Turkish-American military cooperation and transformation of Turkish army in the early Cold War, 1947-1950

Abstract

This dissertation documents the start and evolution of U.S. military assistance to Turkey from 1947 to 1950 and then analyzes the impact of U.S. military assistance especially on Turkish Army in organizational, doctrinal as well as in social and political dimensions. It especially focuses on how and to what extent Turkish military doctrine, especially Turkish Army’s tactical doctrine has changed after 1947. The end result of U.S. military assistance has been that from 1947, Turkish Army has, rather than becoming an effective effective fighting force by mid 1960s, become a better equipped version of itself before 1947 and transformed into a much more resource intensive military preparing to implement “American way of war”. In addition, Turkish focus on adopting US tactical doctrine prevented it from focusing on its own peculiar national needs and designing units to meet such needs. Nevertheless, through many years of training and exchange of information through US military assistance, the groundwork of which was laid from 1947, Turkish military became a potent force which has had a transformational effect on even today’s international security scene. In that sense, US military assistance to Turkey from 1947 has not only been a turning point for Turkey and for U.S.-Turkish relations but for regional and international security as well.