Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos has risen to the top of the Greek junta (where he will remain until November 1973).

The regime's aims and policies are a curious mixture of populist reforms and paternalistic authoritarianism backed by propaganda and terror.

The overarching, proclaimed intent of the military government is to purge Greek society of the moral sickness that has developed since the war.

Their more frivolous social policies include the banning of miniskirts and the mandatory short hair for men.

The regime lacks a base of popular support and remains in power through terror.

A formidable secret police apparatus monitors society, using torture and committing other human rights violations that are widely reported by international organizations.

In the first three years, the main targets of this policy are known supporters of the communists, but many centrist figures also are arrested.

The regime's brutality makes it an international pariah.

The only foreign dignitary of note to visit Greece during this period is the Greek-American United States vice president, Spiro Agnew.

Greece withdraws from the EC in 1969 to avoid suspension of its association agreement.

Nevertheless, Greece's NATO allies confine themselves to verbal condemnation because the regime fulfills every geopolitical requirement, anchoring the alliance's defenses in the unstable eastern Mediterranean.