THE MEMOIRS OF GENERAL GRIVAS

British reviewers are still smarting from publication of General Grivas' Memoirs, on the one hand calling him a monster and on the other a master of guerrilla warfare. As he relates, General Grivas fought on the side of the British in two wars and admires the British. But Grivas, a Cypriot patriot, believes that the British reneged on their World War II promise of allowing his native island its independence and fulfillment of his people's desire to reunite with Mother Greece. Thus, 1948 saw him organizing and planning strategy for his National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (EOKA) which launched its first attack in 1955. Grivas knew that it was not the size of his forces which would make the British recognize his cause, but rather world opinion, With small units, he planned a long-range campaign of sabotage, guerrilla activity, and mass uprisings and demonstrations. He tells the story of his leadership with humorless, supreme egotism that is convincingly forthright. After five militarily successful years, Cyprus was granted independence but under (to Grivas) unsatisfactory conditions. Nonetheless, it matters that there are men of his stature.