Office of the Historian

83. Memorandum From Robert W. Komer of the National Security Council Staff to President Johnson1

Washington, May 17, 1965.

We have a massage problem with the Shah of Iran, who has a 24-hour stopover in New York Tuesday, 18 May, en route from Brazil and Argentina to Ottawa and Paris. We naturally evaded feelers that he come down here, so Rusk urges five minute phone call from you. It would be worth weeks of lower level diplomacy.

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The Shah has been very good on Vietnam and the Dominican Republic, and we don’t want De Gaulle to talk him out of those positions. Harriman will be talking to the Shah in the Waldorf Towers from 10:30 to 11:30, so you’d have no problem getting through to him then. Here are a few suggested talking points:

1.
Happy to have Shah and Empress on American soil again, even if only briefly. You are especially relieved that the Shah escaped the recent attempt on his life (you wired him). You know from your own role at the time of President Kennedy’s assassination what a shock such an experience is.
2.
You are glad he was so well received in Brazil and Argentina. Did he pick up any interesting reaction to our handling of the Dominican crisis? Vietnam?
3.
You appreciate the Shah’s support for our Dominican and Vietnamese positions. You are especially concerned that the Afro-Asian Conference in Algiers next month will degenerate into an anti-US orgy unless responsible delegations like Iran’s stand up against the Communist steam-roller. Could the Shah help?
4.
You’ll be anxious to hear Gov. Harriman’s report of his talk with the Shah (we hope the Shah doesn’t bring up the Gudarzian case, of an obvious swindler who’s sought to implicate the Royal Family).2

If you can’t call, telegram at Tab3 would be useful (but not half as good).

R.W. Komer
  1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Special Head of State Correspondence File, Iran, Shah Correspondence, Vol. I. Secret. This memorandum was attached to a May 18 transmittal note from Jack Valenti to the President that reads: “Mr. President, I thought you’d want to see this.”↩
  2. See Document 84 for a record of Harriman’s meeting with the Shah.↩
  3. Not printed.↩