When Greece Joined Yugoslavia : Some Counterfactual Fun
January 17, 1949.
President Beloyannis grasped the hand of his predecessor, President Tito, tightly, and smiled, as Tito’s searching, scalpel-like gaze fell on the plans for the new Capital of the Balkan Union. How different history could have been, he reflected. If Franklin Roosevelt had managed to live through 1944, President Wallace would never have begun the chain of confusion and complication which had led to the messy, delayed end to the war in Europe in the atomic bombing of Germany in 1946. America may have had some moral authority, some governing will to continue interference in European affairs, and the Democratic Army of Greece-in truth the Communists—would never have been able to wear down the British as they had done. Now, all the Americans wanted to do was to warn off the Soviets, and take care of the remains of the capitalist West as the British and French decolonised their markets into American arms.
A more determined American leader would simply have taken over the fight on the ground, and Beloyannis knew that they would have won. As it was, the northmen had put up a great struggle, under the leadership of Churchill, with Anthony Eden enjoying what was perhaps his finest hour—Beloyannis could say this in victory, having seen Eden vainly trying to hold the line personally in Greece and then Cyprus—but, really, it was now too late. The British were a dying Empire. They hadn’t been able to hold Greece because they were bankrupt.
Now, they were out of Cyprus, and out of the Balkans. Not only had enosis happened, but a new confederacy had arisen in the Balkans, uniting the Yugloslav and Greek peoples. Soon, thanks to Beloyannis’ openness to the Smyrnan diaspora, foremost of which was Ari Onassis, Beloyannis would be leading the dominant shipping power in the Suez canal too.
The Albanians held out, of course—but with Stalin aware that President Eisenhower, recalled and given the Democratic nomination in 1948 after Tom Dewey’s disastrous single term—was more than prepared to use the atomic weapon, they could hardly intrigue with Moscow. The Georgian in Moscow had been caged, which, frankly, was the best thing to happen to the communist cause in a long time. Yes, Beloyannis thought; in time, even the Albanians would come along into what was already being called eurocommunism. Who knew what could happen? He was prepared to leave the west alone, but with Italian and French communist parties registering at between a third and a half of the public support in those lands, a Mediterranean Soviet Union, or at least some accommodation not far from it, was possible.
Beloyannis had a cool attitude to the real (perhaps the really-existing) Soviets, more even than to the Turks whose lands now lay at the feet of his federation. They were basically boyars, wanting domination as they had done since Peter the Great. Beloyannis wanted independence. That started with money. A common Balkan currency had been established, and was up and running, something that pleased him very much. He believed the history of Greece to have been one in which the state had been forced into a position throughout its short history of owing foreigners money, leading to the subjection of the Hellenic people.
Well, in a Balkan Union with Greece and Serbia as the twin powerhouses, that could hardly happen. In fact, it was possible to imagine a bright future, in which three distinct global areas—East Asia, the Balkan Union, and the former German and Hapsburg lands—blazed a trail for the fraternal integration of markets whatever Stalin thought. A new Socialist Trading Organisation was to be a top priority, ringed with the rockets and science provided by Croats and Slovenes.
But first, what to do with Marshal Tito? Perhaps, as a special envoy, he could be retired to somewhere where he could do no harm, as the British had put away their former King in the Sargasso Sea. Cuba, perhaps? No, he chuckled. The Americans would never allow Cuba to go communist….
