A attempt on Monday by protesters reportedly affiliated with Greece’s Communist Party (KKE) to topple a bronze statue of US President Harry Truman in downtown Athens, as an anti-war rally passed the monument, made headlines around the world.
The statue has repeatedly been targeted by communists and far-left groups in the past, who vilify the 33rd president of the United States for his administration’s direct involvement in Greece after WWII, and especially during the Greek civil war (1946-49). It was the US leader’s “Truman Doctrine”, which provided crucial military and material assistance to the nationalist side of the conflict, that led his honoring with a monument in a very prominent spot of Athens, two blocks from the Panathinaiko Stadium.
The subsequent Marshall Plan helped rebuilt the country after nine years of incessant war and occupation.
Around 40 people, described by supporters as “college students”, veered away from an anti-war rally to topple the statue, with riot police intervening.
