At the same time, Turkish prime minister Bülent Ecevit flies to London to elicit British aid in a joint effort in Cyprus, as called for in the 1959 Treaty of Guarantee, but the British are either unwilling or unprepared and decline to take action as a guarantor power.

The United States takes no action to bolster the Makarios government, but Joseph J. Sisco, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, goes to London and the eastern Mediterranean to stave off the impending Turkish invasion and the war between Greece and Turkey that might follow.

The Turks demand removal of Nikos Sampson and the Greek officers from the National Guard and a binding guarantee of Cypriot independence.

Sampson, of course, is expendable to the Athens regime, but Sisco can get an agreement only to reassign the six hundred and fifty Greek officers.