Today in History – 16 January

U.S. President Johnson’s letter is revealed

Withheld from public knowledge, a letter by 36th U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson was exposed on the front page of newspapers on 16 January 1966. When, on 13 January 1966, the daily Hürriyet published a news piece by Cüneyt Arcayürek, the incident had a “bombshell” effect on the public. The news was about a letter President Johnson had written to Prime Minister İsmet İnönü.

The letter in question was penned during the Cyprus crisis in 1964. Advocating integration with Greece, the armed Greek groups in the Republic of Cyprus governed by Archbishop Makarios were attempting ethnic cleansing by killing Turks. As one of the guarantor countries, Turkey took action based on its right to intervention according to the Treaties of London and Zurich. However, the letter of President Johnson interrupted the military operation.

In his letter, Lyndon Johnson stated that in the event of any intervention on Cyrpus, Turkey would not be using the arms it had acquired from the U.S., adding that if the latter were to be confronted by the Soviet Union in this context, NATO could refrain from defending Turkey.

Penned by a group of diplomats led by Deputy Secretary of State George Ball, the letter assumed its place in history as one of the biggest scandals in diplomacy. Meanwhile, a much-contemplated possibility is that the letter was the result of a masterful maneuver by İsmet İnönü, who sought to protect the Turkish army from a possible failure and pinpointed the U.S. as the responsible party in the Cyprus issue.