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No Man's Land. How would Greece react to the new threat? Life on the U.S. dole has become attractive. Would Greeks bestir themselves? Since war's end the British had poured a quarter billion dol lars into Greece, the U.S. over $700 million (through UNRRA, AMAG and other aid), with more to come. Most moneyed Greeks would not dream of investing their own funds in a shaky country which would be quickly overrun from the north. But far more threatening than guerrilla military victories was their continued disruption of Greek life. Markos' uprooters had already driven half a million Greeks (of a total population of 7,500,000) from their villages into the crowded towns.
In the no man's land between Markos' mountains and army-held towns, the few remaining villagers have learned to retire to their cellars when the shooting starts. When it stops, they come out to see who has won. Said one villager: "As far as I'm concerned, there's only one difference between the two. The army pays me for the food it buys—the others give me pieces of paper."
"All I Ask .. ." The spiritual no man's land in the hearts of despairing Greeks is the most significant battlefield. Perhaps half the population is sitting on the fence, ready to join whichever side wins the first big victory. Said one peasant refugee: "I want to go back to my farm. All I ask is peace and security." His manner tacitly added what he did not say: ". . . and I don't care who gives it to me."
Greece's agony and problem are, in microcosm, the world's. Where can war-weary, desperate people turn? Of all who offer answers, the Communists beyond doubt have been most vigorous in selling theirs. At last, the selling is beginning to get some brisk competition. Last week U.S. headquarters in Athens, which Greek officers derisively call "The Temple of Knowledge," was startled and delighted when the Greek Chief of Staff Demetrios, Yantzis made a significant statement. He dropped the Greek government clamor for more equipment and told a press conference: "The means at our disposal are now sufficient for us to obtain our objectives."
This was the best possible answer to the morale problem of the Greek army expressed by one soldier last week: "It's all very well to say we are not showing much initiative fighting Markos—but the Americans aren't showing much initiative fighting Stalin."
Only the contagion of hope, the realization that it was everybody's war, would break that attitude and Markos' hold.
* On March 25, 1821, Germanos, Archbishop of Patras, raised the blue & white flag of the Cross above the convent of Hagia Lavra in the Peloponnesus. It was the signal for the Greek rising against the Moslem Turks. The Turks replied by seizing 80-year-old Gregory, Patriarch of Constantinople, as he left the altar on Easter Sunday. They hanged him at the gate of his palace and threw his body into the sea. After eight years of war, Greece became an independent kingdom.