Georgios Papadopoulos Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos ( ) ( 5 May 1919 – 27 June 1999 ) was the head of the military coup d ' état that took place in Greece on 21 April 1967 and leader of the junta that ruled the country from 1967 to 1974 . Papadopoulos was a Colonel of Artillery . During World War II , he had initially fought against the Italian 1940 invasion and then he became a German collaborator in the Security Battalions , and in the postwar years he received intelligence training in the United States and became a CIA agent . He held dictatorial power in Greece from 1967 – 1973 , until he was himself overthrown by his co - conspirator Dimitrios Ioannidis . It has been claimed that Papadopoulos was the first CIA agent to govern a Western European country . Early life and military career . Papadopoulos was born in Elaiohori , a small village in the Prefecture of Achaea in Peloponnese to local schoolteacher Christos Papadopoulos and his wife Chrysoula . He was the eldest son and had two brothers , Konstantinos and Haralambos . After finishing high school in 1937 he enrolled in the " Scholi Evelpidon " Officer Academy ( Σχολή Ευελπίδων ) , completing its three - year program in 1940 . His biographical notes , published as a booklet by supporters in 1980 , mention that he took a civil engineering course at the Polytechneion but did not graduate . Resistance and Acquiescence . During World War II . Papadopoulos saw field action as an artillery second lieutenant against both Italian and Nazi German forces which attacked Greece on 6 April 1941 . During the subsequent occupation of Greece by Nazi Germany , Italy and Bulgaria , he worked in the Greek administration ' s " Patras Food Supply Office " under the command of Colonel Kourkoulakos , who was responsible for the formation of the " Security Battalions " in Patras . These were collaborationist military units created by the Greek puppet government of Ioannis Rallis in 1943 to support the German occupation troops . They were supported by the extreme right and pro - Nazi elements , but also by some centrist politicians who were concerned about the dominance of ELAS ( the military arm of the communist - dominated National Liberation Front EAM ) as the leading group in the Greek resistance . Among the members of the Security Battalions one could find ex - army officers , violently conscripted soldiers , ultra - right fanatics and social outcasts , as well as common opportunists who believed the Axis would win the war . At the beginning of 1944 , Papadopoulos left Greece with the help of British intelligence agents and went to Egypt , where the Greek government - in - exile was based , and was promoted to lieutenant . Along with other right - wing military officers , he participated in the creation of the nationalist right - wing secret IDEA organization in the fall of 1944 , shortly after the country ' s liberation . Those 1940B officers who took refuge in Egypt with the king immediately after the German invasion had become generals when their still - colonel classmates undertook the coup of 1967 . Divorce by Decree . Papadopoulos married his first wife , Niki Vasileiadi , in 1941 . They had two children , a son and a daughter . The marriage , however , ran into difficulty later and they eventually separated . The separation , however lengthy , could not lead to divorce at first because , under Greece ' s restrictive divorce laws of that era , spousal consent was required . To remedy this , in 1970 , as Prime Minister of the dictatorship he decreed a custom - made divorce law with a strict time limit and a ( built - in sunset clause ) that enabled him to get the divorce . After having served its purpose , the law eventually expired automatically . After the divorce , Papadopoulos married his long - time paramour Despina Gaspari in 1970 , with whom he had a daughter . Post - World War II career . He was promoted to captain in 1946 ; and in 1949 , during the Greek Civil War , to major . ( See also Greek military ranks . ) He served in the KYP Intelligence Service from 1959 to 1964 as the main contact between the KYP and the top CIA operative in Greece , John Fatseas , after training at the CIA in 1953 . Trials and tribulations : The Beloyannis affair . Papadopoulos was also a member of the court - martial in the first trial of the well - known Greek communist leader Nikos Beloyannis , in 1951 . At that trial , Beloyannis was sentenced to death for the crime of being a member of the Communist Party , which was banned at that time in Greece following the Greek Civil War . The death sentence pronounced after this trial ( Papadopoulos had voted against it [ citation needed ] ) was not carried out , but Beloyannis was put on trial again in early 1952 , this time for alleged espionage , following the discovery of radio transmitters used by undercover Greek communists to communicate with the exiled leadership of the Party in the Soviet Union . At the end of this trial , he was sentenced to death and immediately taken out and shot . Papadopoulos was not involved in this second trial . The Beloyannis trials were highly controversial in Greece , and many Greeks consider that , like many Greek communists at the time , Beloyannis was shot for his political beliefs , rather than any real crimes . The trial was by court - martial under Greek anti - insurgency legislation enacted at the time of the Greek Civil War which remained in force even though the war had ended . Rise to colonel in the 1960s . In 1956 , Papadopoulos took part in a failed coup attempt against King Paul of Greece . In 1958 , he helped create the Office of Military Studies , a surveillance authority , under General Gogousis . It was from this same office that the subsequently successful coup of 21 April 1967 emanated . In 1964 , Papadopoulos was transferred to an artillery division in Thrace by decree of Center Union Defense Minister Garoufalias . In June 1965 , days before the onset of the major political turmoil known as Apostasia , he made national headlines after arresting two soldiers under his command and eight leftist civilians from settlements near his military camp , on charges that they had conspired to sabotage army vehicles by pouring sugar into the vehicles ' gas tanks . The ten were imprisoned and tortured , but it was eventually proven that Papadopoulos himself had sabotaged the vehicles . Andreas Papandreou wrote in his memoirs that Papadopoulos wanted to prove that under the Center Union government , the communists had been left free to undermine national security . Even after this scandal , Papadopoulos was not discharged from the army since prime minister Georgios Papandreou forgave him as a compatriot of his father . In 1967 , Papadopoulos was promoted to colonel . 21 April 1967 : Coup d ' état . That same year , on 21 April , a month before the general elections , Papadopoulos , along with fellow middle - ranking Army officers , led a successful coup , taking advantage of the volatile political situation that had arisen from a conflict between King Constantine II and the aging former prime minister , Georgios Papandreou . Papadopoulos used his power gained from the coup to try to re - engineer the Greek political landscape . In Greece even today , the words " 21η Απριλίου 1967 " ( translation : " 21 April 1967 " ) are still synonymous with the word " πραξικόπημα " ( translation : " coup d ' état " ) . Regime of the Colonels . From the early stages , Papadopoulos emerged as the strongman of the new regime . He was appointed Minister of National Defense and Minister of the Presidency in the first government , and his position was further enhanced when after the king ' s abortive counter - coup on 13 December he became Prime Minister . Not content with that , on 21 March 1972 , he nominated himself Regent of Greece , succeeding Georgios Zoitakis . Papadopoulos ' regime imposed martial law , censorship , mass arrests , beatings and torture . Thousands of the regime ' s political opponents were thrown into prison or exiled ( " forced into vacation " , as the friends of the junta cynically put it ) on small Aegean islands . Amnesty International issued a report detailing numerous instances of torture under the regime . Papadopoulos excused these actions as necessary to save the nation from a " communist takeover . " The regime was supported by the United States because of its staunchly anti - communist stance . The military government dissolved political parties , clamped down on left - wing organizations and labor unions , and promoted traditionalist Greco - Christian culture . At the same time , however , the economy , mostly due to the political stability brought by the regime , improved greatly and extensive public projects , such as highway - building , agricultural reform and electrification , were carried out all over Greece but especially in the most backward rural areas . Torture of political prisoners in general , and communists in particular , was not out of the question . Examples included beatings , isolation and , according to some sources , pulling out fingernails . " Patient in a cast " and other metaphors . Throughout his tenure as the junta strongman , Papadopoulos often employed what have been described by the BBC as gory medical metaphors , where he or the junta assumed the role of the " medical doctor " . The " patient " was Greece . Typically Papadopoulos or the junta portrayed themselves as the " doctor " who d on the " patient " by putting the patient ' s " foot " in an orthopedic cast and applying restraints on the " patient " , tying him on a surgical bed and putting him under anesthesia to perform the " operation " so that the life of the " patient " would not be " endangered " during the operation . In one of his famous speeches Papadopoulos mentioned : Translating as : In the same speech Papadopoulos continued : which translates as follows : Other metaphors contained religious imagery related to the resurrection of Christ at Easter : “ Χριστός Ανέστη – Ελλάς Ανέστη ” translating as " Christ has risen – Greece has risen " , alluding that the junta would " save " Greece and resurrect her into a greater , new Land . The theme of rebirth was used many times as a standard reply to avoid answering any questions as to how long the dictatorship would last : Translating as : The religious themes and rebirth metaphors are also seen in the following : translated as : Assassination attempt . A failed assassination attempt against Papadopoulos was perpetrated by Alexandros Panagoulis in the morning of 13 August 1968 , when Papadopoulos was driven from his summer residence in Lagonisi to Athens , escorted by his personal security motorcycles and cars . Panagoulis ignited a bomb at a point of the coastal road where the limousine carrying Papadopoulos would have to slow down , but the bomb failed to harm Papadopoulos . Panagoulis was captured a few hours later in a nearby sea cave , since the boat sent to help him escape was instructed to leave at a specific time and he couldn ' t swim there on time due to strong sea currents . After his arrest , he was taken to the Greek Military Police ( EAT - ESA ) offices where he was questioned , beaten and tortured . On 17 November 1968 , Panagoulis was sentenced to death but was personally pardoned by Papadopoulos , served only five years in prison , and after democracy was restored was elected a member of Parliament . He was regarded as an emblematic figure of the struggle to restore democracy , and as such has often been paralleled to Harmodius and Aristogeiton , two ancient Athenians known for their assassination tyrannicide of Hipparchus . Normalization and attempts at liberalization . Papadopoulos had indicated as early as 1968 that he was eager for a reform process , and even tried to contact Spiros Markezinis at that time . He had declared at the time that he did not want the " Revolution " to become a ' regime ' . He then repeatedly attempted to initiate reforms in 1969 and 1970 , only to be thwarted by the hardliners including Ioannides . In fact , subsequent to his 1970 failed attempt at reform , he threatened to resign and was dissuaded only after the hardliners renewed their personal allegiance to him . As internal dissatisfaction grew in the early 1970s , and especially after an abortive coup by the Navy in early 1973 , Papadopoulos attempted to legitimize the regime by beginning a gradual " democratization " ( See also the article on Metapolitefsi ) . On 1 June 1973 , he abolished the monarchy and declared himself President of the Republic after a controversial referendum . He furthermore sought the support of the old political establishment , but secured only the cooperation of Spiros Markezinis , who became Prime Minister . Concurrently , many restrictions were lifted and the army ' s role significantly reduced . Papadopoulos intended to establish a presidential republic with extensive powers vested in the office of President , which he held . The decision to return to political rule and the restriction of their role was resented by many of the regime ' s supporters in the Army , whose dissatisfaction with Papadopoulos would become evident a few months later . Fall of the Papadopoulos regime . After the events of the student uprising of 17 November at the National Technical University of Athens ( see Athens Polytechnic uprising ) , the dictatorship was overthrown on 25 November 1973 by hardline elements in the Army . The outcry over Papadopoulos ' s extensive reliance on the army to quell the student uprising gave Brigadier Dimitrios Ioannides a pretext to oust him and replace him as the new strongman of the regime . Papadopoulos was put under house arrest at his villa , while Greece returned to an " orthodox " military dictatorship . After democracy was restored in 1974 , during the period of metapolitefsi ( " regime change " ) , Papadopoulos and his cohorts were tried for high treason , mutiny , torture , and other crimes and misdemeanors . On 23 August 1975 , he and several others were found guilty and were sentenced to death , which was later commuted to life imprisonment . Papadopoulos remained in prison , rejecting an amnesty offer that required that he acknowledge his past record and express remorse , until his death on 27 June 1999 at age 80 in a hospital in Athens , where he had been treated for cancer since 1996 . Legacy . Today , Papadopoulos is a symbol of authoritarianism and xenophobia . The far right praises him for promoting Greek culture , imposing a strong hand and fighting communism . After the restoration of democracy , some support for his type of politics remained which was , for a time , bolstered by the National Political Union ( EPEN ) , a small political party that declared him its honorary leader . EPEN eventually dissolved , with supporters scattering to various other political parties such as the Popular Orthodox Rally ( LAOS ) .