Office of the Historian

Sources

Sources for Foreign Relations, 1977–1980, Volume XXI, Cyprus; Turkey; Greece

In preparation for this volume, the editors made extensive use primarily of Presidential materials held in the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Department of State materials held in the National Archives and Records Administration (Archives II) in College Park, Maryland. Of the Presidential materials, several collections proved to be particularly valuable for this volume. The 1977 Transition File contains a number of documents that detail how Governor Carter developed his policy toward the Eastern Mediterranean as a Presidential candidate. These documents provide a blueprint for Carter’s subsequent policies during his first year in office, and they also serve as a baseline to illustrate the extent to which the Carter administration reversed course once it had determined that a full negotiated settlement in Cyprus was out of reach. The National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Country File for Cyprus, Turkey, and Greece is an excellent resource for many of the most important policy meetings on the Eastern Mediterranean region as well as miscellaneous but important documents pertaining to each country. The National Security Council, Institutional Files contain many of the NSC’s key meetings regarding policy toward the region. The National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Subject File is generally the best source for memoranda of conversation between U.S. officials and their foreign counterparts. Finally, the National Security Affairs, Staff Material, Horn/Special File, containing memoranda from National Security Council Staff member Paul Henze to Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Zbigniew Brzezinski, is an indispensable resource for understanding how the Carter administration eventually pursued policies that were more closely aligned with those of the Ford administration than with Carter’s own pledges first as a candidate for President and then during his first year in office.

Several collections originating in the Department of State and now housed at Archives II also proved extremely valuable for this volume. The Central Foreign Policy File is a repository for telegrams between the Department of State and U.S. diplomatic posts. Because of the multilateral nature of the issues in the Eastern Mediterranean, the cable traffic to, from, and among the Embassies in Nicosia, Ankara, and Athens is vital to understand Cypriot, Turkish, and Greek responses to U.S. policy. The lot file containing the records of Secretary of State [Page XIV] Cyrus Vance is a rich repository of key memoranda of conversation between Vance and the leading political figures of the region. The records of Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher (much of which was already declassified at the time of research) proved important particularly when he was serving as Acting Secretary of State. Finally, it would not have been possible to document the diplomatic challenges of the Cyprus impasse without the records of Department of State Counselor Matthew Nimetz. Nimetz, who served as the Department’s point person on Cyprus, was involved in nearly every aspect of U.S. efforts to achieve a settlement between the ethnic Greek and ethnic Turkish communities of Cyprus, both as a direct mediator and as a partner to UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim. The files of Matthew Nimetz and Paul Henze demonstrate the real and sometimes mutually exclusive choices confronted by the Carter administration and provide valuable insight in assessing the overall policy of the administration toward Cyprus, Turkey, and Greece. They also document the enormous influence that can be exerted by relatively unknown U.S. officials in the foreign policy establishment.

Because intelligence-gathering and analysis did not play a large role in the formulation of U.S. policy toward Cyprus, Greece, and Turkey, documentation originating in the Central Intelligence Agency is not prominently featured in this volume. Still, a number of documents from the CIA’s National Intelligence Council Files provide key insights into the political and tactical calculations of the leaders of Cyprus, Greece, and Turkey. Finally, the Department of Defense took a leading negotiation position with regard to efforts to reintegrate Greece into the military structure of NATO. Documents housed at the Washington National Records Center provided key memoranda between Department of Defense officials and their counterparts in Greece in the successful effort to reintegrate Greece and thus bring NATO back to its state before the war in Cyprus in 1974.

Unpublished Sources

  • Department of State
    • Lot Files. These files have been transferred or will be transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland.
    • INR/IL Historical Files
    • Office of the Legal Adviser, Country Files (1940–1986), Lot 89D336
    • Office of the Secretariat Staff, Cyrus R. Vance, Secretary of State—1977–1980, Lot 84D241
    • Office of the Secretary, Personal Files of Cyrus R. Vance, Lot 80D135
  • National Archives and Record Administration, College Park, Maryland
    • Record Group 59, Records of the Department of State
    • Central Foreign Policy File
    • Bureau of Congressional Relations, Subject Files and Chrons 1977/78/79/80; Files of Assistant Secretary J. Brian Atwood, Lot 81D115
    • Bureau of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, 1979—Human Rights and Country Files, Lot 82D103
    • Bureau of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, 1981—Human Rights and Country Files, Lot 82D275
    • Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Office Subject Files 1965–1980, Lot 92D412
    • Office of the Secretariat Staff, Mr. Leslie H. Gelb, Director, Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs, Lot 81D101
    • Office of the Secretariat Staff, Records of Counselor Nimetz, 1977–1980, Lot 81D85
    • Office of Southern Europe, Records of Counselor Nimetz, 1977–1980, Lot 83D256
    • Office of the Under Secretary for Security Assistance, Portions of 1980 Security Assistance Subject and Country Files, Lot 82D197
    • Office of the Under Secretary of State for Security Assistance, Chron Files, Speeches and Papers of Lucy W. Benson (1979) and Matthew Nimetz (1980), Lot 81D321
    • Records of the Office of the Deputy Secretary Warren Christopher, 1977–1980, Lot 81D113
    • Subject Files of Edmund S. Muskie, 1963–1981, Lot 83D66
  • Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, Atlanta, Georgia
    • National Security Affairs
      • Brzezinski Material
        • Brzezinski Office File
        • Cables File
        • Country File
        • President’s Correspondence with Foreign Leaders File
        • Subject File
        • VIP Visit File
      • Staff Material
        • Europe, USSR, and East/West
        • Horn/Special
        • Office
        • Special Projects
    • National Security Council
      • Institutional Files
    • Papers of Walter F. Mondale
    • Presidential Materials
      • President’s Daily Diary
    • White House Central Files
  • Central Intelligence Agency, Langley, Virginia
    • Directorate of Intelligence
      • Job 80T00633A
      • Job 80T00634A
      • Job 80T00942A
      • Job 81T00208R
      • Job 82T00150R
      • Job 82T00267R
      • Job 85T00287R
    • History Staff Files, NIIIM 0035–77
  • National Security Council, Washington, D.C.
    • Carter Intelligence Files
  • Washington National Records Center, Suitland Maryland
    • RG 330, Records of the Department of Defense
      • OSD Files
        • FRC 330–80–0035
        • FRC 330–81–0202
        • FRC 330–81–0711
        • FRC 330–82–0217B
        • FRC 330–82–0205

Published Sources

  • 1 Annual Human Rights Report Submitted to Congress by U.S. Department of State, 1976–1977.
  • 2 Annual Human Rights Report Submitted to Congress by U.S. Department of State, 1978.
  • Borowiec, Andrew. Cyprus: A Troubled Island, Westport, CT: Praeger, 2000.
  • Boutros-Ghali, Boutro. Egypt’s Road to Jerusalem. New York: Random House, 1997.
  • The Christian Science Monitor.
  • Congressional Quarterly. Congress and the Nation, 1973–1976, vol. IV. Washington: Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1977.
  • Congressional Quarterly. Congress and the Nation, 1977–1980, vol. V. Washington: Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1981.
  • Dodd, Clement H. The Cyprus Imbroglio. Huntington, UK: Eothen, 1998.
  • Ertekün, Necati. The Cyprus Dispute and the Birth of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1981.
  • Jorden, William. Panama Odyssey. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1984.
  • The New York Times.
  • Time Magazine.
  • United Nations. Yearbook of the United Nations, 1974–1980. New York: United Nations Office of Public Information, 1975–1981.
  • United States. Congress. House. Committee on House Administration. The Presidential Campaign, 1976. vol. 1, Part 1, Jimmy Carter. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1978.
  • United States. Department of State. Bulletin, 1977–1980. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1977–1980.
  • United States. Library of Congress. Cyprus: A Country Study. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1991.
  • United States. National Archives and Records Administration. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Jimmy Carter, 1977–1980. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981.
  • Vance, Cyrus. Hard Choices: Critical Years in America’s Foreign Policy. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983.
  • The Wall Street Journal.
  • The Washington Post.