| Summary: | "From 1943 to 1949, tens of thousands of Greek soldiers and guerillas fought and slaughtered each other - as well as thousands of innocents - in a civil war of unrelenting and shocking savagery. In the wake of the Allied liberation of Greece from German occupation, the fighting transformed into a full-scale civil war, pitting the Communist insurgents against U.S.- and British-backed government forces. As a proxy war between the postwar superpowers, the Greek Civil War became the first hot zone of the Cold War. In Red Acropolis, Black Terror, historian Andre Gerolymatos recounts the full history of this divisive conflict, exposing old wounds that still fester beneath the surface of contemporary Greek society. He tells the stories of ordinary Greek men, women, and children caught up in turbulent times and by powerful foreign forces intent on exerting political control on the Balkan region. In telling detail, Gerolymatos relates the atrocities committed by both sides, such as the mass graves around Athens, where Communist partisans executed hundreds of civilians, and the notorious military tribunals and prison islands established by right-wing authorities to punish leftist sympathizers. From the early years of the German occupation, when resistance groups first began to organize in the mountains, to the assassination of U.S. journalist George Polk in 1948, Red Acropolis, Black Terror tells the riveting story of one of the most important "small wars" of the twentieth century - a war that had lasting influence on the post-war world and had a profound impact on American foreign policy. In many ways, the Greek Civil War heralded America's future involvement in Vietnam: not only did it mark the first time the United States used napalm, but it was the test-case for American counterinsurgency operations and convinced U.S. policy-makers that such wars were winnable. Red Acropolis, Black Terror presents the personal horrors of this brutal war, while exploring the global issues that made this conflict so vital to understanding the Cold War that followed."--Book jacket.
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