sition from guerilla to conventional war when this could have brought swift victory, and then attempted to make the transition when the U.S. backed government already had overwhelmingly superior force.
To understand the situation that led to the Greek civil war, it is necessary to briefly outline the the political condition of Greece in the period leading up to the Axis occupation.From the end of World War I until 1936, Greek politics was divided between two chief factions. These factions were not primarily distinguished by ideology or program: they were both, essentially, patronage movements held together by personal and family ties between leaders and their followers "feudal" movements, in the broadest sense of the word. Similar patterns of relations would persist in the countryside through World War II and the civil war period, and would help to shape the course of the civil war.
In 1936, Greece fell under dictatorship of General Metaxis, a traditionalist right wing authoritarian who later led the successful early resistanct to the Italian invasion. But Metaxis died, and Germans reinforced the Italians; the country was occupied by May of 1941. The King and the civilian government fled, ultimately to British controlled Egypt.
Whatever credibility the traditionalist Right might have gained with the Greek people by Metaxis' leadership against the invasion was lost afterward. Conservative and wealthy segments of the population accommodated themselves to, and even collaborated with, the German occupation, as they did in much of occupied Europe, even France. The impoverished rural population, in little direct contact with occupation forces, were largely indifferent, concerned with survival. Thus, as in much of Europe, the leadership of the resistance fell in large measure to Communists.
Already organized for and accustomed to operating on an illegal and clandestine basis, they were more ready ...