August 2015. Greece was in a precarious position – capital controls had been introduced, Varoufakis had resigned as Finance Minister (after his game theory tactics only stiffened the spines of the European creditors), and the future of Greece in the eurozone was still very much in doubt. Against this backdrop, the Obama Administration called an unprecedented meeting in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. The community organizations the Administration had consistently dealt with (HALC, the Coordinated Effort of Hellenes, AHEPA, AHI, the Hellenic Initiative, the Archdiocese) and other major Greek-American luminaries (Governor Michael Dukakis, former California Treasurer Phil Angelides, former US Ambassador to Hungary Eleni Kounalakis) were all in attendance. From the United States government, Senators, Representatives, high ranking officials from the National Economic Council, the Council of Economic Advisors and the National Security Council met with the community. As if the meeting itself and the high ranking officials didn’t highlight the importance of this issue to the Administration, the meeting was kicked off by White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and Vice President Biden participated in most of the meeting.Just over one year later, President Obama made Greece his last visit overseas. One year after that visit, President Trump hosted Prime Minister Tsipras for a state visit.
Did the euro crisis revive the U.S.-Greece alliance?
Conscience of a Hellene 