October 11, 1971

Greek-born American economist and socialist politician Andreas G. Papandreou from York University, Toronto, delivered the Barbara Bailey Brown lecture, “Patterns of United States Intervention in Greece.” A cabinet minister in the administration of his father, Prime Minister George Papandreou, Professor Papandreou was exiled during the April 1967 military coup that established the government of Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos.

Speaking in the Chapel, he charged that several members of the current Greek government were members of the Greek central intelligence agency, which he said was administered and financed by the United State Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He further charged that the 1967 coup was engineered by the CIA through its influence over the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and, as Jon Plehn ’73 reported in The Miscellany News, “that NATO in Greece is synonymous with the United States mission…. Prof. Papandreou concluded that fascism ‘is not just a story for the Greeks. It is a story for all of us. We must confront totalitarianism is all its facets. Totalitarianism is a common fate for freedorm, dignity and self-determination.’”

In later life, Mr. Papandreou returned to Greece, where he served two terms as Prime Minister.

The Barbara Bailey Brown lectures were funded by the Barbara Bailey Brown Memorial Fund, established in 1966 by the Class of 1932 to commemorate the dedication to international understanding of Barbara Bailey Brown ’32.