ABSTRACT
The United States chose not to join the Baghdad Pact, mainly due to domestic political factors. But it remained no less interested and involved in strategic planning for the Middle East. During the course of 1955, several top-level military staff meetings were held, not only between the US and the UK, but also with Turkey, now the major land power in the Middle East. These meetings, reviewed in this chapter, were all top secret, convened outside the official framework of the Baghdad Pact. They were directed and monitored by the top government levels in each country. Their purpose was to assess the size and state of readiness of their allies in the Middle East and to prepare contingency plans for a defence of the region against a Soviet offensive in the event of general war.
