Office of the Historian

334. Telegram From the Embassy in Greece to the Department of State1

Athens, November 30, 1967, 0405Z.

2501. Vanto 53. Subject: Vance meeting with Archbishop Makarios—Nov 29–30. Vance, accompanied by Amb. Belcher and John Walsh, met with Archbishop Makarios, President of the Parliament Clerides and FonMin Kyprianou in 6 and 3/4 hour marathon session, ending at 0245. Mission left for Athens at 0345.

Makarios stubbornly and cleverly defended a defective GOC written commentary into the early morning hours.

Finally, His Beatitude gave way sufficiently to permit the completion of a draft which seems sufficiently forthcoming to contribute to the overall defusing effort. Negotiating with him under circumstances threatening existence of his country can be fairly described as unique experience.

Text of the secret written GOC comment signed by Spyros Kyprianou, Minister of Foreign Affairs, follows:

“Dear Mr. Vance

We welcome the many and strenuous efforts which have been made in recent days to preserve peace in this area.

The Government of the Republic of Cyprus, referring to the proposals contained in the attached text, wishes to state its position as follows:

1.
The first three paragraphs of the said proposals concern primarily the Governments of Greece and Turkey and have already been agreed [Page 685] upon by them. The Government of Cyprus acknowledging the aforesaid agreement between the Governments of Greece and Turkey considers it as a first step on the lines of the Secretary-General’s appeal of November 24, 1967, for the phased withdrawal of all forces and complete demilitarisation.2 It, therefore, maintains that such phased withdrawal should include the Greek and Turkish contingents because it firmly believes that, in this way, the cause of peace would be best served.
2.
The pacification measures stated in paragraph 4 are objectives of the Cyprus Government.
3.
The Cyprus Government questions the need for ‘an enlarged and improved mandate for UNFICYP.’ It suggests that the three governments discuss this issue with the Secretary-General of the United Nations in New York.
4.
The Government of Cyprus will ask the Security Council for guarantees against military intervention in accordance with the last paragraph of the Secretary-General’s appeal of November 24, 1967. Yours sincerely, Spyros Kyprianou, Minister of Foreign Affairs.”

Detailed report on meeting will be submitted in septel.3

Talbot
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 7 US/VANCE. Secret; Flash; Exdis. Received at 0946Z and also sent to Nicosia, Ankara, London, USUN, the Mission to NATO, and CINCEUR.↩
  2. U.N. Doc. S/8248/Add.5; for text, see American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1967, pp. 367–368. This was Secretary-General Thant’s second appeal; his first was on November 22 (see Document 307).↩
  3. Not further identified.↩