Strategic nuclear missiles in Turkey: The Jupiter affair, 1959–1963

Debates about the Cold War continue to flourish as more original data become available for research.1 Among these debates the Cuban Missile Crisis is of particular interest not least because it was probably the most dangerous among other crises of the Cold War period.The Crisis had further implications.First, the idea of deploying US strategic missiles in other NATO countries was abandoned.Second, the Crisis adversely affected the relationship of both the United States and the Soviet Union with Turkey and Cuba in regard to future commitments to the security of their respective allies. 2 Third, historiography recently shifted from the image of President John F. Kennedy, who would not bargain with the Soviets, even when confronted with nuclear war, to the image of a Kennedy, who was courageous enough to do so.3 The 'bargain' was to remove the Jupiter IRBMs from Turkey in return for the removal of Soviet missiles from Cuba.Further, Kennedy pledged not to invade Cuba.Since both promises had been verbal, conducted by secret diplomacy through the US Attorney General Robert Kennedy and the Soviet Ambassador to Washington DC, Anatolii Fyodorovich Dobrynin, plausible bargains remained the subject of speculation.The mere suggestion of a bargain was vehemently denied by both the US and Turkish authorities alike.4 When a rumor began to circulate in Turkey during the mid-1960s of a trade off (presumably instigated by the Soviet Embassy in Ankara) the leftists believed it wholeheartedly and the rightist establishment continued to deny it but were however embarrassed.Accordingly, another implication of the Crisis was that it effected a polarization in Turkish domestic politics, albeit as one factor among many.The final, but not the least important implication of the Crisis is to do with the nature of alliances in regard to why and how alliance cohesion may break down.The purpose of this study is to assess why Turkey had been enthusiastic about deploying the Jupiters at all; the nature of Turkish-American relations in this process; the decision-making mechanism within Turkey's ultraconservative democracy of the time; and the diplomatic, domestic implications of the strategic nuclear weapons deployment and their