GREECE: Red Paint & Pericles

An official traveler just back from Athens reported that one of the most baffling questions in Greece was red paint. Like nearly everything else in that country, red paint could not be had at any store. Yet there was scarcely a public building in Athens which had not been painted with red inscriptions reading Roosevelt, EAM or KKE (Greek Communist Party) or with big, gay Hammer & Sickle emblems.

Also baffling was the profusion of Greek political parties. There were 27 when the official arrived, 28 when he left a week later. "Nothing surprising in that," a philosophical Greek explained. "It's...

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