Office of the Historian

472. Memorandum From Robert W. Komer of the National Security Council Staff to President Johnson1

Washington, February 29, 1964.

The Cyprus crisis may be reaching a critical stage shortly. If the SC resolution being submitted Monday (by the non-permanent SC members)2 fails, then the likelihood of a Turkish move becomes high indeed.

Ball’s plan for getting Inonu and Papandreou together still looks like the best bet to forestall unilateral action, but the Greeks are balking (and UK is lukewarm).3

If the situation is this menacing, you might want to take 3 minutes at end of NSC meeting to ask Rusk: (1) his prognosis; (2) what our contingency plan is if Turks begin to move.4

R.W. Komer 5
  1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Komer Files, Cyprus. Secret.↩
  2. S/5571, adopted as SC Res. 186 (1964) on March 4; for text, see American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1964, pp. 566–567.↩
  3. See Foreign Relations, 1964–1968, vol. XVI, Documents 15–20.↩
  4. No discussion of Cyprus took place at the February 29 or the March 5 meetings of the NSC.↩
  5. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩