A nominal defence? NATO threat perception and responses in the Balkan area, 1951–1967

Abstract

This article deals with NATO strategy in the Balkans from 1951, when Greek and Turkish admission to the alliance was decided, to 1967, when NATO revised its strategic concept for the last time until the end of the Cold War, while another serious Greek-Turkish crisis over Cyprus erupted. The analysis places emphasis on the defence posture of the southern Balkans, regional correlation of forces and the evolution of NATO military strategy throughout the period under examination. Consideration is also given to the integration of the southern Balkans in the NATO command structure, the provision of aid to Greece and Turkey, and Greek-Turkish relations.

Notes

Dr Dionysios Chourchoulis holds a PhD from Queen Mary University of London.

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2 David Shlapak, Sam Gardiner and William Simons, Sample Campaign Plans and Staff Assessments for NATO's Southern Region (Santa Monica: RAND, 1989), 1.

3 Ali Karaosmanoglu, ‘Turkey and the Southern Flank: Domestic and External Contexts’, in NATO's Southern Allies, 321.

4 NATO Archives (hereafter: NATO/), M.C.14/1 (Final), Report on Strategic Guidance, December 9, 1952.

5 Joel Sokolsky, Seapower in the Nuclear Age. The United States Navy and NATO 1949–80 (London & New York: Routledge, 1991), 58–59; Dean Allard, ‘An Era of Transition, 1945–1953’, in In Peace and War: Interpretations of American Naval History, 1775–1978, ed. Kenneth Hagan (Westport & London: Greenwood Press, 1978), 300–302.

6 John Chipman, ‘Allies in the Mediterranean: Legacy of Fragmentation’, in NATO's Southern Allies, 76.

7 John Iatrides, ‘Failed Rampart: NATO's Balkan Front’, in NATO and the Warsaw Pact: Intrabloc Conflicts, ed. Mary Ann Heiss and Victor Papacosma (Kent: The Kent State University Press, 2008), 63.

8 Dionysios Chourchoulis, ‘High Hopes, Bold Aims, Limited Results: Britain and the Establishment of the NATO Mediterranean Command, 1950–1953’, Diplomacy & Statecraft 20, no. 3 (September 2009): 449.

9 Charles Fergusson, ‘Problems of an International Military Headquarters’, Military Affairs 23, no. 4 (Winter 1959–1960): 200–203.

10 Evanthis Hatzivassiliou, Greece and the Cold War: Frontline State, 1952–1967 (London: Routledge, 2006), 36; see for more, John Iatrides, Balkan Triangle: birth and decline of an alliance across ideological boundaries (The Hague: Mouton, 1968).

11 FRUS, 1952–54, VIII, Ankara to State Department, 2 July 1952, 896; TNA/DEFE/5/40, COS(52)429, Defence of Thrace, August 11, 1952.

12 TNA/DEFE/5/40, COS(52)429, Defence of Thrace, 11 August 1952.

13 TNA/DEFE/5/41, COS(52)511, Report on Defence of Thrace, 18 September 1952.

14 NATO/M.C.14/1 (Final), Report on Strategic Guidance, 9 December 1952.

15 NATO/SGM-600-54, Capabilities Plan ACE 1957, 10 September 1954.

16 NATO/SGM-600-54, Capabilities Plan ACE 1957, 10 September 1954

17 Iatrides, Balkan Triangle, 96–97; Beatrice Heuser, Western ‘Containment’ Policies in the Cold War: the Yugoslav Case, 1948–53 (London and New York: Routledge, 1989), 170–171.

18 Iatrides, Balkan Triangle, 103–104; David Stone, ‘The Balkan Pact and American Policy’, East European Quarterly 28, no. 3 (September 1994): 398–9.

19 FRUS 1952–54, VIII, Athens to State Department, 28 November 1953, 634–5.

20 TNA/FO/371/113222/WU1073/23G, FO to Ankara No.445, 12 July 1954; TNA/FO/371/113222/ WU1073/14G, UK delegation to NATO to FO, 30 June 1954.

21 NATO/C-M(55)87, Memorandum on Policy vis-á-vis the Soviets and the Education of NATO Public Opinion, 14 October 1955; also, Iatrides, Balkan Triangle, 162–3; Svetozar Rajak, ‘The Cold War in the Balkans, 1945–1956’, in The Cambridge History of the Cold War. Vol. I, Origins, ed. Melvyn Leffler and Odd Arne Westad (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 216–217; Vladislav Zubok, A Failed Empire. The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2009), 99–100.

22 Correspondent in Athens, ‘Indignation in Greece. Turkish “Apathy” in Riots’, The Times, 8 September 1955, 10; correspondents in Istanbul, Athens and Paris, ‘Damage to Greco-Turkish Relations’, The Times, 9 September 1955, 9.

23 Hatzivassiliou, Greece and the Cold War, 66–67.

24 William Hale, Turkish Foreign Policy, 1774–2000 (London: Frank Cass, 2000), 126, 128.

25 Ioannis Stefanidis, Stirring the Greek Nation: Political Culture, Irredentism and Anti-Americanism in Post War Greece, 1945–1967 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), 191–6; James Edward Miller, The United States and the Making of Modern Greece: History and Power, 1950–1974 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2009), 58.

26 Konstantinos Svolopoulos (ed.), Konstantinos Karamanlis: Archeio, Gegonota, kai Keimena [hereafter: Karamanlis], Vol. 2 (Athens: Ekdotiki Athenon and Konstantinos Karamanlis Foundation, 1992–7), Memorandum on Karamanlis' conversation with US Ambassador Cannon on 12 July 1956, 128–9.

27 Karamanlis, 2, Record of Karamanlis' statements on Tito's visit and Greek-Yugoslav negotiations on 27–29 July 1956, 134.

28 NATO/C-R(56)70, Summary Record of North Atlantic Council meeting, 11 December 1956.

29 Hatzivassiliou, Greece and the Cold War, 110–11, 113.

30 NARA/RG59/781.5/1-3157, box 3726, Athens to State Department, 31 January 1957.

31 Basil Liddell Hart, ‘European Defence’, The Times, 26 March 1957, 11.

32 John Duffield, Power Rules: The Evolution of NATO's Conventional Force Posture (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995), 126–8.

33 NATO/M.C.70, A Report on the Minimum Essential Force Requirements, 29 January 1958.

34 Duffield, Power Rules, 144.

35 Hatzivassiliou, Greece and the Cold War, 76.

36 NATO/C-M(59)94, Part II, Report on the 1959 Annual Review – Greece, 3 December 1959; NATO/C-M(58)141, Part II, Report on the 1958 Annual Review – Turkey, 6 December 1958.

37 NATO/C-M(58)141, Part II, Report on the 1958 Annual Review – Turkey, 6 December 1958; also Erik Zürcher, Turkey. A Modern History (London & New York: I. B. Tauris, 2004 – New Edition), 229.

38 NATO/C-M(59)94, Part II, Report on the 1959 Annual Review – Turkey, 3 December 1959.

39 Theodore Couloumbis, Greek Political Reaction to American and NATO Influences (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1966), 111; Philip Nash, ‘Jumping Jupiters: the US Search for IRBM Host Countries in NATO, 1957–59’, Diplomacy & Statecraft 6, no. 3 (November 1995): 769, 773.

40 Nur Bilge Criss, ‘Strategic Nuclear Missiles in Turkey: The Jupiter Affair, 1959–1963’, The Journal of Strategic Studies 20, no. 4 (September 1997): 98–103; Nash, ‘Jumping Jupiters’, 774–6.

41 Robert Holland, ‘NATO and the Struggle for Cyprus’, Journal of Modern Greek Studies 13, no. 1 (May 1995): 33–61.

42 Hale, Turkish Foreign Policy, 127; Robert Holland, Britain and the Revolt in Cyprus, 1954–1959 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 293; Evanthis Hatzivassiliou, Britain and the International Status of Cyprus, 1955–59 (Minneapolis: Minnesota Mediterranean and East European Monographs, 1997), 152.

43 Duffield, Power Rules, 151; Andreas Wenger, ‘The politics of military planning. Evolution of NATO's strategy’, in War Plans and Alliances in the Cold War: Threat perceptions in the East and West, ed. Vojtech Mastny, Sven Holtsmark and Andreas Wenger (London and New York: Routledge, 2006), 176–83.

44 NATO/MCM-196-60, General Frontistis' Memorandum on the Defense of the Balkans in accordance with the Forward Strategy Principles, 27 December 1960.

45 NATO/MCM-196-60, General Frontistis' Memorandum on the Defense of the Balkans in accordance with the Forward Strategy Principles, 27 December 1960

46 NATO/MCM-164-61, Memorandum for the Military Committee on Status Report on the Defense of the Balkan Area, 6 December 1961.

47 Dwight D. Eisenhower Library [hereafter: DDEL], Norstad Papers/Subject Files/box 95, Admiral Brown to General Norstad, 3 February 1961, and 12 December 1961; Admiral Russel to General Norstad, 4 February 1962; General Norstad to Admiral Russel, 5 February 1962.

48 DDEL/Norstad Papers/Subject Files/box 95, Admiral Brown to General Norstad, 18 May 1961.

49 Hatzivassiliou, Greece and the Cold War, 74, 77; Hale, Turkish Foreign Policy, 146.

50 NATO/MCM-164-61, Memorandum for the Military Committee on Status Report on the Defense of the Balkan Area, 6 December 1961.

51 Karamanlis, 5A, Record of conversation between Karamanlis, Foreign Minister Averoff-Tossitza, and Lt. General Frontistis, with US Deputy Secretary of Defense, Gilpatric, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Affairs, Nitze, and Chief of Staff of the Army, General Dekker, on 18 April 1961, 45; Karamanlis, 5B, Records of conversations between the Greek leadership and SACEUR Lemnitzer and Chairman of the JCS, General Taylor during their visit in Athens on 24 and 29 April, 1963, 617–20.

52 Hatzivassiliou, Greece and the Cold War, 90–93.

53 Correspondent in Ankara, ‘Turkey Expects Massive Aid From West’, The Times, 16 March 1962, 9.

54 Defence Correspondent, ‘One of the Keys to World Power’, The Times, 19 February 1962, 11.

55 FRUS, 1961–63, XVI, Paris to State Department, 14 May 1961, 699–701; Paris to State Department, 3 April 1962, 724–6; Dean Rusk to State Department, 15 December 1963, 765–7.

56 Zürcher, Turkey, 244–7, 264–6.

57 FRUS, 1961–63, XVI, Paris to State Department, 14 May 1961, 699–701; conversations between Chairman of the JCS, General Lemnitzer, and Turkish Chief of the General Staff, General Sunay, 14 November 1961, 714–7; conversation on Aid for Turkey, NATO Ministerial Meeting, 15 December 1961, 717–9; Paris to State Department, 3 April 1962, 724–6.

58 Hale, Turkish Foreign Policy, 133–6; Philip Nash, The Other Missiles of October: Eisenhower, Kennedy, and the Jupiters, 1957–1963 (Chapel Hill:, The University of North Carolina Press, 1997), 117–57.

59 NATO/MCM-73-66, Memorandum on the Possible Methods for Improving NATO Capabilities on the Flanks, 14 July 1966.

60 NATO/MCM-73-66, Memorandum on the Possible Methods for Improving NATO Capabilities on the Flanks, 14 July 1966

61 NATO/MCM-37-68, Memorandum for the Secretary General on the Appreciation of the Strategic Situation in the Southern region of ACE, 30 May 1968.

62 In 1966, from the ACE Mobile Force (AMF) two US divisions (one armoured) and four fighter squadrons were earmarked for deployment in the Southern Flank. However, at that time only one US airborne division and one US Marines Battalion from the Sixth Fleet were capable of timely deployment in the Balkans.

63 NATO/MCM-73-66, Memorandum on the Possible Methods for Improving NATO Capabilities on the Flanks, 14 July 1966; TNA/DEFE/5/165, COS 25/66, Contingency Planning – Hellenic Thrace, 1 March 1966.

64 NATO/MCM-67-66, Memorandum on Contingency Study for Hellenic Thrace, 3 June 1966.

65 NATO/MCM-73-66, Memorandum on the Possible Methods for Improving NATO Capabilities on the Flanks, 14 July 1966.

66 TNA/DEFE/5/165, COS 25/66, Contingency Planning – Hellenic Thrace, 1 March 1966.

67 TNA/DEFE/5/165, COS 25/66, Contingency Planning – Hellenic Thrace, 1 March 1966

68 NATO/MCM-34-66 (Revised), Memorandum on Turkish BRAVO Force Proposals, 13 June 1966.

69 NATO/MCM-57-68, Memorandum on Plans for external Reinforcements for the Southern Region, 2 August 1968.

70 Hatzivassiliou, Greece and the Cold War, 147.

71 NATO/PO/64/688, Secretary General's ‘Watching Brief’ – Greek-Turkish Relations, 11 December 1964, and NATO/PO/67/873, Greek-Turkish Relations – Secretary General's Watching Brief, 8 December 1967. For Turkey, see for more Suha Bolukbasi, ‘The Johnson Letter Revisited’, Middle Eastern Studies 29, no. 3 (July 1993): 505–25, and Cihat Göktepe, ‘The Cyprus Crisis of 1967 and its Effects on Turkey's Foreign Relations’, Middle Eastern Studies 41, no. 3 (May 2005): 431–44. For Greece, see Sotiris Rizas, Enosi, Dichotomisi, Anexartisia: Oi Enomenes Politeies kai i Vretania stin Anazitisi Lysis gia to Kypriako, 1963–1967 [Union, Partition, Independence: the United States and Britain in search of a solution for the Cyprus question, 1963–1967] (Athens: Vivliorama, 2000), 158–60, 227–31.

72 NATO/MCM-23-68, Memorandum on A Concept for External Reinforcement of the Flanks, 16 April 1968.

73 NATO/MCM-37-68, Memorandum for the Secretary General on the Appreciation of the Strategic Situation in the Southern region of ACE, 30 May 1968.

74 Vojtech Mastny and Malcolm Byrne eds., A Cardboard Castle? An Inside History of the Warsaw Pact, 1955–1991 (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2005), 245–48.