ABSTRACT
The CU appeared to be much better placed than the Karamanlis government to pursue a comprehensive new Eastern policy. In 1963-64, George Papandreou often declared that Greece wanted to be an ally of the West and a friend of the East. However, Papandreou himself was always suspicious of the Soviet Bloc. Among the Centre leaders it was Sophocles Venizelos who had argued for an opening to the East, but he died early during the 1964 electoral campaign. Moreover, the Cyprus crises in 1964 further complicated Greece’s Eastern policy.
