Professors Attack U.S. Greek Policy

Speakers, including Noam Chomsky, professor of linguistics at MIT, last night criticized the alleged U.S. role in the November Greek military coup, terming it a symptom of American international imperialism.

Chomsky spoke at a teach-in in Lowell Lecture Hall sponsored by the Action Group For Greece, a Boston-based organization that was formed in December in response to the coup.

Chomsky stressed the international character of the Greek coup, citing the country's 150-year history of foreign domination, first by Britain and then by the U.S.

Chomsky said that Greece was caught in a battle between "the world industrial capitalists" for control of the world's natural resources, especially oil.

"Greece is critical to U.S. domination of the Middle East," Chomsky said. He noted the recent installation of the U.S. Sixth Fleet, "America's big stick," in Athens as evidence of the importance of Greece to U.S. interests.

Chomsky said democratic government could only exist in Greece as long "as it guaranteed U.S. control and economic privileges." A popularly-elected government could not insure U.S. security in Greece and therefore "could not be allowed to take power," he continued.

Another speaker, Leon Eisenberg, professor of Psychiatry at the Ed School, said the Pentagon and the CIA, which help insure dictatorship in Greece, also "threaten democracy in this country."

"Pentagon spying on civilian officials, the events of Kent State and Jackson State, and the war in Southeast Asia show the power of the military-industrial establishment that supported the Greek coup," Eisenberg said.