The search for economic and military aid in the shadow of crises: Turkish-American relations during İnönü governments (1961–1965)

Abstract

The leader of Republican People’s Party (RPP), İsmet İnönü, formed three governments between 1961 and 1965. Turkey faced several political, economic, social and military challenges in this period. Turkish foreign policy also witnessed problems such as the crises that erupted in Cuba and Cyprus in 1962 and 1963, respectively. Both the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Cyprus Crisis had serious effects on Turkish–American political relations, so a great deal of literature exists discussing these developments. At the same time, Turkey negotiated with the United States of America (USA) to obtain more economic and military aid, which has drawn less scholarly attention. This article aims to shed light on the negotiations between Turkey and the USA to show how Turkish decision-makers worked hard to obtain more economic and military aid from the USA in the shadow of these crises. This article argues that these crises did not negatively influence economic and military relations between the countries due to Turkey’s economic and military dependence on and strategic importance for the USA against the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from the beginning of the Cold War.

Keywords:

• İsmet İnönü
• Cuban missile crisis
• Cyprus
• USA
• aid

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Çağrı Erhan, ‘ABD ve NATO’yla İlişkiler’ [Relations with the USA and NATO], in Baskın Oran (ed.), Türk Dış Politikası [Turkish Foreign Policy] (Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2006), pp.681–82. See also George S. Harris, Troubled Alliance: Turkish American Problems in Historical Perspective 1945-1971 (Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1972), pp.92–93.

2 Erhan, ‘ABD ve NATO’yla İlişkiler’, pp.682–83. See also Süleyman Seydi, ‘Turkish-American Relations and the Cuban Missile Crisis’, Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 46 (3) (2010), p.444.

3 Erhan, ‘ABD ve NATO’yla İlişkiler’, pp.685–87. See also H.W. Brands Jr, ‘America Enters the Cyprus Tangle, 1964’, Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 23 (3) (1987), p.351; Harris, Troubled Alliance, pp.112-16; William Hale, Turkish Foreign Policy since 1774 (London: Routledge, 2013), pp.106–07; Süha Bölükbaşı, ‘The Johnson Letter Revisited’, Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 29 (3) (1993), pp.516–17.

4 Erhan, ‘ABD ve NATO’yla İlişkiler’, pp.689–91. See also Hale, Turkish Foreign Policy since 1774, pp.107–08; Nurhan İnce and Robert Olson, ‘Turkish Foreign Policy: 1960-1964: Continuity, Change and Cyprus Crisis’, Oriente Moderno, Vol. 57 (7-8) (1977), p.284; Harris, Troubled Alliance, pp.116–22.

5 For Turkey’s strategic importance for the USA, see George McGhee, ABD-Türkiye-NATO-Ortadoğu [USA-Turkey-NATO-Middle East] (Ankara: Bilgi Yayınevi, 1992), pp.30–31. See also Harris, Troubled Alliance, p.25; Oral Sander, Türk-Amerikan İlişkileri 1947–1964 [Turkish-American Relations 1947-1964] (Ankara: İmge Kitabevi, 2016), pp.37–40.

6 William Hale, Turkish Politics and the Military (London: Routledge, 1994), pp.153–55. See also Feroz Ahmad, Demokrasi Sürecinde Türkiye (1945-1980) [The Turkish Experiment in Democracy] (Istanbul: Hil Yayın, 1992), pp.222–23, 225; Kemal Karpat, Türkiye’de Siyasal Sistemin Evrimi 1876-1980 [The Evolution of the Political System in Turkey 1876-1980] (Ankara: İmge Kitabevi, 2007), pp.199–200; Suavi Aydın and Yüksel Taşkın, 1960’dan Günümüze Türkiye Tarihi [Turkish History since 1960] (Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2015), pp.99–100.

7 Ahmad, Demokrasi Sürecinde Türkiye (1945-1980), pp.263–69, 274–76. See also Erik Jan Zürcher, Modernleşen Türkiye’nin Tarihi [Turkey: A Modern History] (Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2000), pp.362–64; Aydın and Taşkın, 1960’dan Günümüze Türkiye Tarihi, pp.102–29; Harris, Troubled Alliance, pp.90–91.

8 Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), 1961-1963, V. XVI, Eastern Europe, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey. Telegram From the Embassy in Turkey to the Department of State, 24 October 1961.

9 FRUS, 1961-1963, V. XVI, Eastern Europe, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey. Telegram From the Embassy in Turkey to the Embassy in France, 26 October 1961.

10 Ibid.

11 Ibid.

12 FRUS, 1961-1963, V. XVI, Eastern Europe, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey. Telegram from the Embassy in Turkey to the Department of State, 29 January 1962.

13 Korkut Boratav, Türkiye İktisat Tarihi 1908–2015 [Turkey’s Economic History] (Ankara: İmge Kitabevi, 2023), pp.106–07. See also Gülten Kazgan, Tanzimat’tan 21.Yüzyıla Türkiye Ekonomisi [Turkish Economy from Tanzimat to the 21^st Century] (Istanbul: İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi Yayınları, 2021), p.67.

14 Boratav, Türkiye İktisat Tarihi 1908–2015, pp.121–23. See also Kazgan, Tanzimattan 21. Yüzyıla Türkiye Ekonomisi, pp.73–74; Şevket Pamuk, Türkiye’nin 200 Yıllık İktisadi Tarihi [Turkey’s Economic History in the Last 200 Years] (Istanbul: Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları, 2022), pp.82–84.

15 Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu (TÜİK) [Turkish Statistical Institute]: https://data.tuik.gov.tr/Bulten/DownloadIstatistikselTablo?p=agWSICLkVWAykFDwVYV7xiw1IsBsfg9 E0aVpZExN3LBg36JZgFH0CNbYxt6LcLdu (accessed 4 April 2024).

16 Sander, Türk-Amerikan İlişkileri 1947-1964, pp.277–78.

17 Boratav, Türkiye İktisat Tarihi 1908-2015, pp. 141–44. See also Kazgan, Tanzimat’tan 21.Yüzyıla Türkiye Ekonomisi pp.77-81; Pamuk, Türkiye’nin 200 Yıllık İktisadi Tarihi, pp.235–38.

18 Metin Toker, Demokrasimizin İsmet Paşalı Yılları: İnönü’nün Son Başbakanlığı (1961-1965) [İsmet Paşa and Turkish Democracy: Last Prime Ministry (1961-1965)] (Ankara: Bilgi Yayınevi, 1992), pp.47–48, 51.

19 Harris, Troubled Alliance, pp.100–01.

20 Ibid., p.99.

21 FRUS, 1961-1963, V. XVI, Eastern Europe, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey. Memorandum of Conversation, 15 December 1961.

22 Ibid.

23 FRUS, 1961-1963, V. XVI, Eastern Europe, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey. Telegram from the Embassy in Turkey to the Department of State, 3 January 1962.

24 Ibid.

25 FRUS, 1961-1963, V. XVI, Eastern Europe, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey. Telegram from the Consulate in Istanbul to the Department of State, 30 August 1962.

26 Ibid.

27 Sander, Türk-Amerikan İlişkileri 1947-1964, pp.277–78.

28 FRUS, 1961-1963, V. XVI, Eastern Europe, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey. Memorandum of Conversation, 30 September 1963. For more details about the Consortium for aid to Turkey see Harris, Troubled Alliance, pp.100–01; Toker, Demokrasimizin İsmet Paşalı Yılları, p.51.

29 FRUS, 1961-1963, V. XVI, Eastern Europe, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey. Memorandum of Conversation, 30 September 1963.

30 Ibid.

31 FRUS, 1961-1963, V. XVI, Eastern Europe, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey. Memorandum of Conversation, 26 November 1963.

32 Hale, Turkish Foreign Policy since 1774, p.109.

33 Ibid.

34 Sander, Türk-Amerikan İlişkileri 1947-1964, pp.277–78.

35 Harris, Troubled Alliance, p.182.

36 Kazgan, Tanzimattan 21. Yüzyıla Türkiye Ekonomisi, p.65. See also McGhee, ABD-Türkiye-NATO-Ortadoğu, pp.57–58.

37 McGhee, ABD-Türkiye-NATO-Ortadoğu, pp.163–65. See also Harris, The Troubled Alliance, pp.52–53; Hale, Turkish Foreign Policy since 1774, pp.89–90.

38 FRUS, 1961-1963, V. XVI, Eastern Europe, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey. Memorandum for Record, 14 November 1961.

39 Ibid.

40 Ibid.

41 Ibid.

42 FRUS, 1961-1963, V. XVI, Eastern Europe, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey. Telegram from the Embassy in Turkey to the Department of State, 3 January 1962.

43 FRUS, 1961-1963, V. XVI, Eastern Europe, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey. Telegram from the Embassy in France to the Department of State, 3 April 1962.

44 Ibid.

45 Ibid.

46 FRUS, 1961-1963, V. XVI, Eastern Europe, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey. Telegram from the Consulate in Istanbul to the Department of State, 30 August 1962.

47 Ibid.

48 Ibid.

49 Erhan, ABD ve NATO’yla İlişkiler, pp.684–85. See also Hale, Turkish Foreign Policy since 1774, pp.100–01; Stephen Larrabee, ‘Turkey and the United States’, in Stephen Larrabee and Ian O. Lesser (eds), Turkish Foreign Policy in An Age of Uncertainty (Santa Monica: RAND Corporation, 2002), p.163.

50 Sander, Türk-Amerikan İlişkileri 1947-1964, pp.297-99.

51 Harris, Troubled Alliance, p.155.

52 FRUS, 1961-1963, V. XVI, Eastern Europe, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey. Telegram from Secretary of State Rusk to the Department of State, 15 December 1963.

53 Ibid.

54 Erhan, ABD ve NATO’yla İlişkiler, pp.689-91. See also Hale, Turkish Foreign Policy since 1774, pp.107–08; İnce and Olson, ‘Turkish Foreign Policy: 1960-1964: Continuity, Change and Cyprus Crisis’, p.284; Harris, Troubled Alliance, pp.116–22.

55 Harris, Troubled Alliance, p.155.