S/S–NSC Files: Lot 63D351: NSC 42
Memorandum by the Acting Secretary of State to the Executive Secretary of the National Security Council (Lay)
Subject: Second Progress Report on NSC 42/1, “United States Objectives with Respect to Greece and Turkey to Counter Soviet Threats to United States Security.”2
NSC 42/1 was approved as governmental policy on March 23, 1949, on the basis of the considerations set forth in NSC 5/4 of June 3, 1948. It is requested that this report, as of August 25, 1950, be circulated to members of the Council for their information.
II. Policy Implementation—Turkey
Military Aid
United States military aid to Turkey was continued during fiscal 1950 under Public Law 3293 authorizing $211 million for Greece and Turkey, with the Turkish program receiving approximately $91.8 million. With the end of fiscal 1950, total funds committed for military assistance to Turkey under the aid program had thus been brought to about $252.9 million. It is contemplated that the allocation for fiscal 1951 under Title II of the Mutual Defense Assistance Act of 1950 will be $67.4 million, subject to substantial increase if supplementary foreign military aid funds are authorized and appropriated.
[Page 1318]This United States military aid is playing an effective role in modernizing the Turkish forces, augmenting their combat effectiveness, and reducing expenditure of manpower. However, notwithstanding a decrease in the Turkish forces from about 500,000 in 1947 to around 300,000 at present, maintenance of the Turkish defense establishment continues to absorb some 35 to 40 percent of the country’s budgetary revenues.
Relations between the United States and Turkish military establishments were brought appreciably closer by the visit to Turkey in March 1950 of the Army Chief of Staff,4 who undertook to review in general terms common defense interests of the two countries with the highest Turkish authorities. As a consequence of this visit, the Chief of the Joint American Military Mission for Aid to Turkey (JAMMAT) is now advising and assisting the Turkish General Staff in connection with its strategic planning. Urgent steps are also being taken, in the light of the Korean situation, to remedy certain outstanding organizational weaknesses in the Turkish military establishment, Notably the need for regrouping of certain units, for doubling the number of non-commissioned officers, and for additional emphasis on training, command inspections, and war and mobilization planning.
The principal threat to Turkey lies in the possibility of direct aggression by the USSR, perhaps supplemented by Bulgarian attack.5 While there is no concrete evidence that such aggression is imminent, it remains a Soviet capability and reports that early and large scale air-sea-land maneuvers in the Black Sea are planned by the USSR merit close watching.
Economic Aid
An increase in the standard of living in Turkey is a means of strengthening Turkish efforts to oppose communist pressure. ECA assistance has enabled Turkey to undertake a program of economic development which, because of the National defense burden, would not otherwise have been possible. In fiscal 1950 Turkey received $59 million of direct ECA aid, of which $35 million was in the form of loans, plus a net figure of $46 million of indirect aid in the form of drawing rights. In fiscal 1951 direct aid is likely to be between $30 million and $35 million, and Turkey has an initial position in the European Payments Union of $25 million in the form of a loan. The Turkish Government is currently pressing for more favorable ECA [Page 1319] treatment, but the United States has not been able to extend any encouragement in this respect.6
Economic aid to Turkey is being utilized to purchase modern agricultural equipment which will make possible an increase in Turkey’s agricultural production, to modernize and enlarge the coal mines, to develop the very inadequate internal transportation system, and to develop power resources—all important elements in the country’s basic economy. While these projects are designed primarily to contribute to European recovery, they will likewise serve to increase the national income of Turkey with resultant improvement in the standard of living and in Turkey’s ability to carry its defense burden.
Turkish Foreign Relations
Apart from the usual Soviet propaganda against Turkey, there have been no special instances of Soviet pressure against Turkey during the period under review. A possible minor exception was an article in the official organ of the Soviet Navy Ministry, Red Fleet, on April 19, proposing revision of the 1936 Montreux Convention on the Straits on the grounds that its provisions “have ceased to accord with the interests of the Black Sea powers.” In accordance with United States policy of extending diplomatic support to Turkey, the Secretary of State, at a press conference on April 21,7 made a statement deprecating this semi-official revival of an unacceptable Soviet proposal.
The Turkish Government, like that of Greece, has urged periodically that Turkey be included in the North Atlantic Pact or in some other regional security arrangement guaranteeing United States’, and possibly other Allied, military support in the event of aggression. Although the United States has on various occasions publicly expressed its vital interest in the security of Turkey, as well as that of Greece and Iran, it has maintained that it could not yet extend its formal security commitments. Recent international developments have, however, intensified Turkey’s desire to be included in the Pact, resulting in renewed pleas to the United States, the British and the French for support on this issue. Urgent consideration is, therefore, being given to the position which this Government should now take on this question.
[Page 1320]The Turkish offer of 4, 500 ground troops for service in Korea is a welcome demonstration of Turkish solidarity with the United States in support of United Nations principles.
Turkish Internal Situation
United States aid and influence have contributed to the strengthening of political stability in Turkey with the result that continued progress has been made toward democratic development, as evidenced by the free and orderly elections of May 14. In these elections the Democrat Party, formerly the leading opposition party, scored a sweeping victory over the Republican Peoples’ Party, which had been in power since the Turkish Republic was founded in 1923. The new Government, headed by President Celâl Bayar, is cooperating as closely with American authorities as did its predecessor and has given rise to no significant problems.
- For the remainder of this memorandum, with annotation pertinent as well to the present extracts, see p. 410.↩
- Foreign Relations, 1949, vol. vi, p. 269.↩
- Approved October 6, 1949; 63 Stat. (pt. 1) 714.↩
- Gen. J. Lawton Collins; see memoranda of March 26 and April 10, pp. 1241 and 1248.↩
- See NSC 73/4, “The Position and Action of the United States With Respect to Possible Further Soviet Moves in the Light of the Korean Situation”, August 25, 1950, vol. i, p. 375.↩
- Turkey tried to get its EPU initial position of $25 million for fiscal year 1951 increased to $65.7 million (memorandum of conversation, July 14, by C. Robert Moore, Officer in Chargé, Turkish Affairs, 882.10/7–1450, not printed) apparently without success (Keesing’s Contemporary Archives, 1950–1952, vol. viii, p. 11181A). For documentation on the European Payments Union, see vol. iii, pp. 611 ff.↩
- Department of State Bulletin, May 1, 1950, p. 687.↩