Office of the Historian
Bureau of Public Affairs
United States Department of State
February 12, 2008
The Department of State released today Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969?1976, Volume XXIX, Eastern Europe; Eastern Mediterranean, 1969-1972. The volume is split almost equally between Eastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. The Eastern Europe portion begins with a general chapter that covers the entire Soviet bloc region and deals almost exclusively with U.S. efforts to liberalize and expand trade with Eastern Europe. The second chapter, also a general one, deals with U.S. Government policy and the bureaucratic debate about?and ultimately, the decision on how to fund?Radio Free Europe (the U.S.-directed and clandestinely-funded broadcasting service aimed at Eastern Europe), and Radio Liberty (a similar service aimed at the Soviet Union). The remainder of the Eastern Europe section of the volume comprises eight chapters on U.S. bilateral relations with Soviet bloc Eastern European countries, as well as with Austria and Finland, neither of which are part of Eastern Europe, but are published here to provide additional coverage of European events. As the documents reveal, bilateral relations with Eastern Europe were limited and generally carried out at the Department of State level, but there was a considerable amount of interest by the White House?and on the part of President Nixon?in certain Eastern Europe countries. President Richard M. Nixon developed a close relationship with Romanian President Nicolae Ceaucescu. As the most independent member of the Eastern bloc, Yugoslavia also interested the White House. Nixon visited Romania and Yugoslavia, and Ceaucescu and Yugoslav President Josip Tito visited Washington, D.C., during the period covered by the volume. President Urho Kekkonen of Finland had a close relationship with the Soviet leadership, which the Nixon administration found useful when the Finnish President visited Washington. Although not always prominently documented, there is evidence in this volume that the Nixon administration?s relations with Eastern Europe were motivated in part by domestic political considerations, essentially the voting power of Polish-American and other Eastern European ethnic Americans, who made up a significant part of the population of the Midwest.
The countries covered in the three chapters on the Eastern Mediterranean, Greece, Cyprus, and Turkey, generally had a higher profile among Washington policymakers than Eastern Europe. This is particularly true for Greece. When President Nixon took office in 1969, he ordered a review of U.S. policy, and he subsequently sent to Athens a new Ambassador, Henry Tasca, to reassess relations with Greece, an important NATO ally. Tasca reported that the military junta that overthrew the elected government in Greece was there to stay for the immediate future and that the symbolic U.S. suspension of military aid and sales was undermining Greece?s security. The result was a Presidential decision to lift the suspension on aid and an understanding that Tasca would use this concession to the junta to push it towards constitutional reform and eventual democratic elections. The role of Vice President Spiro Agnew and businessman Tom Pappas in helping to shape U.S. policy toward Greece is documented in this chapter, especially through use of the White House tapes.
The Cyprus chapter is a continuation of the Foreign Relations series? long-standing coverage of the ongoing dispute on that island between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, which was overlaid with tensions among the Governments in Nicosia, Athens, and Ankara. The basic policy, which the Department of State had been following for years, was to attempt to expedite an intercommunal solution that would remove the conflict between Greek and Turkish Cypriots as a bone of contention between two NATO allies, Greece and Turkey. The Cyprus chapter covers the attempted assassination of Cypriot President Archbishop Makarios in March 1970. The volume also documents the events that ensued when Makarios purchased a substantial quantity of arms and ammunition from Czechoslovakia in February 1972. Cyprus was plunged into a crisis, which pitted Makarios against the Greek Government and Greek Cypriots who favored union with Greece. Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Henry Kissinger and the Washington Special Actions Group (a sub-group of the National Security Council) oversaw the crisis, and the records of their meetings are included in the volume.
The final chapter of the volume on Turkey covers the whole range of U.S.-Turkish bilateral relations, but U.S. efforts to discourage Turkish narcotics production is a main theme. President Nixon?s interest in suppressing the international trade in narcotics generated a high-level dialogue with Ankara about the country?s opium production. The primary documents on the U.S.-Turkish dialogue on Cyprus and the concern of Turkey for Turkish Cypriots?as with the U.S.-Greek discussions about the island nation?have been placed in the Cyprus chapter.
The volume and this press release are available on the Office of the Historian website at http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/frus/nixon/xxix. Copies of the volume will be available for purchase from the U.S. Government Printing Office online at http://bookstore.gpo.gov (GPO S/N 44-000-02599-0; ISBN 978-0-16-079018-8), or by calling toll-free 1-866-512-1800 (D.C. area 202-512-1800). For further information contact Edward Keefer, General Editor of the Foreign Relations series, at (202) 663?1131 or by e-mail to history@state.gov.
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