Talk:Gust Avrakotos

Greek-American--Infobox
Is there a reason that his ethnicity be mentioned in the infobox? Becuase I think we are just being selective here by doing so since his ethnicity is not much relevant to what he is known for. Therefore, I will remove, but please let me know if you disagree. -- An d Re w 04:00, 6 July 2011 (UTC)


 * Haven't taken a look at this article in a while, but I totally agree with you. Thanks.
 * --Rieby (talk) 06:04, 16 November 2012 (UTC)
 * --Rieby (talk) 06:04, 16 November 2012 (UTC)


 * I just realized I did not do this site. I did the german version. However, I still agree with you.
 * --Rieby (talk) 06:09, 16 November 2012 (UTC)
 * His ethnic background is in this case highly relevant as he spent 13 years with CIA station in Athens Greece, and was important there due to his language fluency and knowledge of Greece, and his ethnicity gaining him access and trust of Greek officials, especially in the Greek military officer corps, before and during the Greek military junta and generally during a period of highly active and controversial US intelligence activities in Greece.N34B2 (talk) 00:52, 5 April 2023 (UTC)
 * His ethnic background is in this case highly relevant as he spent 13 years with CIA station in Athens Greece, and was important there due to his language fluency and knowledge of Greece, and his ethnicity gaining him access and trust of Greek officials, especially in the Greek military officer corps, before and during the Greek military junta and generally during a period of highly active and controversial US intelligence activities in Greece.N34B2 (talk) 00:52, 5 April 2023 (UTC)

Bird catching
According to an interview of Jason Matthews (http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Jason-Matthews/406807038) by Steve Roberts on The Diane Rehm Show (22 August 2013), Gust Avrakotos could catch flying birds with his bare hands. Came here out of curiosity, but there is no mention of it, nor did I find anything about it in a quick Google search. —MJBurrage(T•C) 16:00, 22 August 2013 (UTC)

working at CIA
The following statement in highly problematic: "and the working class Avrakotos was among the first White ethnic agents."

Anyone familiar with US intelligence agency activity during that time would know it is well documented that both the war-time OWI and OSS proto-CIA, and during later 1940's, trough the 1950's, and 1960's there were a whole lot of Greek descent US intelligence officers (not "agents" anyway ) be they working Greece or working other counties, regions or general activities -- including management. I am not sure how to deal with it in the text, because that is a sourced statement by Avrakotos -- even though incorrect. N34B2 (talk) 01:03, 5 April 2023 (UTC)

First name
While "Gus" may be short-version/nick-name/diminutive of German descent persons named "Gustav" or "Augustus, in the case of Greek Americans, "Gus" "Gust" and "Dean" are short/anglicized forms of Constantine. We know from family names that his father, entered US as first name "Lascaris", and took anglicized his first name as "Oscar." So the likelihood is that Gust Avrakotos' baptismal name was Constantine/Constantinos was shortened to Gust as his legal birth name. The truly official source we have is his social security records and supported by Census entries giving his official legal recorded name as Gust -- and that this was NOT a shortened/nickname for Gustav. I think good faith editors simply thought that Gust must be infomral name and added Gustav, when the official records in fact show Gust: https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/3693/?name=_Avrakotos&name_x=_1&pcat=bmd_death&qh=07bcce5b0c8e3c9c7ee3161df3bd5401

His marriage records also list his legal name as Gust: https://www.ancestry.com/cs/offers/join?sub=2550866976735232&dbid=9279&url=https%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.com%2fcgi-bin%2fsse.dll%3fdbid%3d9279%26h%3d12082726%26indiv%3dtry%26o_vc%3dRecord%3aOtherRecord%26rhSource%3d70050%26_gl%3d1*1n7361p*_ga*MTQ1MzM0OTYxNC4xNjc4NDc2MTI5*_ga_4QT8FMEX30*NWUyNzQwZjctODMyZi00NWJmLThlMDUtOWYxNzNjNTk3YzViLjUuMS4xNjgwNjU5MTM1LjQ5LjAuMA..%26requr%3d2550866976735232%26ur%3d0&gsfn=&gsln=&h=12082726 N34B2 (talk) 01:48, 5 April 2023 (UTC)