On March 16th, 2026, the ISCAP released two documents from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. These documents are memoranda detailing US response to the Iraqi-Kurdish conflict. Document 1 details aid given to Iraq in 1963 in an effort to break Iraq away from Soviet influence. The ISCAP decided to declassify this Secret document in its entirety. Document 2 outlines the need to expressly choose sides in the Iraqi-Kurdish conflict. The memo recommends officially backing the Iraqi, and keeping the Kurds tamped down to prevent a new opening for Soviet influence in Iran, Iraq, and Turkey. The ISCAP decided to declassify some portions and affirm the classification of other portions of this originally Secret document.
In 1961, a Kurdish uprising took place in Iraq when Iraqi Prime Minister Abd al-Karim Qāsim refused to honor a previous pledge to grant Iraqi Kurds political rights and autonomy. Fighting broke out between Iraqi government forces and Kurdish fighters known as peshmerga. The Iraqi government also launched air assaults into the Kurdish region, which destroyed entire villages. In 1963, during the Ramadan Revolution, a military coup in Iraq overthrew the prime minister and established the Ba’athist government. Despite the regime change, the Iraqi-Kurdish conflict persisted until 1970.