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"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." - John 8:32
WEBCommentary Contributor
Author:  Michael J. Gaynor
Bio: Michael J. Gaynor
Date:  October 14, 2014
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Topic category:  International Affairs/Foreign Policy

Is Turkey Still Paying the USA Back for Withdrawing the Jupiter Missiles?

Time to move on, Turkey.

Turkey is a NATO member, but when the United States decided to depose Iraq's Saddam Hussein, Turkey was immensely uncooperative.

Is that United States military action the reason for Turkey's lack of support now?

Or is the United States still paying a price for offending Turkey during the Cuban missile crisis?

When the Cuban missile crisis was resolved in October 1962, the resolution essentially was depicted by the Kennedy Administration as a triumph and the only cost appeared to be that the United States publicly pledged not to invade Cuba (mooting any need for Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles in Cuba).

I didn't believe then that was the whole story.

It wasn't.

"In his negotiations with the Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin, US Attorney General Robert Kennedy informally proposed that theJupiter missiles in Turkey would be removed 'within a short time after this crisis was over'" (Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_missile_crisis)).

After negotiations to place the Jupiter missiles in France failed, the United States successfully turned to Italy and Turkey.

In October 1959, the United States and Turkey made an agreement to deploy one Jupiter squadron in Turkey. A squadron totaling 15 missiles was deployed at five sites near İzmir, Turkey from 1961 to 1963. It was operated by United States Air Force personnel. The first flight of three Jupiter missiles was turned over to the Turkish Air Force during the crisis, with the United States retaining control of nuclear warhead arming.

"Throughout the crisis, Turkey...repeatedly stated that it would be upset if the Jupiter missiles were removed" (Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_missile_crisis)).

Nevertheless, all of the United States' Jupiter medium range ballistic missiles MRBMs were removed from service by April 1963, "as a backdoor trade with the Soviets in exchange for their earlier removal of MRBMs from Cuba" (Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_missile_crisis)).

Those missiles were pronounced "obsolete" by the Kennedy Administration and removed from Turkey as well as Italy.

Italy was fine with removal. Its Prime Minister Fanfani, then also Foreign Minister ad interim had offered to allow withdrawal of the missiles deployed in Italy as a bargaining chip to end th crisis.

Turkey was upset.

Time to move on, Turkey.

If not, it's time for NATO to seriously consider whether Turkey's NATP membership should be terminated.

Michael J. Gaynor

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Biography - Michael J. Gaynor

Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.

Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.

The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.

Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.

Gaynor's email address is gaynormike@aol.com.


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