85. Telephone Conversation Between President Johnson and the Shah of Iran1

LBJ: Hello?

MRP: Hello

LBJ: Your Majesty, how are you?

MRP: Mr. President, I’m so glad to hear you.

LBJ: Well, it’s wonderful to hear your voice, and we’re so happy to have you and the Empress back in our country again, even if it’s very brief.

MRP: Yes. Unfortunately, we could not pay you our respects.

LBJ: Oh, I would like so much to see you. I was, oh, so relieved, though, that you escaped the recent attempt. You know from your own role at the time of President Kennedy’s, what a shock such an experience is.

MRP: Yes, it was rather close this time.

LBJ: Well, we were so pleased that you were so well received in Brazil and Argentina.

MRP: Yes, they have been very nice to us. And I hope that this is a new era between our part of the world and this continent of South America.

LBJ: I sure hope so. Did you pick up any interesting reactions to our handling of the Dominican crisis or Vietnam?

MRP: Oh, well, I think that all of them in their inner heart were in favor of it. Some of them dared to say so openly and some others refrained to. But I suppose they all agree in their inner hearts.

LBJ: Well, we certainly are grateful to you for your Dominican and Vietnamese position, and I’m very concerned that the Afro-Asian Conference in Algiers next month will degenerate. I’m afraid it will be an anti-US operation unless some responsible delegation like Iran stands up against these steamrollers.

MRP: Yes. We shall do our duty, and we are grateful to you to have taken this attitude, Mr. President.

LBJ: Well, we have to take this when our liberty is at stake—

MRP: Oh, yes.

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LBJ:—and I’m going to be anxious to have Governor Harriman report his talk with you, and if you have any suggestions for me, let me know, and please give Mrs. Johnson’s high regards to the Empress and yourself. We look forward to seeing you before too long.

MRP: Thank you very much. Would you please be kind enough as to give Mrs. Johnson our best regards?

LBJ: We enjoyed our visit in your home so much. You don’t know how much it meant to both of us and how close we feel to both of you.

MRP: Well, we have the best of recollections, really, of your visit.

LBJ: Everyone tells me you have just made phenomenal progress.

MRP: Yes. We have been very lucky.

LBJ: Well, no. You’ve been very courageous, that’s what. And the very best of everything to you.

MRP: Thank you, Mr. President, I wish you all the success.

LBJ: You tell Governor Harriman I want him to report to me. Y’all talk confidentially [about] every problem you have so I can get a full report.

MRP: All right, thank you very much.

LBJ: And I look forward to—you help us out in Algiers now and you get on top of that.

MRP: All right. Thank you very much.

  1. Source: Johnson Library, Recordings and Transcripts, Recording of Telephone Conversation between President Johnson and Mohammed Reza Pahlevi, May 18, 1965, 11:01 a.m., Tape 6505.17, PNO 4. No classification marking. The Shah was in New York; the President was in Washington. This transcript was prepared by the Office of the Historian specifically for this volume.