Letters

National Interest, The, Summer, 2002

The anti-Americanism of the Right revolves around issues of preserving national identity abetted by an embrace of conspiracy theories. Unable to develop an alternative ideological platform to combat the simplistic anti-imperialist slogans of the Left, many Greek conservatives have rallied behind the Orthodox Church to blame the Americans for "purposively" subverting all indigenous culture in their drive to pursue globalization. Likewise, the Americans are portrayed as plotting behind the scenes to keep the socialist government in power, because, it is whispered, they would rather prefer a nominally leftist but docile administration than a "nationally proud" and "unbending" rightist regime. Failure at the polls is thus explained as a result of dark machinations of a foreign power and not as a genuine product of the Greek people's free choice.

It appears plausible now that New Democracy may win the next elections. Its new leader Kostas Karamanlis-- nephew of the former President--appears to be moderate and pragmatic. Whether he will finally appease the nationalist fanatics of his party and treat fairly with the West, and the United States in particular, remains to be seen.

ANDREAS

ANDRIANOPOULOS

Athens, Greece

Michas replies:

In his comments on my article, Aristide Caratzas, an advisor to Archbishop Christodoulos, raises several objections.

First, he declares that "America is held in high esteem in Greece. ..." That's really news! After all, I only based my argument on the results of the opinion polls that have been published in Greece on the subject of anti-Americanism during the last few years, as well as on the interpretation of the polling data provided by leading Greek analysts such as Theodore Skylakakis and Takis Kafetzis. On what evidence does Mr. Caratzas base his assessment that "America is held in high esteem"?

Then, he seeks to castigate the messenger for the message, writing: "[T] seek to raise the ghost (of anti-Americanism) tells more about the author and the agendas he is promoting...." I thought that this kind of talk disappeared with Stalinism. It is interesting to see it being resurrected by an advisor to the Orthodox Church of Greece.

Then, he says that I take Archbishop Christodoulos' "words and sentences out of context. . . ." But the entire Greek media came to the same conclusions in interpreting the Archbishop's statements in the aftermath of September 11. So did the newswires (Agence France Press, Associated Press) as well as other international media outlets (such as the BBC and The New Statesman).

Caratzas says that my piece "is less about reporting reality than about what could pass as liberal narrative composed during the Clinton years." Well, at least here Mr. Caratzas is on to something! Yes, I do admit that I find Mr. Clinton's liberal internationalism more congenial to my worldview than the ethnototalitarian views of Radovan Karadzic, General Mladic and their ilk--views so popular among the Holy Trinity of America-haters in Greece: the nationalist Right, the communist Left and the Orthodox Church of Greece.