The Cyprus Missions of L. Lemnizer and G. Ball: The American Peacemaking Conservative Paradigm in the first half of the 1960th

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the American diplomacy in the Eastern Mediterranean in the first
half of the 1960s. The Cyprus question’s role in the US regional policy was analyzed. The
presidents` doctrines concerned the Middle East priority and the communist threat prevention
were the guiding ideas of the US foreign policy. Therefore, the Cyprus interethnic conflict of
1963-1964 was regarded as a potentially dangerous phenomenon. An earlier reconciliation
project for Greek and Turk communities proposed by the US was researched in this article. The
US doctrinal policy was based on direct the interference in the conflict and involving of the
American military forces in the peacemaking operations. The possibility of partial restriction of
the Cyprus sovereignty or its total abolition was discussed by the American diplomats at that
period. The geographical partition of the communities was considered as a clue to the Cyprus
question. An attention was paid to the external factors that influenced on the US decisions
towards Cyprus. American interests in the Middle East, the specific features of the relations
between Greece and Turkey, insecurity in the so called «Eastern flank of NATO», postcolonial
policy of Great Britain were reviewed as such factors. A special challenge for the US diplomacy
was negative and intransigent attitude by the Greek and Turk community’s leaders towards
external influence. In 1964 the USA send two diplomatic missions to convince the opposing
parties of the need to accept the American project. The US diplomatic activity strengthened the
internationalization of the Cyprus question. After the fail of the conservative US projects
towards the Cyprus question, a way to the international peacekeeping operation provided by the
United Nations had been paved.