[1] However, the rapid ascension of Papandreou by his father, along with his uncompromising radical rhetoric, amplified the existing political instability, which created the conditions under the context of the Cold War for a group of colonels intervened and ruled Greece for seven years.

[5] Coming to power in 1981, Papandreou implemented a transformative social agenda by expanding access to education and healthcare, reinforcing workers' rights, and passing a new family law that elevated women's position in society and the economy.

[6] However, his governance was tarnished by numerous corruption scandals, his soft stance on terrorism, damaging democratic institutions,[7] his public divorce of his second wife for an air stewardesses half his age, as well as controversial decisions in foreign policy and causing a constitutional crisis.

[14] Following representation in court by his father, Papandreou gained an exit visa through family connections, and once he arrived in New York, he asked for political asylum based on the imprisonment by the Metaxas regime.

He also received funding from the Ford and Rockefeller foundations to promote projects aligned to liberal internationalism;[47] initially American officials hoped that Andreas Papandreou would be a stabilizing force in Greek politics.

[47] However, Andreas Papandreou started to develop a political ideology, heavily influenced by the American progressive liberalism from his years in the US,[48] to secure the support of non-communist left-leaning Greek voting blocks as he considered the only way to assist his father in becoming Prime Minister.

[i][3] Soon after, Gust Avrakotos, a Greek-American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) case officer assigned to Athens, told the Colonels that the U.S. Government wished for Papandreou to be released and allowed to leave the country with his family.

The founding charter of PASOK advocated social liberation, a radical re-orientation of the country's foreign policy, Greek withdrawal from NATO, the closure of the US military bases, and rejection of the option of membership of the EEC, which was dismissed as a capitalist club.

The crisis in the capitalist system on a world scale, with ever-increasing unemployment and inflation, intensified international competition, the increase in the degree of concentration and the monopolistic structure of many branches, have made the traditional means of economic policy ineffective.

[104] In domestic affairs, Papandreou's government carried out a series of wealth redistribution policies upon coming into office that immediately increased the availability of entitlement aid to the unemployed and lower wage earners.

This kind of political U-turn required a careful balance between public opinion, inflated by Papandreou's rhetoric for more than a decade, and negotiating parties since removing the US bases would only strengthen the importance of Turkey in the NATO alliance.

[138] However, the quality of education deteriorated due to poor research facilities, a shortage of qualified teaching staff, inefficient administration, and ministerial funds being spent on free textbooks rather than on libraries, which remained very inadequate.

Towards this direction, Karamanlis legitimized the Communist Party[147] and opened the borders to exiled Greeks who had fled the junta and civil war to return home, including Melina Merkouri, Mikis Theodorakis, and Cornelius Castoriadis.

[153] However, there were rising issues that both PASOK and New Democracy recognized, such as the shortage of doctors in rural areas,[154] and wanted to introduce healthcare reform to strengthen the public health sector based on universal access and shifting the emphasis from intervention to prevention.

[201] The stabilization package, implemented by Costas Simitis as minister of Finance, included a 15% devaluation of the Greek currency (drachma), posed limits on government borrowing, and monetary policy became more strict, wages ceased to follow inflation, some tax exemptions were eliminated, effectively the incomes dropped to pre-1980 levels.

[211] Infighting between Arab groups led to a series of anti-Gaddafi dissidents being found murdered and Syrian agents killing Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) members on Greek soil.

[229] He ordered the suspension of the operation of the NATO communication base in Nea Makri, and he sent the Greek Foreign Minister, Karolos Papoulias, to Warsaw Pact member, Bulgaria, for consultations with President Zhivkov.

[234][235] Despite some progress achieved on culture exchange and accident prevention over international waters, however, by the end of 1988, Greece reported 338 Turkish violations of the Greek airspace with 42 mock dogfights,[234] making it clear that much of the 'spirit of Davos' was quickly vanishing.

[250] Resignations followed (Stathis Yiotas, Deputy Defence Minister, and Theodore Karatzas, Finance Under Secretary) upon the revelations during the inquiry that the members of Papandreou's government were profiteering by illegal arms sales to both sides in the Iran–Iraq War and the apartheid state of South Africa.

[253] Koskotas alleged that Papandreou and other PASOK high functionaries had ordered state corporations to deposit funds (over US$200 million[xii]) with the Bank of Crete, which went missing in the form of bribes and acquisition of mass media companies.

On this day (26 September 1989) and hours before deliberations began, Pavlos Bakoyannis, a prominent conservative member of parliament and the architect of collaboration between the left and right wings for Papandreou's indictment, was shot by 17 November terrorist group outside his office in Athens.

[280] Instead, New Democracy (right wing) collaborated with the Synaspismos (radical left), led by Charilaos Florakis, to form a government; while on the opposite ideological sides (as well in the Greek Civil War), both sought a "catharsis," i.e., investigation and trial of PASOK's corruption was completed.

All the parties in Parliament (New Democracy, PASOK, and Synaspismos) entered a National Union government[198] under Xenophon Zolotas (a retired banker at the age of 85) as a way out of the deadlock and to restore public trust in political institutions.

[263] Recovering from the Koskota scandals and electoral defeat, Papandreou had a relatively quiet opposition strategy (departing from the radical rhetoric in the 1970s and early 1980s[286]), effectively letting Mitsotakis implement difficult, unpopular economic and foreign policy choices.

[323][123] Second, PASOK passed Law 1232/82 in 1982, which purged senior civil servants from all ministries (eliminating institutional memory) based on the allegation that they were hostile to the new regime, and they were replaced by party loyalists who had little knowledge of how the government worked.

Papandreou began to implement a political agenda to restructure the Greek economy and improve living standards by increasing access of lower-income and rural populations to state services such as education and healthcare.

[345][347] Such an example is provided by John Iatrides: "while publicly attacking Washington for its interventionist policies, the PASOK government would privately complain that American officials were not sensitive to Greek fears of Turkish intentions concerning Cyprus and the Aegean.

"[348] Papandreou's siding with the Soviet position effectively eliminated any possibility of visiting the White House under at the time the Reagan administration to advance Greek national interests in the foreseeable future.

He improved relations with 'radical' Arab nations, such as Muammar Gaddafi's Libya,[351] Hafez al-Assad's Syria, and letting Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) members stay in Greece,[352] antagonizing the United States.

Papandreou's populism under the guise of inclusionist social policies became part of PASOK's patronage, greatly expanded by misuse of EEC funds and unprecedented rate of foreign borrowing that brought the Greek economy twice (1985 & 1989) to the verge of bankruptcy.