61. Special Report Prepared in the Central Intelligence Agency1
REFORM IN IRAN: PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS
For over two years the Shah has been trying to effect fundamental economic and political reforms in Iran, with the primary aim of building a broad popular base for his regime. The most dramatic changes are occurring [Page 117] in the traditional system of land tenure, as villages are taken from individual owners and distributed among the peasants. The program, as expected, is alienating the Shah’s supporters among the wealthy classes, whose influence in the country’s administration has not lessened significantly. Moreover, the Shah has not yet achieved his desired mass political support; peasants still lack effective instruments to register their approval of his program, and the urban population is skeptical of his motives. Disruptions brought on by the reforms meanwhile threaten an economic crisis and a possible reversal of what he terms his “White Revolution.”
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- Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, Iran, Vol. I, Memos & Miscellaneous, 1/64–12/65. Secret; No Foreign Dissem. Prepared in the CIA’s Office of Current Intelligence. Attached to a December 14 memorandum from McCone to the President that reads: “Your questions concerning the current situation in Iran prompt me to submit the attached special report, ‘Reform in Iran: Progress and Prospects.’ This represents the Central Intelligence Agency’s most recent appraisal of the situation and reflects in detail points I made briefly in our conversation Saturday [December 12] morning.”↩