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Turkish Parliamentary Debates on the American War in Vietnam (1964–1971)

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Turkish Foreign Policy

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Abstract

Vietnam War is an underexplored case to trace the gradual increase in anti-Americanism in Turkey, which reached its climax with the Opium Crisis and Cyprus invasion of 1974. This chapter analyses Turkish foreign policy towards the Vietnam War, with particular reference to parliamentary debates, for an account of how different parties made use of a war in a faraway land to promote their respective agendas. Albeit differing in focus and style, the opposition parties share three common features in criticising the pro-American and pro-South Vietnamese Turkish Government, which opted for realpolitik in Cold War circumstances. While Ankara continued to honour its relations with its superpower ally, the parliamentary critique nevertheless played a role in Turkey’s sending humanitarian aid to both warring parties in Vietnam.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Founded in 1961, the centre-right, pro-business JP first entered politics through the 1961 general elections and formed the RPP-JP coalition government. From 1965 to 1971, JP led by Süleyman Demirel served as the ruling party (Ergil 1975, p. 147; Bulut 2009, pp. 77–79; Çavuşoğlu 2009, pp. 166–174).

  2. 2.

    Established in 1958, the RPNP witnessed a drastic redesign with the arrival on stage of Alparslan Türkeş. RPNP embraced a developmental-modernist ideology based on the Kemalist vision. Gradually, Türkeş introduced nationalist and strictly anti-communist elements into party rhetoric and action. At the Adana Congress of 1969, its name was changed to Nationalist Action Party (Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi, NAP), which further reinforced Türkeş’s leadership. Nonetheless, the NAP could only get 11 seats in the TGNA in the 1965 elections, and only 1 seat (Türkeş himself) in the 1969 elections (Çınar and Arıkan 2002, pp. 26–28).

  3. 3.

    TLP was established with the lifting of the ban on political activities in early 1961. In the elections of 1965, 15 members of the Party entered the TGNA. Borrowing from Kemalism, Western social democracy and Marxian socialism, TLP led by Mehmet Ali Aybar embraced the indivisibility of the national democratic and social revolutions in the mid-1960s. In August 1968, Aybar, who fiercely attacked the Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia, was countered by other influential party figures like Behice Boran and Sadun Aren. The failure of the Party in the 1969 elections (in which only two deputies won seats) culminated in Aybar’s resignation and his replacement by Boran in 1970 (Karpat 1967, pp. 159–60; Mello 2007, pp. 219–221).

  4. 4.

    Turhan Feyzioğlu from RPP and his followers founded the RP on 12 May 1967. Party principles included nationalism, laicism, anti-fascism and anti-communism. Fifteen deputies were elected to the Parliament in the 1969 general elections (Bozkır 2007, pp. 276–285).

  5. 5.

    Established in 1923 on the eve of the declaration of the Republic of Turkey, the RPP ruled as a single party until it lost power to the DP in 1950. After taking the lead in various coalitions until the 1965 elections, RPP drifted away from its social democratic position to embrace a ‘left-of-centre’ ideology to attract the potential voter base of the rising TLP. Faced with lesser votes in the 1965 elections, many critical figures eventually parted ways with the RPP (Turan 2006, pp. 559–560; Ayata and Ayata 2007, pp. 212–213).

  6. 6.

    The warning was not baseless. Kremlin publicly threatened Turkey with nuclear attack if Ankara intervened in Cyprus. Since all news from Moscow was censured in Turkey, nobody would have known this aspect (courtesy of Nur Bilge Criss).

  7. 7.

    The US Ambassador to Turkey, Parker Hart, responding to questions after his meeting with Foreign Minister Çağlayangil, maintained that he did not make any demands regarding Vietnam (Dişişleri Bakanliği Belleteni 1966).

  8. 8.

    However, some installations in Turkey were still very important as listening posts (courtesy of Nur Bilge Criss).

  9. 9.

    Based on research in Republican Senate Minutes (4 September 1964–17 August 1971).

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  1. Department of Political Science and International Relations, Istanbul Esenyurt University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Esra Pakin-Albayrakoğlu

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  1. Department of International Relations, Hacettepe University, Beytepe-Ankara, Turkey

    Pınar Gözen Ercan

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Pakin-Albayrakoğlu, E. (2017). Turkish Parliamentary Debates on the American War in Vietnam (1964–1971). In: Gözen Ercan, P. (eds) Turkish Foreign Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50451-3_3

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