty is cheap.

The entire article was published in the newspaper in the most straightforward, unambiguous, and clearest Greek:

"These are the conditions America wants us to accept! This is surrender! Selling our power companies to foreigners? Selling our ports to foreigners? Cutting our healthcare and education? Raising the retirement age? What's the difference between this and a colony?"

Unrest is beginning to rise within Greece. The streets of Athens have been anything but quiet since June, with daily demonstrations. Police have been deployed around the Parliament building, and the smell of tear gas permeates the air.

Greece's left-wing coalition is demanding early elections. Their logic is clear: the right-wing government has lost legitimacy—it accepted an IMF agreement that is tantamount to treason, and it lacks the people's mandate. Only through elections, allowing the people to decide, can this crisis be resolved.

Given the current political landscape, a left-wing coalition is almost certain to win the election. The right-wing government's approval rating has plummeted to the teens; with economic collapse, bank failures, and the IMF provisions looming large, no one supports it anymore.

The United States naturally does not want Greece to hold early elections.

Washington's directive was: "Hold firm! Hold firm and there's a way!"

"Avoid elections; use force to quell the chaos. As long as the IMF provides aid, public opinion will surely turn around."

Public opinion will only grow increasingly angry.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

By the end of June 1995, the situation in Greece had reached its worst point, and the Anarchists were the first to launch their attack.

Exahia, Athens, is one of Europe's most notorious Anarchist neighborhoods, a mecca of radical politics since the 1973 Universiti Technologichesky Intent uprising (a landmark event that led to the fall of the military government). Riots erupt every year on November 17th (the anniversary of the Universiti Technologichesky Intent uprising).

On June 23, a 15-year-old boy was shot and killed by police in the Exahia district of Athens, and within hours Athens was plunged into massive riots—arson, vandalism of shops, looting, and road blockages.

The riots quickly spread to Thessaloniki and other cities, involving anarchists, students, unemployed youth, football hooligans, immigrants, and even middle-class citizens. The Greek Communist Party and labor unions attempted to guide this force, but they failed; the Greek Communist Party's support and reputation were insufficient to steer this outburst of emotion.

The riots were far more powerful than any political party could organize, and even with more than 6000 riot police deployed, the situation remained uncontrolled.

Tens of thousands of people were demonstrating in Constitution Square. Some were smashing bank windows, some were burning trash cans, and some overturned a police car.

The port was completely paralyzed, and the dockworkers' strike entered its third week. No one was loading or unloading cargo, and dozens of cargo ships were anchored outside the harbor waiting—the cargo on board was rotting in containers, and warehouses around the port were looted.

The bank's doors were welded shut. After several days of bank runs, depositors discovered that there was no cash left in the bank. To prevent more people from rushing in, the bank welded the doors shut.

A handwritten notice was posted on the door: "Closed for technical reasons."

On Crete, farmers drove their tractors onto the national highway, blocking the only main road from Heraklion to Chania. Hundreds of vehicles were stuck on the road. The farmers complained that diesel fuel prices had risen by 50 percent and fertilizer prices by 40 percent, and they couldn't sell their produce (because the port was paralyzed and exports were blocked), while production costs were skyrocketing!

In the midst of the outburst, the town hall of a small town was occupied, with dozens of local residents storming in and driving the mayor out. Their reason was, "The mayor sold the city government's reserves to black market dealers during the crisis; we need to take care of ourselves!"

The Greek government declared a nationwide state of emergency at the end of June, granting the army and police the power to arrest citizens without court authorization, banning assemblies and demonstrations, imposing temporary censorship on the media, and imposing a curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. that prohibits everyone from leaving their homes.

The state of emergency was partially enforced in Athens and Thessaloniki, with the army and riot police controlling major government buildings and infrastructure. However, elsewhere, particularly on islands and in remote rural areas, the state of emergency was largely ignored.

The government's power cannot reach there; those places have already become self-governing in effect—the residents of villages and towns organize their own patrols, distribute their own food, and maintain order (or not maintain it at all).

And so came the anarchist kingdom.

"Things are always so bad in the Balkans..."

To prevent the chaos in Greece from spreading to the Balkans, the Soviet Union deployed additional troops to Albania, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria in early July along Greece's northern border. The official Soviet explanation was to ensure Warsaw Pact stability; internal turmoil in Greece could lead to refugee outflows and instability in border regions—and the Soviet Union had a responsibility to protect the security of its Warsaw Pact allies.

After receiving intelligence that the Soviet Union was increasing its troop presence in Albania, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria, the Pentagon convened an emergency assessment meeting overnight.

Everyone wanted to know what the Soviet Union was planning to do.

The first assessment: The Soviet Union was indeed only maintaining stability.

The second interpretation is that the Soviet Union was engaging in opportunistic strategic planning, prepositioning forces around Greece while the country was in turmoil. This was in case the situation in Greece worsened further, or if the Greek left wing actually decided to wage armed struggle and start another Greek civil war, Soviet troops could be deployed immediately upon request.

The third interpretation is that the Soviet Union is preparing a coordinated operation, working with the Greek Communist Party to enter Greece from three directions to help the new regime consolidate its power.

The United States could not stand idly by, and President Gepphardt spoke by phone with the Secretary of Defense and the National Security Advisor that evening.

The United States must demonstrate its presence in Greece.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The United States first issued a stern diplomatic warning to the Soviet Union regarding its "military provocations."

"...The United States expressed serious concern over the Soviet Union's adjustments to its military deployments in Greece's neighboring countries. The United States reminded the Soviet Union that Greece was a full member of NATO. Any threat to Greece's territorial integrity and political independence, whether direct or indirect, would be considered a threat to the entire NATO. The United States would not hesitate to fulfill its collective defense obligations under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty."

Article 5 is the core of the NATO treaty: "An armed attack on one Member State shall be deemed an armed attack on all Member States."

The Soviet Foreign Ministry responded as follows:

"The Soviet Union's military deployment adjustments were conducted entirely within the Warsaw Pact framework and constituted normal military cooperation between the Soviet Union and its allies. The Soviet Union posed no threat to Greece's territorial integrity or political independence, and respected every country's right to choose its own path of development."

The United States should not misinterpret the Soviet Union's normal military activities within the territory of its allies as a threat.

The Soviet Union's statement that "each country can choose its own path of development" can be interpreted as either the Soviet Union respecting Greece's sovereignty or the Greek people having the right to choose to withdraw from NATO and join the Warsaw Pact.

The director deliberately didn't specify which one it was, leaving the Americans to guess.

The Soviet Union's goal was to deplete the enemy's energy and resources, forcing them to commit real strength to dealing with a threat that might not even exist.

The United States dared not gamble on the Soviet Union's mercy, because the precedent of the Warsaw Pact's deployment of troops on the Hungarian border two years earlier, intending to liberate Yugoslavia, was still fresh in everyone's mind. Therefore, the Pentagon began to urgently deploy forces to Greece.

The first group to arrive in Greece were US military police, a company of about 150 men, who were urgently airlifted from a US military base in Italy to Athens.

The official mission of the military police is to assist in protecting U.S. diplomatic facilities in Greece and the safety of U.S. citizens.

The second group to arrive consisted of special forces, whose mission was to take direct action should the situation deteriorate further and signs of foreign intervention emerge.

Special forces were quickly deployed to the Greek border for peacekeeping, primarily to monitor for any signs of Soviet troops crossing the border.

But the few hundred Americans sent were a drop in the ocean on Greek soil. Suddenly, many armed militants appeared in Greece, wielding old-fashioned weapons that seemed to have sprouted from the ground to fight against government forces. As for where the weapons came from? The answer is Albanian gangs.

As July drew to a close, the United Nations passed a resolution to provide humanitarian aid to Greece. The Soviet Union proposed at the Security Council to deploy peacekeeping troops to Greece, but the United States vetoed the proposal on the grounds that it was an "internal matter of NATO."

What else is there to say? Fire the guns! March on Athens with swords drawn!

Chapter 152 A group of companions from Greece...

Xinhua News Agency, Athens, June 30:

"Large-scale mass demonstrations erupt in the Greek capital, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets demanding the government's resignation."

On June 30, local time, Athens, the capital of Greece, witnessed its largest mass demonstration since the fall of the military government in 1974. Preliminary estimates indicate that over 6 people participated, with demonstrators converging from all directions of the city onto Syntagma Square and the main thoroughfare in front of the Parliament building.

Our reporter at the scene observed that the march was extremely diverse – it included members of the Greek Communist Party and the Left-Wing Alliance, as well as a large number of ordinary citizens and workers and farmers from various regions. The flags carried by the demonstrators covered the symbols of almost all major political forces in Greece, even including Golden Dawn, which was labeled a Nazi party by the Warsaw Pact. Several local councilors from the New Democracy party also appeared in the march, publicly expressing their opposition to the privatization provisions proposed by the International Monetary Fund.

It is understood that the immediate trigger for this demonstration was the full publication of the loan conditions proposed by the International Monetary Fund to the Greek government. These conditions included demands for the sale of the Greek power company, the state-owned telecommunications company "705u.com-Reading Club First Release," and control of the Port of Piraeus. These terms sparked a strong backlash across Greek society, spanning both left and right-wing camps.

During the march, clashes broke out between demonstrators and riot police in some urban areas, with tear gas and rubber bullets used. More than 100 people have been injured and dozens detained. Notably, reporters at the scene observed some police officers removing their helmets and shields and joining the march.

The Greek Ministry of Defense has not yet issued a statement on whether the military will intervene to maintain order.