America America 1963

Elia Kazan, ethnic Greek but Turkish by birth, tells the story of the struggles of his uncle - in this account named Stavros Topouzoglou - in emigrating to America. In the 1890's, the young, kind-hearted but naive Stavros lived in Anatolia, where the Greek and Armenian minorities were repressed by the majority Turks, this repression which often led to violence. Even Stavros being friends with an Armenian was frowned upon. As such, Stavros dreamed of a better life - specifically in America - where, as a result, he could make his parents proud by his grand accomplishments……

A young Anatolian Greek, entrusted with his family's fortune, loses it en route to Istanbul and dreams of going to America

An analyst hunched over his light table, poring over a series of aerial photographs. The date was August 30, 1962, and he worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), America’s primary spy organization that had come into existence in the late 1940s, during the early days of the Cold War. Since the end of World War II the United States and its Western allies had been engaged in a conflict of words, ideas, and infl uence against the Communist-led Soviet Union.