ABSTRACT
The phenomenon of military intervention in politics is a latecomer in modern Greek history. Military coups acquired a disquietening frequency after the end of Greece’s irredentist wars in 1922, and coincided with the waning of parliamentary practices elsewhere in Europe. Greece’s entry into the Second World War and the subsequent developments of occupation, resistance and civil strife, generated profound transformations in society and politics which could not fail to affect the military. The circumstances of civil strife also account for the penetration of Greek military institutions by American missions whose main concern was to maximise the operational capabilities of their proteges, often at the expense of their respect for democratic institutions. The constitution of 1968 bears evidence of Papadopoulos’ idea of the political regime best suited for Greece. A committee of jurists that toiled between May and December 1967 presented the government with a draft constitution that was ultimately ignored by the regime.
