Georgios Koumanakos

Georgios Koumanakos
Koumanakos c. 1981
Native name	Γεώργιος Κουμανάκος
Born	c. 1913 Gytheio, Mani, Kingdom of Greece
Died	c. 2003
Allegiance	Kingdom of Greece
Service / branch	Hellenic Army
Rank	Lieutenant General
Commands	Greek Expeditionary Force in Korea
Battles / wars	World War II Greco-Italian War Battle of Greece Greek Civil War Korean War
Other work	peace activist Chairman of Hellenic Telecommunications Organization Chairman of PYRKAL weapons industry member of World Peace Council

Georgios Koumanakos (Greek: Γεώργιος Κουμανάκος, 1913 – 2003) was a Greek Army officer and peace activist.

Born in Gytheio, Mani in 1913, he fought in World War II, in the Greek Civil War against the Communists and commanded the Greek Expeditionary Force in Korea with distinction. By 1967, he had reached the rank of Lieutenant General. As an opponent of the Greek military junta of 1967-1974, he was retired from the army and sent for three years into internal exile by the military regime.

After the junta's fall in 1974, he became chairman of the state-run Hellenic Telecommunications Organization and PYRKAL weapons industry.

In the 1980s, he was a well-known activist for nuclear disarmament and the withdrawal of US bases from Greece; along with 7 other high-ranking generals from NATO countries (including Marshal Francisco da Costa Gomes and Brigadier Michael Harbottle) he co-signed the Generals for Peace and Disarmament initiative in 1981, and became a member of the Soviet-sponsored World Peace Council.

External links

• Heroes of the Korean War: Lieutenant Colonel George Koumanakos
• General Georgios Koumanakos Awards and Citations
• The historical accounts of the Greek expeditionary battalion during the Korean War Archived 2020-12-29 at the Wayback Machine