Office of the Historian

286. Action Memorandum From the President’s Special Assistant (Rostow) to President Johnson1”

Washington, May 22, 1968.

SUBJECT

  • Dinner for the Shah

You asked whether we could have a big dinner for the Shah to which he might bring his wife, instead of the small working luncheon we had planned for him on June 12.

Both your schedule and the Shah’s would permit our having a large dinner on June 11. Everyone here and at State feels that, from the foreign policy viewpoint, this would be a good thing to do. The only reason we had not suggested it before was that the Shah had been here on an official visit just last August and, since he is coming this time on a private visit to receive an honorary degree, we did not want to impose on you for another dinner. However, if you would like to have him, we would all be delighted.

We cannot be sure that his wife could come. She has decided not to accompany him on this trip. However, she will just have been to Ethiopia with him, will come as far as Europe with him and then will go on to Morocco with him after his visit here. The Shah has never told us exactly [Page 515] why she did not wish to come here, but we believe that her unpleasant experiences with demonstrating students in Berlin on a previous trip may have made her wary of coming here, where Iranian students usually demonstrate against the Shah when he comes. She might reconsider and come just for the White House part of the trip, but we cannot guarantee this.

If you would like to invite the Shah to dinner on June 11 in hopes that the Empress can come too, we would propose the attached message2 from you suggesting this change in plans and making a special point of your wish to entertain the Empress before you leave the White House.

If you wish to wrap this all up in one day, we could reschedule the office visit to 5:30 P.M. on June 11. If not, we would leave it scheduled for 12:30 P.M. on June 12.

Once we have your preference and the Shah’s acceptance, we will work out the announcement with George Christian.

W.W. Rostow 3

Approve dinner Tuesday, June 11, with office meeting at 5:30 P.M. same day

Approve dinner Tuesday, June 11, with office meeting at 12:30 P.M. the next day4

Leave schedule as is with office meeting at 12:30 P.M. Wednesday, June 12, followed by small working lunch

  1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Memos to the President, Walt W. Rostow, Vol. 78, May 20–24,” 1968. Confidential.↩
  2. Attached but not printed.↩
  3. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩
  4. This option is checked.↩