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Path: utzoo!utcsrgv!vassos
From: vassos@utcsrgv.UUCP (Vassos Hadzilacos)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: US control of NATO (Re: EuroMissiles and Belgium)
Message-ID: <710@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 25-Jan-85 17:53:52 EST
Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.710
Posted: Fri Jan 25 17:53:52 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 25-Jan-85 20:41:43 EST
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Lines: 39

> If the US "controlled" NATO, [...] the French and Greeks would be
> militarily integrated, the Turks would reconstitute Cyprus [...]

I don't know about your claims regarding other countries but
I do know the situation in Greece and Cyprus painfully well.
Your argument just doesn't stand in the face of facts.

(Unfortunately) Greece now IS militarily, as well as politically,
integrated in NATO. Greece withdrew from the military organisation
of NATO for a short period (1974-1980). The step of withdrawal was
taken by the conservative government that came to power after the
collapse of the Greek junta (July 1974), under tremendous popular
pressure: NATO and the US were (and are) seen by the majority of
the Greek people as the instigators, financiers and supporters of
both a domestic tyranny (the fascist junta of 1967-1974) and of the
Turkish aggression in Cyprus. The same government later reversed
the withdrawal in late 1980, when it became clear it would lose the next
elections (Nov. 1981) anyway.  The present Greek government was elected
on the basis of a programme explicitly calling for withdrawal from NATO
altogether. It has since recanted its pre-election promise under
pressure by the US government. So much about the US not controlling
NATO.

Regarding Turkey's "reconstituting" Cyprus: The US would never
want Turkey to "reconstitute" Cyprus. Cyprus has been a nation
militantly committed to the non-aligned movement. It has an extremely
strong Communist Party (>40% of the votes) and occupies an extremely
strategic location in the Eastern Mediterranean. The last
thing the US would want to see is an independent and united Cyprus.
What it would like to see is a divided Cyprus, half Greek, half Turkish --
which would automatically bring the entire island under the US "sphere
of influence". So, Turkey is not resisting "reconstituting Cyprus"
IN SPITE of US desires, it is doing it BECAUSE of US interests.
Of course, the US doesn't want Turkey to take this too far because
then Greece might be "lost" irrevocably. Such are the "political
realities" that the US has to accommodate in NATO. They have nothing
to do with the real interests of the Greek people or the Turkish people
or the Cypriot people. The point of whatever accommodation is to strike
the balance needed to optimally screw all of them.