1967 Greek coup d ' état The 1967 Greek coup d ' état took place on 21 April 1967 , just weeks before scheduled elections , when a group of right - wing army officers led by Brigadier General Stylianos Pattakos and Colonels George Papadopoulos and Nikolaos Makarezos seized power in a " coup d ' etat " . The colonels were able to seize power quickly by using elements of surprise and confusion . Pattakos was the commander of the Armour Training Centre ( , ΚΕΤΘ ) , based in Athens . Background . Greek historiography and journalists have hypothesized about a " Generals ' Coup " , a coup that would have been deployed at Constantine ' s behest under the pretext of combatting communist subversion . Before the elections that were scheduled for 28 May 1967 , with expectations of a wide Center Union victory , a number of conservative National Radical Union politicians feared that the policies of left - wing Centrists , including Andreas Papandreou ( the son of Georgios Papandreou , Sr . ) , would lead to a constitutional crisis . One such politician , George Rallis , proposed that , in case of such an " anomaly " , king Constantine II of Greece should declare martial law as the monarchist constitution permitted him . According to Rallis , the king was receptive to the idea . According to U . S . diplomat John Day , Washington also worried that Andreas Papandreou would have a very powerful role in the next government , due to his father ' s old age . According to Robert Keely and John Owens , American diplomats present in Athens at the time , Constantine asked U . S . Ambassador Philip Talbot what the American attitude would be to an extra - parliamentary solution to the problem . To this the embassy responded negatively in principle — adding , however , that , " U . S . reaction to such move cannot be determined in advance but would depend on circumstances at time . " Constantine denies this . According to Talbot , Constantine met the army generals , who promised him that they would not take any action before the coming elections . However , the proclamations of Andreas Papandreou made them nervous , and they resolved to re - examine their decision after seeing the results of the elections . In 1966 , Constantine sent his envoy , Demetrios Bitsios , to Paris on a mission to persuade former prime minister Constantine Karamanlis to return to Greece and resume his prior role in politics . According to uncorroborated claims made by the former monarch , Karamanlis replied to Bitsios that he would only return if the King imposed martial law , as was his constitutional prerogative . According to " New York Times " correspondent Cyrus L . Sulzberger , Karamanlis flew to New York City to meet with USAF General Lauris Norstad to lobby for a conservative coup that would establish himself as Greece ' s leader ; Sulzberger alleges that Norstad declined to involve himself in such affairs . Sulzberger ' s account rests solely on the authority of his and Norstad ' s word . When , in 1997 , the former King reiterated Sulzberger ' s allegations , Karamanlis stated that he " will not deal with the former king ' s statements because both their content and attitude are unworthy of comment " . The deposed King ' s adoption of Sulzberger ' s claims against Karamanlis was castigated by Greece ' s left - leaning media , which denounced Karamanlis as " shameless " and " brazen " . It bears noting that , at the time , Constantine referred exclusively to Sulzberger ' s account to support the theory of a planned coup by Karamanlis , and made no mention of the alleged 1966 meeting with Bitsios , which he would refer to only after both participants had died and could not respond . As it turned out , the constitutional crisis did not originate either from the political parties , or from the Palace , but from middle - rank army putschists . The coup d ' état of 21 April . On 21 April 1967 , just weeks before the scheduled elections , a group of right - wing army officers led by Brigadier General Stylianos Pattakos and Colonels George Papadopoulos and Nikolaos Makarezos seized power in a " coup d ' etat " . The colonels were able to seize power quickly by using elements of surprise and confusion . Pattakos was the commander of the Armour Training Centre ( , ΚΕΤΘ ) , based in Athens . The coup leaders placed tanks in strategic positions in Athens , effectively gaining complete control of the city . At the same time , a large number of small mobile units were dispatched to arrest leading politicians , authority figures , and ordinary citizens suspected of left - wing sympathies , according to lists prepared in advance . One of the first to be arrested was Lieutenant General Grigorios Spandidakis , Commander - in - Chief of the Greek Army . The colonels persuaded Spandidakis to join them , having him activate a previously - drafted action plan to move the coup forward . Under the command of paratrooper Lieutenant Colonel Kostas Aslanides , the LOK took over the Greek Defence Ministry while Pattakos gained control of communication centers , the parliament , the royal palace , and — according to detailed lists — arrested over 10 , 000 people . By the early morning hours , the whole of Greece was in the hands of the colonels . All leading politicians , including acting Prime Minister Panagiotis Kanellopoulos , had been arrested and were held incommunicado by the conspirators . At 6 : 00 a . m . EET , Papadopoulos announced that eleven articles of the Greek constitution were suspended . One of the consequences of these suspensions was that anyone could be arrested without warrant at any time and brought before a military court to be tried . Yannis Ladas , then the director of ESA , recounted in a later interview that , " Within twenty minutes every politician , every man , every anarchist who was listed could be rounded up . . . It was a simple , diabolical plan " . Georgios Papandreou was arrested after a nighttime raid at his villa in Kastri . Andreas was arrested at around the same time , after seven soldiers armed with fixed bayonet s and a machine gun forcibly entered his home . Andreas Papandreou escaped to the roof of his house , but surrendered after one of the soldiers held a gun to the head of his then - fourteen - year - old son George Papandreou . Gust Avrakotos , a high - ranking CIA officer in Greece who was close with the colonels , advised them to " shoot the motherfucker because he ' s going to come back to haunt you " . U . S . critics of the coup included then - Senator Lee Metcalf , who criticised the Johnson Administration for providing aid to a " military regime of collaborators and Nazi sympathisers . " Phillips Talbot , the U . S . ambassador in Athens , disapproved of the coup , complaining that it represented " a rape of democracy " , to which Jack Maury , the CIA station chief in Athens , answered , " How can you rape a whore ? " Papadopoulos ' junta attempted to re - engineer the Greek political landscape by coup .