Book Review: U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe: The Soviet Political System

AuthorJurij Borys
DOI10.1177/002070206702200149
Published date01 March 1967
Date01 March 1967
Subject MatterBook Review
BOOK
REVIEWS
139
GREEK
POLITICAL REACTION
TO
AMERICAN
AND NATO
INFLUENCES.
By
Theodore
A.
Couloumbis.
1966.
(New
Haven:
Yale
University
Press.
Montreal:
McGill
University
Press.
x,
250pp.
$7.50)
Dr.
Couloumbis
has taken
care
to
circumscribe his
monograph
within manageably
narrow
limits. Athens
is
the
undisputed
political
centre
of
Greece,
indeed
virtually the
only
one
if
one
is
to
judge
from
this
work.
American" and
"NATO"
are
found
to
be
practically
synony-
mous
words
in
Athens, and
if
American
influences
apart
from
NATO
are
sometimes
discussed,
no
evidence
is
given
of
any
NATO
influence
which
was
not
in
essence
American.
For
sources,
some
use
has
been
made
of
the
Journal
of
Parlia-
mentaryj
Debates,
a
couple
of
Greek
academic
journals, three
or
four
polemics,
a
questionnaire
and
an
occasional
interview.
The
bulk
of
the
evidence
has,
however,
been
culled
from
four
Athens
dailies. Coverage
is
uneven,
since
the author has
focused
his
examination
on
specific
events,
such
as
the
accession to
NATO,
the
Graeco-Amercan
bilateral
agreement
of
1953,
and
the
elections since
1952.
At
each
stage
the
in-
formation
is
weighed
in
terms
of
confirming
or
disproving
six
hypotheses
and
propositions
adumbrated
in
the
introduction.
They
are
that
participation
in
NATO
was
a
by-product
of Greek-American
associa-
tion;
that
the
U.S.
exerted
considerable
influence
on Greece;
that
participation
in
NATO
committed
Greece
to
the
principle
of
co-operation
with
Turkey,
that
it
limited
Greece's
foreign
policy
flexibility-
that
NATO
was
supported
primarily
because
of
its
beneficial
effects
upon Greek
national interests;
and
that
the
policies
of
the
Conservative
movement
have
best
suited
American objectives.
It
comes
as
no
great
surprise
to
learn
that
these
hypotheses
are
largely
confirmed.
Only twice
does
Dr.
Couloumbis
venture judgments
which
do not
follow
inescapably
from
his
sources.
He
thinks
that
the greater
flexi-
bility
of
the
Centre
Union
is
likely
to
make
it, in
this
period
of
d6tente,
more
attractive
to
the
Americans
than
the
Conservative
movement.
He
also
considers
that
Greece
and
Turkey
have
underestimated
the
poten-
tial
bargaining
strength
in
NATO
that
could
have
been
derived
from
their
large
conventional
armies.
Although both
points
are
debatable
and
are
made
only
briefly in
the
last
chapter,
they
are
nevertheless
a
welcome
addition
to
the
original
dissertation.
A
few
more
well-argued
opinions
would
have
done
much
to enhance
the reader's
enjoyment
of
this very
competent
doctoral thesis.
University
of
Western Ontario
W
M.
DOBELL
U.S.S.R.
and
Eastern
Europe
THE
SOVIET
POLITICAL
SYsTEM.
An
Interpretation.
By
Alfred
G.
Meyer.
1965.
(New York:
Toronto:
Random House.
viii,
494pp.
$9.95)
Students
of
the
Soviet
system
exhibit
at
least
three
strong
ten-
dencies.
One
is
to
expect
metamorphosis,
that
is,
immediate
changes
in
the
system.
A
second
is
to
compare
it
with
the
American
system.
And

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