Appointment in Gargalianoi

Ever since he became Vice President of the United States, the son of Theofrastes Anagnostopoulos had yearned to pay an official visit to his family homeland in the hills of southern Greece. There was only one hitch. The country had been taken over in 1967 by right-wing army officers, headed by Colonel George Papadopoulos, who had ousted Parliament, canceled the constitution and subjected a number of political opponents to imprisonment and torture. Last July, when the fiercely anti-Communist officers showed no signs of restoring democratic government soon, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to cut off all military aid unless President Nixon declared that it was necessary to U.S. interests. While Nixon pondered that prospect--the Senate has yet to act on the proposal--Colonel Papadopoulos, now Premier, spoke bitterly about American criticism of a faithful NATO ally. Spiro Agnew still wanted to visit the homeland.

Finally, he did--thus becoming the first top-ranking Western leader to set foot in Greece since the 1967 coup. Officially, there was to be no endorsement of the junta, just a discussion of "NATO matters." Unofficially, Agnew would visit his ancestral home as a private citizen. But when his olive-drab helicopter settled down at Gargalianoi (pop. 6,200), one day last week, Agnew saw the streets lined with some 60,000 cheering peasants who had come on foot and by donkey and chartered bus from miles around. At Agnew's side, his head reaching only to Agnew's shoulder, stood Premier Papadopoulos.

Agnew spoke emotionally of his return. His voice cracking slightly, he greeted the townspeople in the name of his late father. "At his knee I learned of this town and of the principles of the ancient Hellenes." He was greeted, in turn, by his father's cousin, Andreas Anagnostopoulos, 59, who still lives in the family house and who stood on tiptoe to kiss his relative on both cheeks.

Mopped Brow. After a rousing exchange of national anthems, Agnew drove to the town cemetery, where he placed wreaths of pink and white gladioli at the graves of eight relatives. Then to the convent of Saint Spirdion, founded by Agnew's great-aunt, Sister Makaria, where the Vice President chatted with two orphans and gave each a bracelet.

Then to the family house, where the welcoming crowd nearly overwhelmed him with its babbling affection. One bystander, seeing that Agnew was sweating heavily in the noonday sun, whipped out a large white handkerchief and mopped the vice-presidential brow. "He is the greatest Greek," cried another. In a doorway of the family house, a two-story whitewashed stone and stucco affair built 161 years ago, Agnew met his black-clad cousin Anastasia and Anastasia's 19-year-old son Demokratis, who presented him with a bouquet of red gladioli. Inside--while at the doors a crowd of people claiming to be relatives waved invitation cards and tried vainly to get in--Agnew's family served him stewed fruit and chatted about the old days. On his departure, Agnew pulled a cord that drew back Greek and U.S. flags and unveiled a plaque commemorating his fulfillment of the old American dream--emigration, success and triumphant return.

Just before Agnew arrived in Athens, almost 200 Greek political figures, ex-members of the ex-Parliament, had signed a public warning that Premier Papadopoulos would twist the Agnew visit into a seeming gesture of political support for his regime. They need not have worried about distortion, however; Agnew repeatedly made it clear that he warmly supported the military dictatorship. Given a chance to meet Greece's former political leaders, he declined.

No Sign. "We look forward," Agnew said on one occasion, "to seeing the many improvements that are taking place here in health, education, electrification"--improvements that are real enough, though at certain cost. Elsewhere he spoke of "the achievements that are going forward under the present Greek government." Finally, in exchanging toasts at a dinner in Athens, both Agnew and Papadopoulos spoke scornfully of "sophists." Such men, said the Greek Premier, "jeopardize the effort made in defending our civilization."

Before Agnew flew home at the weekend, Papadopoulos' spokesmen let it be known that Nixon would prevent any cutoff in aid, and that there had been no unseemly discussion of Greece's "internal political situation." Vice-presidential aides said in private that the Greek version was mistaken, but Agnew himself told accompanying newsmen that continued military aid to Greece is "a matter of overriding importance to the U.S." He also assured them that Papadopoulos "intends to return his country to representative government." There was no clear sign when that day would come, however, or that Spiro Agnew had hastened its coming.

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