The aim of this article is to analyze the foreign policy relations between Turkey and the United States during the 1960s. The study examines the tensions that arose between the two countries within the framework of the Caribbean and Cyprus crises (the Johnson Letter) and aims to identify the characteristics of Turkey’s foreign policy strategy based on national interests and the balance of power. In the course of the research, the neorealism theory as well as historical, political, and international relations methods were employed. While previous studies of Turkey–U.S. relations during the Cold War mostly focused on the positive aspects of the alliance, the scientific novelty of this article lies in its detailed analysis of specific crises (the Caribbean and Cyprus) and Turkey’s independent actions prioritizing national interests for the first time. The main recommendation of the article is to further deepen the study of Turkey–U.S. relations based on Turkish sources and to effectively apply Turkey’s foreign policy experience in the relations between other Turkic-speaking countries and the United States.

Turkey-USA relations in the 1960s coincided with the era of escalation of the USA-USSR cold war and the bipolarity of international relations. Until 1960, Turkey was an important ally of the USA and an active member of NATO, which was led by US. However, in the 1960s, the relationship between the two countries became strained and allied ties were put to the test. This article analyses these tensions in the context of the Caribbean and Cyprus (Johnson Letter) crises. In the 1960s, the USA was a great power (superpower) in terms of influence, leading countries based on Western political regimes and values against the communist regime. At the same time, Turkey has emerged as a middle power that seeks to achieve the high level of development of Western countries. A middle power state can only follow one of two foreign policy strategies towards a great power. The first one is that it can fully recognise the power of the great power and not pursue foreign policy against its interests, on the contrary, giving priority to the strategy, always taking into account its interests in foreign policy. The second strategy is called the balance of power strategy, and it involves taking into account national interests to balance the power of a great power with another equivalent great power, thereby playing on their contradictions, skilfully using time to strengthen its military and economic potential, and actively joining various regional and international alliances. Turkey is a state that has successfully managed to combine both of the aforementioned strategies in the history of its foreign policy relations with the USA.