This thesis attempts to identify and analyze the causes that led to the downfall of the EPE Government in 1958 and the resignation of Konstantinos Karamanlis in 1963. This study suggests a new interpretive scheme through which the contradictions between the centers of power of this period are highlighted, such as the Crown, the Americans and the government. Through this interpretive scheme, attempts are made to determine the limits of the Karamanlis center of power to set an autonomous policy, escaping in this way from the narrow limits of approaches that consider Karamanlis as a simple agent of the Crown. At the same time, an attempt was made to reconstruct the most important historical events of the period 1955-1963, as this was considered necessary to understand the complex political scene of Post-Civil Greece.
The thesis is divided into three parts, based on the governing period of the three ERE governments. Particular emphasis is given to the political processes that preceded the downfall of Karamanlis government in 1958 and his resignation of 1963. The opposition stance is examined, as well as the role played by a number of institutional and non-institutional factors in the forming developments. Furthermore, the major foreign policy issues of the period are analyzed, such as the Cyprus issue and the course of Greece joining the EEC, as well as the country's international relations in the context of the Cold War. The conditions under which Karamanlis and his associates chose to pursue a flexible and realistic foreign policy without questioning the western orientation of Greek foreign policy, are investigated.
Christoforos Vernardakis