Britain, America and the Sovereign Base Areas from 1960-1978
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.main##
Abstract
Government documents from the British National Archives, currently within the public domain, have revealed that Britain’s preferred policy in 1974 was the total withdrawal from its two Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus. However, the United States – in particular controversial US Secretary of State Dr Henry Kissinger – attached such importance to Britain’s continued military presence in Cyprus, that British Foreign Secretary James Callaghan opted not to pursue Britain’s preferred policy, exemplifying the extent to which Whitehall, despite Britain’s growing financial difficulties, would allow British defence policy to be dictated and subjected to pressures from across the Atlantic.
This article looks at the history of the British Sovereign Base Areas from 1960 until 1978, their significance to the respective British governments and how American foreign and defence policy affected British decision-making vis-à-vis its geopolitically vital military presence in the Eastern Mediterranean.
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.details##
Sovereign Base Areas, Britain, America, Cyprus, Kissinger
Carver, M. (1992) Tightrope Walking: British Defence Policy since 1945. London: Hutchinson.
Chrysostomides, K. (2000) The Republic of Cyprus: A Study in International Law. London: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.
Darwin, J. (1988) Britain and Decolonization: The Retreat from Empire in the Post-war Period. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Dickie, J. (1994) ‘Special’ No More, Anglo-American Relations: Rhetoric and Reality. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
Dockrill, S. (2002) Britain’s Retreat from East of Suez. New York: Palgrave, Macmillan.
Faustmann, H. and Peristianis, N. (2006) Britain in Cyprus, Colonialism and Post-Colonialism 1878-2006. Mannheim and Moehnsee: Peleus, Studien zur Archaeologie und Geschichte Griechenlands und Zyperns, Band 19, Bibliopolis.
Henn, F. (2004) A Business of Some Heat: The United Nations Force in Cyprus before and during the 1974 Turkish Invasion. Barnsley: Pen and Sword.
Macris, N. (2003) The 1960 Treaties on Cyprus and Selected Subsequent Acts. Mannheim and Moehnsee: Peleus, Studien zur Archaeologie und Geschichte Griechenlands und Zyperns, Band 24, Bibliopolis.
Nicolet, C. (2001) United States Policy Towards Cyprus, 1954-1974: Removing the Greek-Turkish Bone of Contention. Mannheim and Moehnsee: Peleus, Studien zur Archaeologie und Geschichte Griechenlands und Zyperns, Band 9, Bibliopolis.
O’Malley, B. and Craig, I. (2004) The Cyprus Conspiracy, America, Espionage and the Turkish Invasion. London: I.B. Tauris.
Stephens, R. (1972) Cyprus: A Place of Arms. London: Pall Mall Press.
Vali, F. (1972) The Turkish Straits and NATO. California: Hoover Institution Press.
Weinland, R. (1972) ‘Soviet Transits of the Turkish Straits: 1945-1970 – An historical note on the establishment and dimensions of the Soviet naval presence in the Mediterranean’, Virginia: Center for Naval Analyses, Professional Paper No. 94, 14 April 1972.
Copyright: © University of Nicosia, Cyprus
All rights reserved.
No restrictions on photo-copying.
Quotations from The Cyprus Review are welcome, but acknowledgement of the source must be given.