Page "Cold War (1947–1953)" Paragraph 12

Both East and West regarded Greece as a nation well within the sphere of influence of Britain.

Stalin had respected his agreement with Winston Churchill to not intervene, but Yugoslavia and Albania defied the USSR's advice and sent supplies during the Greek Civil War to the partisan forces of the Communist Party of Greece, the ELAS ( National Popular Liberation Army ).

The UK had given aid to the royalist Greek forces and ELAS leaders who, failing to realize that there would be no Soviet aid and having boycotted the elections, were at a disadvantaged position.

However, by 1947, the near-bankrupt British government could no longer maintain its massive overseas commitments.

In addition to granting independence to India and handing back the Palestinian Mandate to the United Nations, the British government decided to withdraw from both Greece and nearby Turkey.

This would have left the two nations, in particular Greece, on the brink of a communist-led revolution.