Date

Dec 9, 1974

Description

The Department of State released its response to a dissent of the United States' handling of the 1974 coup d'etat by the Greek army in Cyprus, but not the original cable. Fortunately, we were able to find this key original papers at the US National Archives. The dissent contends that the CIA did not accurately report and predict that there would be a coup in Cyprus, in fact it predicted that a coup would not occur. After the fact the CIA allegedly told the press that its intelligence and analysis was successful, a claim the dissent cable author Thomas Boyatt deemed "a misrepresentation." Boyatt also argued that the new situation in southern Europe was worse for the United States than it had been.

The response to this dissent from Deputy Director of Policy Planning admits "nobody would claim perfection for our policy concerning Cyprus," but argues "it would have been very hard for the USG, as a government, to foresee the present situation in all its complexities before the crisis." He contends that the "status quo" of extremely strained Turkish-Cypriot relations on the island before the crisis was not as desirable as most, including Boyatt point out in retrospect, and that its preservation would not necessarily have led to regional stability. Lewis maintains that "intelligence reports from Athens were at best conflicting," and that the U.S. inserting itself could have left "very important US/NATO facilities in both Greece and Turkey in jeopardy," Ultimately, Lewis writes, "war was avoided, negotiations began, and...civilian government was restored in Greece. We were not responsible for either the successes or the failures." However, he believes this outcome preserves US influence in the region, remarking that "while there are few grounds for optimism, there are as yet no grounds for despair."

Similar questions about US actions in relation to the crisis in Cyprus were raised in Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's preparation for a Pike Committee hearing, according to an October 24, 1975, Memorandum of Conversation from The Foreign Relations of the United States series. In this memorandum, Deputy Under Secretary Eagleburger informs Secretary Kissinger that the Pike Committee would likely probe the "mishandling of the Cyprus crisis." Ultimately, the Pike Committee ordered Kissinger to release the above-cited dissent memorandum written by Thomas Boyatt criticizing the CIA and State Department actions during the crisis. However, Kissinger refused to release Boyatt's cable, claiming that his secrecy was an attempt to maintain the integrity of the Dissent Channel. The dissent and Policy Planning's response have now been released and the public now has more key details about what the U.S. knew on the eve of the coup in Cyprus.

Source

Joseph Sisco records, RG 59, NARA and FOIA lawsuit, National Security Archive v. Department of State (17-cv-0770)

Document published in following posting(s):

Department of State’s Dissent Channel Revealed

Mar 15, 2018