Secretary’s Letters: Lot 56 D 459: “Near & Middle East”
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Officer in Charge of Turkish Affairs (Moore)
| Participants: | Mr. Feridun C. Erkin—Turkish Ambassador |
| Mr. George C. McGhee—Assistant Secretary, NEA | |
| Mr. C. Robert Moore—GTI |
Ambassador Erkin expressed his warm thanks to Mr. McGhee for his helpfulness in working for the action taken by the North Atlantic Council at Ottawa with respect to the admission of Turkey to NATO. While indicating great pleasure at the decision, he also indicated concern that Turkey’s admission to NATO is apparently being linked to its participation in the Middle East Command. He knew that we had sponsored Turkey’s admission to NATO on an unconditional basis, but he felt that the British associated the two actions very closely. Newspaper comment and other events since Ottawa were stimulating Turkish suspicions that there are indeed conditions to its formal admission to NATO.
Mr. McGhee replied that there was no question about the action taken at Ottawa—Turkey’s admission to NATO is to be unconditional. Apart from that, however, we and the British have been giving a great deal of thought to the creation of a Middle East Command with Turkish, Egyptian and Commonwealth participation. We want to discuss our ideas with the Turks very soon and are hopeful that we can all agree on the form of the Command to be set up. We feel it logical that there should be a British Supreme Commander. The British have troops and bases in the Middle East. Some of the Commonwealth countries will make contributions to the Command. We would not want the Supreme Command, nor we were sure, would the Turks. However, these are all problems to be discussed and worked out together.
Ambassador Erkin commented that he had very limited information as to the nature of the proposed Middle East Command, particularly with reference to Turkey’s obligations. Mr. McGhee emphasized that the plans for the Command are sketchy and that they will be developed more fully after the talks with the Turks, which is one of the purposes of the proposed Bradley–Slim–French visit. The Generals will also wish to discuss with the Turks the NATO command structure and their membership in the various NATO bodies. The NATO Command arrangements resulting from Greece and Turkey’s inclusion in NATO will have to be submitted to the Military Committee of NATO and ultimately for approval to the North Atlantic Council on which Turkey and Greece will be represented. In view of the influence which [Page 194] the British and French have on some of the other NATO members, Mr. McGhee felt that the Turkish Government would find it useful for the high British and French military representatives to accompany General Bradley to Turkey as NATO Command arrangements discussed with all three would be assured sympathetic consideration and approval by the Council.
The conversation then turned to Egypt. Mr. McGhee pointed out that the situation there impels us to act quickly in seeking agreement with all interested governments, including Egypt on the creation of a Middle East Command in the hope that such action may avert unilateral abrogation by Egypt of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936. Information from the very highest sources leads us to fear that some substantive proposals with respect to the Command have to be made to the Egyptian Government within the next ten days or so, in fact, probably before the visit of the three Generals to Turkey, if abrogation is to be averted.
Ambassador Erkin referred to his conversation with Ambassador Rahim at San Francisco several weeks ago. At that time the latter had indicated that the Egyptian Government would take no action on abrogation before the third week in November, in view of the various hints that some satisfactory multilateral formula would be proposed to it very soon. Ambassador Erkin stated he had seen Ambassador Rahim again yesterday but no change in the time schedule had been suggested. He expressed the opinion that the Egyptians would be delighted to have some formula suggested to them that will bring a solution to the Treaty problem as well as to their security problem.
The Ambassador asked if we had had any report on President Bayar’s reaction to President Truman’s messages. Mr. McGhee referred to Ambassador Wadsworth’s very interesting and helpful conversation with President Bayar at the time the messages were delivered and to the President’s very favorable reaction to these messages, later confirmed by Ambassador Wadsworth’s subsequent conversations with the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister. Mr. McGhee commented that the Turkish Government apparently welcomed a visit by General Bradley but felt the time was not appropriate for a visit by the British and French Generals. We have since asked Ambassador Wadsworth to explain in more detail why we think an informal visit by the highest military representatives of these countries is important and we are hopeful that the Turkish Government will agree with us as to the advantages of such a visit. A visit to Turkey by General Bradley alone might be interpreted by Egypt as reflecting adversely on the British status in the Middle East Command in which the British will play a major role. A visit by the three Generals would emphasize the solidarity of the Powers and the multilateral [Page 195] character of the proposals to be made to Egypt. In fact, it might be very difficult for General Bradley to make the trip to Turkey alone because of the complications that might be created.
Ambassador Erkin reiterated at this point two difficulties, which in his personal view, may complicate the solution of the Middle East Command problem. First is the apparent relationship between Turkey’s participation in the Middle East Command and its membership in NATO. Regardless of the true facts, discussion on the proposed Middle East Command before Turkey’s formal admission to NATO will be interpreted by the Turkish public as confirming that admission is conditional. The second difficulty arises through the proposed appointment of a British General as Supreme Commander. The Ambassador feared that a British Supreme Commander would be unacceptable to the Egyptians and, in fact, that the Egyptians would object to any British troops on Egyptian soil. They might, however, accept the idea of mixed troops.
Mr. McGhee emphasized that Turkey as a NATO member will enjoy all the rights and privileges of full membership and that there should be no concern over the possibility that NATO membership will be conditional. He added that he recognized the difficulties involved in obtaining Egyptian acceptance of the Middle East Command idea and a British Supreme Commander. We were, however, counting on the Turks to help us to convince them of the desirability of this proposed solution. Obviously the details of the Middle East Command have to be discussed with all of the proposed participants. As they are primarily military in nature, our qualified military men should sit down together, and we hope very soon, to work them out.
In closing the interview, the Ambassador stated that President Bayar’s reply to President Truman’s public message had been sent from Ankara and he hoped to receive it in a few days. He believed there would also be a second message replying to President Truman’s secret message and that he would like very much to deliver both messages in person to President Truman. He will, however, let us know when he is prepared to do this.