Who Killed George Polk?

Journal of Political and Military Sociology, Summer 1999 by Coufoudakis, Van

Who Killed George Polk?, by Elias Vlanton with Zak Mettger. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996. (322 pages, no price listed)

This is the third book that appeared in English since 1989 on the 1948 murder of George Polk. The first book was by Princeton University professor Edmund Keeley, The Salonica Bay Murder: Cold War Politics and the Polk Affair (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989). Keeley's book was followed by that of Kati Marton in the fall of 1990. Her book, The Polk Conspiracy (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1990), received wide press coverage. CBS's "60 Minutes" devoted a segment to Marton's theory on the Polk assassination in November 1990. Vlanton's book presents a new theory about this mysterious assassination which is based on his extensive research in Greek and American archives.

George Polk was a CBS correspondent covering the Greek Civil War. His body was found floating in Salonica Bay on May 16, 1948. Since then various theories have been advanced as to who was responsible for his assassination. Despite the claims of all the authors who have written on this issue in Greek or English, no one has come up with a definitive answer as to who murdered Polk. Nearly fifty years after the fact, the murder remains a mystery. The various theories provide speculative rather than definitive answers. This is also the case with this latest book by Vlanton. All major researchers agree on one point, that the Salonica journalist Gregory Staktopoulos was not involved in the murder, and that his confession was coerced. Elias Vlanton, however, argues that the important issue was not who murdered Polk but how the American media behaved in the coverage of this case. He thus raises the important question about the role of the American media during the Cold War.

Vlanton convincingly shows that the governments of Greece and the United States allowed an innocent man to be framed for Polk's murder and that some of the most respected names in American journalism "stood by and let it happen." At the height of the Cold War, the murder investigation was "tailored from the outset to fit political exigencies," while the American press became an instrument of American Cold War policy. Those journalists who disagreed and failed to cooperate destroyed their careers.

Vlanton's book is meticulously documented. Detailed notes make up a third of the manuscript. The book also contains an extensive bibliography of primary and secondary sources, as well as lists of interviews and correspondence conducted by the author.

Keeley's book makes a convincing case that Staktopoulos was framed and that the murder was not committed either by the communists or by the British as some have claimed. Available evidence suggests that the Greek right wing was responsible for the murder. Keeley, however, is unable to identify who might have been responsible for the actual murder. Kati Marton, in turn, takes her story one step further. While she agrees with the essentials of Keeley's explanation, she concludes that right-wing extremists, acting on orders by Constantine Tsaldaris, killed Polk. The motive, according to Marton, was to prevent disclosure that Tsaldaris had violated Greek currency regulations by diverting a small amount of U.S. currency to a New York bank account.

Vlanton reviews the events surrounding Polk's murder and the political environment of the period. He discusses how the investigation was conducted by the American media, the role of the U.S. Embassy in Athens, and the concerns of the U.S. government over the implications of Polk's murder on the American aid program to Greece. The author analyzes the arrest, trial, and conviction of Gregory Staktopoulos and reviews the theories regarding the Polk assassination. He concludes with his own theory of the journalist's murder.

Four theories have been advanced about the Polk murder according to Vlanton. The first is that the murder was the work of the communists. This theory is rejected for lack of motive, opportunity, and because fabricated evidence was used by the Greek authorities in the Staktopoulos case. The second theory, advanced by the Greek Journalist Kostas Hadjiargyris, advocates British involvement in the murder. This idea was also shared by James Kellis, one of the American investigators. Vlanton dismisses this theory on the grounds that the motive attributed to them, i.e., revenge for Britain's displacement from the region by the United States was "absurd." The third theory places blame on the Greek Right. Without fully dismissing this assertion, the author specifically debunks the Marton interpretation that attributes the murder to Tsaldaris. Her explanation is rejected because her depiction of the murder "strains credulity." Finally, a fourth recent theory (1992) centers on the direct involvement of the U.S. government in Polk's assassination. This theory argues that Polk's assassination was necessary because his contacts with the guerrillas could have endangered the American goal of total victory over the communists. This theory is waived off due to the lack of motive by anyone in the U.S. military or political establishment.