(4 of 5)
To get the "fund of maneuver," Zorlu first went to the International Bank. The bank said it could advance no more funds unless the Turks drastically overhauled their policy and established their financial solvency. Menderes next called in an old friend, Max Thornburg, a rich, retired U.S. oil executive of 63 who lives on his own island in the Persian Gulf and devotes much of his time and widely admitted talents to helping Middle Eastern governments with their economic planning. Thornburg told Menderes that 1) he was rushing ahead too fast with his industrial-development program; 2) there was so little overall planning and scientific management that barely half of the capital that Turkey was pouring into new industries was paying off in productive output. Thornburg's recommendations: immediate appointment of a coordinating committee with strong powers to channel investment, materials and production; postponement of some new capital projects into the 1960s; firm controls on imports, credit and priorities.
Thornburg's recommendations apparently went to roost in an Ankara pigeonhole, and Diplomat Zorlu turned to the U.S. for $300 million. Zorlu's argument was spare and simple: surely the U.S. would not let a stout ally down in its hour of need. Some Washington officials used the word "blackmail."
The U.S. has poured more than $1.5 billion in military and economic aid into Turkey since 1948—with no regrets, and indeed, with results that speak well for Turkey. Stoutly anti-Communist well before the Western countries awoke to the extent of the U.S.S.R. menace, Turkey plunged resolutely into beefing up its army, sent a valiant 4,500-man brigade and replacements to Korea, accepted and promoted John Foster Dulles' concept of the "Northern Tier" alliance (see above). Last April Zorlu himself skillfully carried the West's position into the Bandung conference.
The Waiting Game
All this stout performance merely made it harder for U.S. officials to give their answer when Zorlu arrived in Washington last summer and formally held out his hand. The State Department had come generally to the same conclusions as Max Thornburg, was, if anything, more certain that Turkey's present course leads to bankruptcy. Additional U.S. millions, Zorlu was told, would merely stay the day, and Turkey would be back in a matter of months for more. When U.S. Treasury Secretary George Humphrey went to Turkey last month for the World Bank meeting, he put the U.S. position directly to Menderes himself.