Office of the Historian

95. Telegram From the Embassy in Iran to the Department of State1

Washington, August 28, 1965, 11:35 a.m.

229. Re Deptel 193.2 While urgency reftel apparent, believe in interests providing more valid response it highly desirable familiarize myself firsthand with on-ground realities of existing facilities and geography of suggested expansions and new sites. This I propose to do in coming days.

As reftel notes, there no question proposed additional facilities can be political dynamite, particularly after our pyrrhic victory last fall in obtaining legislative approval for immunities for Americans here. Question is how much official American presence can Iran tolerate (it is already one thousand five hundred plus families).

Before attempting to provide answers I should among other things like obtain firsthand reading of Shah’s present temperature. Accordingly hope Dept will concur in my desire to postpone for fortnight our specific response to reftel.

Meyer
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, DEF 15 IRAN–US. Top Secret/Sensitive; Roger Channel.↩
  2. Document 94.↩