Faculty Scholarly Dissemination Grants
Full Circle: The Carter Administrations Shifting Policy in the Eastern Mediterranean, 1976-1978
Department
History Department
College
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Date Range
2014-2015
Disciplines
Arts and Humanities
Abstract
Distancing itself from the policy of Ford and Kissinger, the Carter administration came to office firmly committed to resolving the Cyprus crisis, and during its first year, it attempted to fulfill that promise. By early 1978, however, leading policy makers concluded that the deterioration of Turkey¬s armed forces due to the US arms embargo endangered the security of the eastern Mediterranean and the NATO alliance. As regional problems intensified and US-Turkish relations worsened, President Carter decided to downgrade the Cyprus issue and focus instead on restoring strong bilateral relations with Ankara. Thus, in March 1978, the president returned to the policy of his predecessor. The administration lobbied Congress to lift the embargo, knowing that this shift in policy, absent any progress on Cyprus, would alienate Greece and the influential Greek-American community, which had strongly supported the Democratic candidate in the 1976 election.
Conference Name
Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations
Conference Location
Arlington, VA
ScholarWorks Citation
Goode, James, "Full Circle: The Carter Administrations Shifting Policy in the Eastern Mediterranean, 1976-1978" (2015). Faculty Scholarly Dissemination Grants. 595.
https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/fsdg/595
