On April 18, 1961, US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy prepared to receive the first Western leader to make an official visit to the US since taking office in January.

That leader was Greek Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis.

“An unusually cordial welcome awaited the Prime Minister of Greece, Mr. Konst. Karamanlin upon arrival here today [Ουάσιγκτον] on an official visit, which is taking place at the invitation of President Kennedy,” Kathimerini reported on May 18.

In his statements upon his arrival in Washington, the Greek Prime Minister said, among other things: “The Greeks do not forget that the American interest in their country begins with the revival of a new Greece and continues through the help and support of the allies. provided in recent years.

In all his conversations, Konstantinos Karamanlis focused on two main issues: the importance of NATO unity and the urgent need for the United States to provide economic and military assistance to Greece.

On the one hand, the ERE leader saw French President de Gaulle’s desire to question American influence in France and throughout Western Europe as a threat to the unity of the countries of the North Atlantic Treaty.

On the other hand, his main goal was that American aid to Greece should be 2/3 defense and 1/3 loans.

US assistance to our country in the form of the Marshall Plan was terminated in 1952 and, in the opinion of the Prime Minister, it was necessary to continue it mainly in the form of defense support, taking into account the shaky Greek-Turkish relations of the time.

Ultimately, although most of the Greek prime minister’s requests were denied by the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, his visit stimulated bilateral relations between the two countries.

New Cypriot unrest in 1963 and the fall of the Karamanlis government in the same year were to provoke a rapid development of Greek-American relations.