GREEK CIVIL WAR

GREEK CIVIL WAR. Just as in neighboring Yugoslavia (q.v.), much of the resistance against Nazi occupation of Greece (q.v.) was carried on by members of the Greek Communist Party. The end of the war with Germany did not mean the end of combat in Greece as the Communists, supported by Stalin, made a vigorous attempt to seize power. Although aided by the West, and especially by the Truman administration, conflict was prolonged and often savage before the royalist forces prevailed by the early 1950s. Communist insurgency was particularly marked by atrocities against churches and clergy of the contested regions.