60. Letter From Prime Minister Papandreou to President Johnson1
Dear Mr. President,
The Honorable Henry Labouisse, Ambassador of the United States in Athens has imparted to Mr. S. Costopoulos, the Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs, the concern of the American Government in view of information about an imminent Turkish landing in Cyprus. He also informed Mr. Costopoulos of the action taken by the American Government with the Government of Turkey, in order to avert the landing.
The Greek Government wishes to express its warm thanks for this appropriate and wise initiative of the President of the United States, which agrees with the tradition of the American Nation as well as with the mission of the United States as leader of the Free World.
We do not know if the above step has been decisively effective. Information is reaching us that Turkey persists in the policy of landing and is preparing for it; and that, in order to justify the landing, she is staging the proclamation, by the very small Turkish minority of Cyprus, of a federative or an independent State.2
[Page 123]The Greek Government has repeatedly declared and reasserts today that its policy is peace; but, in case of aggression, it will be defense.
The Greek Government most assuredly regards a Turkish landing in Cyprus as an aggression; because the resolution of the Security Council of the 4th of March would thus be violated and also because such an action aims at the strangulation of the rights of the great Greek majority of the island.
This will be one of the consequences of an eventual Turkish landing: a Greek-Turkish conflict and the dissolution of the Southeastern flank of NATO. But this will not be the only consequence. Communism will become omnipotent within the island of Cyprus; and, we unfortunately fear, within Greece, where, with our policies, we have reduced it to 12%. Besides, it is inevitable and human that the Greeks of Cyprus, threatened by a Turkish invasion tolerated by the Allies, should seek help wherever they can find it. And it is known, under the present circumstance, whence this help will be offered. An objective assessment of the future, unfortunately leads to the certain forecast that, under these conditions, Cyprus will end into another Cuba and that the Greek Government will no longer be in a position to exercise any restraining influence.
We feel that a critical hour has struck and we regard it our duty to define responsibilities before the Greek nation, before the Free World to which we belong, as well as before History. And this is the meaning of the present message.
Yours sincerely,
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 23–8 CYP. No classification marking. The source text is a copy of the letter given to Secretary Rusk by the Greek Embassy on June 9; it is typed on Greek Embassy stationery. Rusk passed it to the President at lunch the same day. Ambassador Matsas formally presented the original of the letter to President Johnson at a June 11 meeting; see Document 62.↩
- In telegram 1848 from Athens, June 9, 5 p.m., the Embassy reported that a “revived atmosphere of crisis gripped Athens” as a result of renewed reports of Turkish preparations for an invasion of Cyprus. (Department of State, Central Files, POL 23–8 CYP)↩
- Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩