ATHENS — Overruling a decision by the Athens City Council, the Greek government decided Monday to restore a statue of President Harry Truman that was blown off its pedestal by a bomb in March.
The statue was erected in the 1960s with money donated by U.S. citizens of Greek extraction to commemorate the 1947 Truman Doctrine pledging to defend Greece and other European nations against communist take-overs.
``The government has decided to fulfill the wish of the Greek community in America, to whom Truman means a lot,`` a government spokesman, Miltiades Papaioannou, said.`` It will restore the statue and place it again in a public area.``
The statue was blown off its pedestal and badly damaged last March on the eve of a visit by Secretary of State George Shultz. Athens` municipal council, dominated by the ruling Panhellenic Socialist Movement, decided not to restore it.
Truman also fostered the Marshall Plan for postwar economic recovery in Europe, from which Greece also benefited. Greece received $10 billion from the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan from 1947-60.