891.20/175½a
The Under Secretary of State (Welles) to President Roosevelt
My Dear Mr. President: In your memorandum of October 1533 you ask me to speak to you with regard to Mr. Willkie’s34 suggestion that the Persian Prime Minister would be made very happy if you could send four or five high ranking officers to Iran to train their army.
Last May the Department of State informed the War Department that the type of mission suggested would be desirable and recommended favorable action. Since that time there has been a good deal of discussion of the matter with the War Department which has taken the position that it would be difficult to spare the necessary personnel. Finally, last month however, the War Department informed the Department of State that it was designating Major General Clarence S. Ridley as adviser to the Iranian Army and that General Ridley would be instructed to make a thorough survey of the situation and report to the War Department his views as to the advisability of despatching an American military mission. General Ridley is now en route to Tehran.
You may be interested to know that in addition to the mission of General Ridley, American assistance to Iran has taken the form of several non-military missions in different fields. The most important are:
- (a)
- A mission headed by Colonel Schwarzkopf, to reorganize and administer the Rural Police.
- (b)
- An American expert to reorganize and administer the National City Police.
- (c)
- An American Food and Supply Adviser.
- (d)
- A financial mission, which would probably be headed by Dr. Arthur Millspaugh, who was Administrator General of Finances of Iran from 1922 to 1927.
- (e)
- A permanent Director General of Public Health who is yet to be selected.
I believe that the work of these various missions will be of great benefit since the officers and experts we have sent to Iran will not only be able to exert considerable personal influence upon Iranian opinion in a sense favorable to the general cause of the United Nations, but they will also be able to assist in the rehabilitation of the country which would seem to be a fundamental requisite for the ultimate conversion of Iran into an active and willing partner on our side. I feel now more than ever that the United States Army mission to work with the Iranian Army could in fact play an extremely important role in this work.
I shall see that you are informed as soon as General Ridley’s recommendations are received.
Believe me [etc.]