181. Telegram From the Embassy in Italy to the Department of State1
Rome, November 3, 1966,
0941Z.
2364. For the President and Secretary of State from Harriman.
- 1.
- With Amb. Meyer I had a two-hour soul-searching talk with the Shah in Tehran Tuesday afternoon (Nov. 1). He exposed his hopes and [Page 331] fears on Viet-Nam and he now agrees with your policy to seek a negotiated settlement. The favorable developments in Indonesia have changed his more hawk-like previous views.
- 2.
- He takes satisfaction in his new contacts in Eastern Europe but is under no illusion that Moscow would not take an opening of weakness to cut his throat. He no longer fears open aggression from the north but knows that the Tudeh Party is alerted to sieze any opportunity to cause him trouble. He believes Moscow is working through Nasser and now Syria in a flanking maneuver. The foothold in Yemen will be expanded when the British leave Aden through southern Arabia to the Persian Gulf. Iran must be strong enough to face this threat alone without our intervention. However, his military expenditures should not interfere with Iran’s economic and social progress to attain a southern European living standard. Iran and Japan are the only two eastern countries that can aspire to this goal.
- 3.
- He pleads for our help to make oil companies realize it is more important to increase Iranian oil production than that of the small princely states in Arabia. I urged caution in military expenditures and patience in dealing with oil companies and not to kill the goose. The Shah takes justifiable pride in Iran’s economic growth of over 10 per cent per annum for the last two years without rise in cost of living. He was obviously pleased that you sent me to consult him and looks forward to talking with you personally in Washington, hopefully in June. All in all it was a friendly conversation combined with a glass of excellent scotch and ample of Iran’s best caviar.
Reinhardt
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 7 US/HARRIMAN. Secret; Limdis. Repeated to Tehran. Passed to the White House on November 3. A November 3 report from Wriggins to Rostow on that day’s cables noted the success of Harriman’s meeting with the Shah as reported in telegram 2364 from Rome. A handwritten notation indicates that the President had seen the cable. (Johnson Library, National Security File, Wriggins Memos, 1966)↩