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Kissinger and Nixon approved a covert [[CIA]] campaign of subversion and sabotage designed to bring down the Socialist government of [[Iraq]] in 1973. Done in collaboration with the [[Shah]] of neighboring [[Iran]], it involved Soviet arms captured from Egypt and [[Syria]] in the 1973 war being dispatched to Kurdish rebels in Northern Iraq. The Shah cynically used the Kurds to pressure the Ba'athist government to back down on a number of serious territorial disputes between the two nations. The US brokered a peace treaty between Iraq and Iran in 1975, and aid to the Kurds was subsequently cut off. The Kurds were then viciously slaughtered. "''Covert action should not be confused with missionary work,''" Kissinger famously declared.<ref>http://www.slate.com/id/2156400/</ref>
Kissinger and Nixon approved a covert [[CIA]] campaign of subversion and sabotage designed to bring down the Socialist government of [[Iraq]] in 1973. Done in collaboration with the [[Shah]] of neighboring [[Iran]], it involved Soviet arms captured from Egypt and [[Syria]] in the 1973 war being dispatched to Kurdish rebels in Northern Iraq. The Shah cynically used the Kurds to pressure the Ba'athist government to back down on a number of serious territorial disputes between the two nations. The US brokered a peace treaty between Iraq and Iran in 1975, and aid to the Kurds was subsequently cut off. The Kurds were then viciously slaughtered. "''Covert action should not be confused with missionary work,''" Kissinger famously declared.<ref>http://www.slate.com/id/2156400/</ref>
Kissinger helped to diffuse sectarian conflict in [[Lebanon]] in order to prevent the possibility of regional war, and opposed the Soviet-backed attempt by Communist forces to conquer North [[Yemen]].
Kissinger helped to diffuse sectarian conflicts in [[Lebanon]] in order to prevent a possible regional war, and opposed the Soviet-backed attempt by Communist forces to conquer North [[Yemen]] (which was the recipient of much US aid).
On 20 July 1974, [[Turkey]] invaded northern [[Cyprus]], overthrew its Greek-backed dictatorship (headed by Nikos Sampson), and installed a new regime. This led to the collapse of the Greek military junta, and the restoration of democracy in Greece, three days later--July 23, 1974. Sampson had been brought to power by the Greek Cypriot national guard (acting under the orders of Athens), which ousted the elected president, Makarios; Turkey removed him from power after a mere eight days in office. "Had Turkey not intervened," Sampson told the Greek newspaper Eleftherotipia, "I would not only have proclaimed Enosis [union of Cyprus with Greece] but I would have annihilated the Turks in Cyprus as well."<ref>http://www.britains-smallwars.com/cyprus/Most%20wanted/most%20wanted%20files/EOKA_Members_List_s.html</ref> Turkey took control of one-third of the country. Civilian casualties were remarkably light. Turkey restored democracy to Cyprus, and new elections brought Glafcos Clerides to power. President Makarios, in his speech to the UN Security Council on 19 July 1974, described the coup that replaced him as "an invasion of Cyprus by Greece."
Both the Turks and the Greeks committed indiscriminate ethnic cleansing against the other side. <ref>http://www.hr-action.org/chr/ECHR01.html 1st Report of the European Commission of Human Rights; Turkey's intervention in Cyprus and aftermath (20 July 1974 - 18 May 1976)</ref><ref>http://www.hr-action.org/chr/ECHR02.html 2nd Report of the European Commission of Human Rights; Turkey's intervention in Cyprus and aftermath (19 May 1976 to 10 February 1983)</ref> Facts and information on the death and the burial site of 201 out of 500 cases of Turkish Cypriot "missing" persons were provided by the Cyprus government on 12 May 2003. A typical report stated:
<blockquote>
In a Greek raid on a small Turkish village near Limassol, 36 people out of a population of 200 were killed. The Greeks said that they had been given orders to kill the inhabitants of the Turkish villages before the Turkish forces arrived.<ref>Washington Post, 23 July 1974
</ref>
</blockquote>
Numerous studies reported accounts of "anti-Turkish pograms," hostage taking, and mass murder.
Kissinger approved of the Turkish intervention, viewing the Greek junta as a Cold War liability.<ref>http://www.kypros.org/Occupied_Cyprus/cyprus1974/images/NATO_Joseph_Luns_700_bg.jpg</ref> Kissinger had resolved to find a solution to the Cyprus problem in May 1974.<ref>http://www.kypros.org/Occupied_Cyprus/cyprus1974/images/Dept_Of_State_Kissinger_700_bg.jpg</ref> Kissinger intervened to prevent a planned British military response to the second phase of the Turkish invasion.
Some 70,000 Turkish civilians were displaced by the Greeks. It is estimated by independant sources that 140,000 to 160,000<ref>Borowiec, Andrew (2000), Cyprus: A Troubled Island. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, pp2</ref> Greek civilians were displaced by the Turkish invaders. Only 20,000 Greeks remained in the north.
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