United States Policy toward the Armenian Question and the Armenian Genocide
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United States Policy toward the Armenian Question and the Armenian Genocide Simon Payaslian
UNITED STATES POLICY TOWARD THE ARMENIAN QUESTION AND THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE Simon Payaslian, 2005. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2005 978-1-4039-7098-5 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First published in 2005 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-53258-2 ISBN 978-1-4039-7840-0 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9781403978400 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Payaslian, Simon. United States policy toward the Armenian question and the Armenian genocide / Simon Payaslian. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. United States Foreign relations Turkey. 2. Turkey Foreign relations United States. 3. United States Foreign relations 1865 1921. 4. United States Relations Armenia. 5. Armenia Relations United States. 6. Armenian question. 7. Armenian massacres, 1915 1923. 8. Turkey History Ottoman Empire, 1288 1918. I. Title. E183.8.T8P39 2005 956.6 20154 dc22 2005049181 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: December 2005 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In memory of His Holiness Zareh I Payaslian Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia (1915 1963) Whose generation rebuilt
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Contents List of Tables Preface ix xi 1. The Political Economy of U.S. Foreign Policy toward the Ottoman Empire and the Armenian Question 1 2. United States Relations with the Young Turk Government 19 3. The Wilson Administration and the Ittihadist Regime 29 4. War and Wilsonian Neutrality 46 5. Power and Its Promises 58 6. The Primacy of Realism and Legalism 73 7. Ambassador Morgenthau s Policy Recommendations 84 8. Between Realism and Philanthropy 104 9. Separation and Peace 123 10. The Perversion of Peace 142 11. Unsustainable Divisions 161 12. The Remnants of Wilsonism 179 Notes 189 Bibliography 242 Index 255
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List of Tables 1.1 Annual value of U.S.-Turkish trade, 1900 21 9 1.2 American Protestant missions in Turkey 12 3.1 Principal U.S. imports from Turkey, June 1913 June 1914 43 7.1 Principal U.S. imports from Turkey, 1914 15 101 7.2 Principal U.S. exports to Turkey, 1914 15 102
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Preface The advent of the United States as a global power coincided with the internationalization of the Armenian Question in the late nineteenth century. Since its early days, the United States had developed commercial relations with the Ottoman Empire, where it pursued expanding economic and missionary interests throughout the nineteenth century. The U.S. government functioned as the promotional state, as its representatives in Constantinople and across the Ottoman Empire sought to maintain friendly relations with Turkish authorities. The Ottoman government, in turn, hoped its relations with the United States would lead to widening commercial and financial ties to improve the empire s economic and military capabilities. By the time the Wilson administration entered the White House in 1913, the American missionaries, commercial enterprises, and the Navy, with the support of the Department of State, were already shaping U.S. foreign policy toward the Ottoman Empire. President Woodrow Wilson cultivated close government-business relations by emphasizing the responsibilities of the promotional state abroad. This study examines the U.S. responses to the Armenian Question in general and the Armenian Genocide in particular within the context of the political economy of U.S. foreign policy. Wilson s rhetoric of moralism and humanitarianism notwithstanding, his administration refused to employ military intervention to stop the genocide being committed by the Turkish government against the Armenian people. Instead, the administration sought to maintain friendly relations with the Turkish government during and after World War I. I am deeply grateful to Andrjez Korbonski, Michael Morony, Damodar SarDesai, and Jessica Wang, for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this study while in its dissertation stages at UCLA. It is my great pleasure to have this opportunity to express my deepest appreciation and to acknowledge my intellectual debts to Richard G. Hovannisian. Without his encouragement and advice, this study could not have been completed. A brief summary of this study has appeared as a chapter in a volume, Looking Backward, Moving Forward: Confronting the Armenian Genocide, edited by Hovannisian
xii Preface (Transaction Publishers, 2003). I am also indebted to the Kaspar and Siroon Hovannisian Fellowship, the Movel Fellowship, the Mangasarian Fellowship, and the Armenian Educational Foundation, for their financial support that enabled me to complete this study. I would like to thank the staff of the Houghton Library, Harvard University, for their able assistance in researching the archives of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Thanks to Leslie A. Morris, Curator of Manuscripts at the Houghton Library, and the Reverend Bennie E. Whiten, Jr., Interim Executive Minister of the Wider Church Ministries, United Church of Christ in Cleveland, for their permission to include material from the ABCFM papers. Thanks also to Bruce Kirby, Manuscript Reference Librarian at the Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, for his prompt assistance regarding permissions for the papers of Henry Morgenthau, Sr., William Jennings Bryan, and Robert Lansing. Special thanks to David Pervin and the editorial staff at Palgrave Macmillan for bringing this book to fruition. I want to express my deepest gratitude to my wife, Arpi, whose indefatigable energy and patience enabled me to complete the book on schedule, and to my parents and family who as always encouraged me with unswerving moral support.