June 11, 1959
PAPANDREOU ON YUGOSLAVIA: The leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, Georgios Papandreou, made a statement yesterday rejecting a Romanian proposal for a missile-free Balkans. He referred to the example of Yugoslavia, which he said was a unique case. «In Yugoslavia, they have national communism. As it is national, it cannot be identified with Moscow’s international communism. As it is communist, it cannot be identified with Western democracies. In the former case, it would be at risk of being absorbed and, in the second, its regime would fall. That is why it is vacillating between East and West. Its policies, its armed neutrality, are not the result of free choice and therefore it is not an example to follow. It is a state of need. Greece has no need to walk a tightrope between East and West. Threatened by communist pan-Slavism as it is by its geographical position and its history, it finds itself in its natural position within the defense alliance of the free world.» GREECE-BULGARIA: Sofia, 9 – The Bulgarian government has handed a demarche to the Greek charge d’affaires regarding an alleged plan to allow the installation of missile bases on Greek soil. The demarche calls for a meeting of Balkan nations to declare the peninsula a missile-free zone.
