104. Telegram 5332 From the Embassy in Iran to the Department of State 1 2
Subject:
- Shah’s Views on Abduction Attempt
Ref:
- Tehran 5132 and 5272
1. When I saw Shah Dec 9 he expressed pleasure and relief that no harm had befallen us as result Nov 30 abduction attempt. He was also happy to hear from his security people that neither of us had been unnerved by experience. He said he had instructed Iranian security authorities to find perpetrators. He was personally convinced that “the same Communist elements” that were working on Iranian students abroad, particularly in West Germany, Austria, Italy and for that matter the US, as attack on Iranian Consulate in San Francisco demonstrated, were behind attempt. He reasoned that by abducting American Ambassador and then insisting Iran Govt release “political prisoners” Communist perpetrators would gain worldwide attention and could then try to discredit Shah’s White Revolution and program of social and economic progress by portraying GOI as fascist dictatorship which was holding large numbers of “political prisoners.”
- Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1970–73, POL 17 US-IRAN. Secret; Nodis. In Telegram 5272 from Tehran, December 7, Hoveyda had speculated that the radical Iranian student groups abroad, and perhaps also the Palestinian Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), could have been involved in the attack. Since the attack had betrayed the weaknesses in the Iranian system, the Prime Minister also had requested U.S. assistance in putting Iranian security files into processed data form. (Ibid., POL IRAN-US)↩
- The Shah asserted that communist elements hoping to discredit the Shah’s regime were responsible for the attack on the Ambassador.↩