The U.S. foreign aid policy toward Turkey during the Kennedy and Johnson periods

This work examines the foreign aid policies of the United States (U.S.) during the Cold War and the effects of these policies on Türkiye, especially during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations between 1961 and 1969. During the Cold War period, the United States aimed to integrate developing and underdeveloped countries into the world system in line with its own economic and strategic interests, and used foreign aid as one of the main applications of this global policy. In this work, aid policies served not only as an economic but also as a political and ideological tool. With the Kennedy era, the US foreign aid policies underwent a significant transformation, development aid became more institutionalized and focused on long-term programs aimed at transforming the economic structures of the target countries. This transformation was reflected not only in the reduction in the amount of aid provided to recipient countries, but also in the scope and direction of aid. The work evaluates the reflections of these policies in Türkiye in the light of official documents of the U.S. State Department and other primary and secondary sources of the period. It is determined that Türkiye was directed towards agriculture-based industry and assembly industry through foreign aid, while areas such as heavy industry and high technology were left out of the system. This processled Türkiye to become dependent on foreign aid. The study also analyzes the effects of foreign aid on Turkish-American relations and Türkiye's room for maneuver in international politics. Finally, this study aims to bring a new perspective to the literature by looking at all the issues discussed from the American perspective.