Overview

Few people are knowledgeable about the history of the Greek Civil War. Often termed the hidden war, this conflict of the late 1940s is still highly controversial and a source of extreme emotion for those Greeks who remember it. This book details the events leading to the outbreak of the war and examines the unique means by which United Nation's intervention was able to restrain a conflict that threatened to engulf the Balkans and southeastern Europe. Nachmani demonstrates how the United Nations Special Committee on the Balkans (UNSCOB)--the first U.N. observation mission--stood out as a success story among the observation and peacekeeping missions of the post-World War II era. The U.N. vigilance in the Balkans is a saga that, up until now, has not been told. Using sources from the United Nations, England, the United States, Holland, and Greece, Amikam Nachmani offers a comprehensive re-creation of the uniquely successful role played by the U.N. in the Greek Civil War. The author contends that U.N. intervention in the civil war, conducted in the Balkans during the late 1940s by a few hundred observers, was a successful peacekeeping operation. This conclusion challenges the generally accepted view of the U.N. as a useless performer in post-World War II civil wars. Students and scholars of history, political science, and diplomacy will find this account of one of the most controversial conflicts in post-World War II history, fascinating reading.

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?Nachmani's expertise is on the eastern Mediterranean; he was written Israel, Turkey and Greece: Uneasy Relations in the East Mediterranean, and Great Power Discord in Palestine . In the present study, Nachmani seeks to place the Greek civil war within the context of the Cold War and the UN. He contends that had it not been internationalized, the civil war 'might have been shorter and its casualties fewer.' The UN Special Committee on the Balkans (UNSCOB) was designed to discourage direct foreign intervention in the civil war from Greece's northern border. Because these northern neighbors were communist states UNSCOB, in essence, was working on behalf of US Cold War objectives. Nachmani claims that UNSCOB was successful and perhaps it was, on a limited basis. The book is well documented, using UN archives and private papers.?-Choice Nachmani's expertise is on the eastern Mediterranean; he was written Israel, Turkey and Greece: Uneasy Relations in the East Mediterranean, and Great Power Discord in Palestine . In the present study, Nachmani seeks to place the Greek civil war within the context of the Cold War and the UN. He contends that had it not been internationalized, the civil war 'might have been shorter and its casualties fewer.' The UN Special Committee on the Balkans (UNSCOB) was designed to discourage direct foreign intervention in the civil war from Greece's northern border. Because these northern neighbors were communist states UNSCOB, in essence, was working on behalf of US Cold War objectives. Nachmani claims that UNSCOB was successful and perhaps it was, on a limited basis. The book is well documented, using UN archives and private papers. -Choice

?Nachmani's expertise is on the eastern Mediterranean; he was written Israel, Turkey and Greece: Uneasy Relations in the East Mediterranean, and Great Power Discord in Palestine . In the present study, Nachmani seeks to place the Greek civil war within the context of the Cold War and the UN. He contends that had it not been internationalized, the civil war 'might have been shorter and its casualties fewer.' The UN Special Committee on the Balkans (UNSCOB) was designed to discourage direct foreign intervention in the civil war from Greece's northern border. Because these northern neighbors were communist states UNSCOB, in essence, was working on behalf of US Cold War objectives. Nachmani claims that UNSCOB was successful and perhaps it was, on a limited basis. The book is well documented, using UN archives and private papers.?-Choice

Author Information

AMIKAM NACHMANI is a lecturer in international relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of Great Power Discord in Palestine: The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry into the Problems of European Jewry and Palestine, 1945-1946, and Israel, Turkey and Greece: Uneasy Relations in the East Mediterranean.

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