Today is October 18th. It is 41 years since Greece voted for Andreas Papandreou with a 48% vote percentage to be elected as prime minister, fundamentally changing the course of history for Greece. Positively or negatively, this is still debated, but the change was real.
On October 6th, Roy Radner passed away at the age of 95. He was a faculty member at our department and a famous microeconomist with a highly distinguished career. Many others have written about him and his accomplishments as an economist and academic, so I will not try to do the same.
But Roy also played an important role in making that election in 1981 possible. Why? Let me tell you his story.
When I joined Stern in 2004, Roy Radner came to my office, telling me (lovingly) that he dislikes data mining, but I should not take that personally.
He also wanted to connect with me, so he shared a story with me. So, he started talking:
Roy:
"I had a friend from Greece. But he died a few years back. "
[...]
"He hired me for my first job at Berkeley. A great economist and a great department chair. Strong Trotskyist. Back in the day, especially at Berkeley, economists were not afraid to declare their political views."
[...]
"I visited him in Greece, coming from Italy by ferry and then driving a long way down the Western part of Greece. He had a nice Polish mother and an American wife. He also had a young son; I loved playing with him."
[...]
“At some point, he left Berkeley and returned to Greece to start a new economics research center after the prime minister invited him.”
[...]
(NB: At this point, I understand he is talking about Andreas Papandreou, and I am starstruck listening to all the first-hand stories about him.)
[...]
“Well, when the dictatorship came, they arrested him. And there were rumors that the colonels may execute him.”
“But he was a famous economist, very well-respected. The idea that a fellow academic may be executed, because of his beliefs, in a Western, allied country was unbelievable.”
“So, the unthinkable happened. For the first time in history, 250 economists agreed on something. We wrote a letter demanding that the dictators release Andreas Papandreou immediately.”
“We wrote a letter to the US President, Lyndon Johnson, asking him to intervene and get Andreas Papandreou out of jail."
"As part of a committee, Kenneth Galbraith, Kenneth Arrow, and I go to the White House to deliver the message. Johnson agrees to see us for five minutes.”
“Panos, you may not be familiar with US Presidents, but Johnson was a rough Texan. He was not known for being gentle and polite, and his language was not exactly… presidential.”
“So, after we talked to Johnson, he rolled his eyes, he picked up the phone, and said:”
“Tell these fucking colonels to get this fucking economist out of jail.”
(and the rest is history)
This is how Roy has changed the history of Greece.
By getting Johnson to tell the fucking colonels to get that fucking economist out of jail. So that the fucking economist can then be a three-times prime minister of Greece and one of the most consequential prime ministers of the modern Greek republic.
