Ike's Spies: Eisenhower and the Espionage Establishment

by Stephen E. Ambrose

  * * *

  * Kim Roosevelt denies the figure; he claims there was only $1 million and only $100,000 actually spent. After his retirement in 1962, on a CBS television show, Allen Dulles was asked whether it was true that “the CIA people spent literally millions of dollars hiring people to riot in the streets and do other things, to get rid of Mossadegh. Is there anything you can say about that?” “Well,” Dulles replied, “I can say that the statement that we spent many dollars doing that is utterly false.”36

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Iran: The Act

  AUGUST 10, 1953. Prime Minister Mossadegh postpones prohibition for one year. Kennett Love of the New York Times reports that “wine jugs all over this land of Omar Khayyam [are] tilted today in celebration.” Prohibition was voted in by the Majlis, under the leadership of Speaker Ayatollah Kashani, a few months earlier,* but Mossadegh has since then dissolved the Majlis and now, in a bid for popular support, Mossadegh—himself a teetotaler—overrides the law. Reporter Love guesses that his motive is to appease the Russians, who are continuing financial negotiations with Iran, a major export market for Russian vodka.

  Obviously delighted himself, Love informs Times readers that “vodka is extremely important in Teheran life, being served in iced decanters with bowls of caviar beside splashing fountains under weeping willow trees in walled garden cafes. As the deadline for prohibition approached, thirsty patrons of Iranian taverns asked with the ancient tentmaker poet, ‘I wonder often what the vintners buy one-half so precious as the stuff they sell.’ ”1

  FOR KIM ROOSEVELT, hiding in his safe house, the big news was not the delay of prohibition, but rather the distressing word that the Shah had fled his capital. After agreeing to sign a royal decree dismissing Mossadegh and replacing him with General Zahedi, H.I.M. had lost his nerve. Together with his queen, he had flown off to his summer palace on the Caspian Sea—without signing the decree.

  Roosevelt, double-crossed and furious, consulted with his two Iranian agents. He sent them to Colonel Nematollah Nassiry; they bullied Nassiry into flying to the Caspian with the royal decrees and instructions to make sure the Shah signed them. Nassiry got there safely and managed to convince the Shah to sign, but then the weather closed in and he was unable to fly back to Teheran.

  So Roosevelt fumed. “We sat,” he later wrote, “in the daytime around the pool, after dark in the living room, smoking, drinking mild vodkas with lime juice, playing hearts … or backgammon, and cursing heartfelt obscenities at unpredictable intervals.”2

  He also sent, via the British-controlled communications network on Cyprus, regular reports back to Washington. Ike recalled in his memoirs, “I conferred daily with officials of the State and Defense departments and the Central Intelligence Agency, and saw reports from our representatives on the spot who were working actively with the Shah’s supporters.” These reports, he added, “often sounded more like a dime novel than historical facts.”3

  At midnight, August 12, Colonel Nassiry returned with the signed documents. But to Roosevelt’s dismay, they could not be delivered for two days because the Iranian weekend had begun. Thus he sat by the pool, smoking cigarettes, drinking vodka-limes, and playing a song from the current hit Broadway musical Guys and Dolls—“Luck Be a Lady Tonight.”4

  Mossadegh, meanwhile, had learned of the decrees dismissing him from office. So, when Colonel Nassiry appeared in the middle of the night of August 14–15 before the Prime Minister’s home on Takht-i-Jamshid, a few blocks west of the American Embassy, he found it surrounded by American-made tanks, guarded by troops who were obeying orders from General Tazhi Riahi, the Iranian chief of staff and a Mossadegh loyalist. The troops had been instructed to keep Nassiry away, but he strode forward boldly, in full uniform, and announced that he had a royal decree to deliver. As the Shah later wrote, “The Colonel had judged correctly that the tank crews and other troops knew him so well, and were so accustomed to respecting his authority, that they could not bring themselves to shoot him down.”5

  Nassiry demanded access to Mossadegh. This was refused. He then demanded a receipt for the delivery of the royal decree. This was refused. Nassiry would not leave without a receipt. Finally, after an hour and a half wait, he got a receipt signed by a servant. The delay, however, was fatal—before Nassiry could withdraw, General Riahi had him arrested and brought to his office. Riahi stripped Nassiry of his uniform and put him behind bars.

  The next morning at 7 A.M. Mossadegh made a radio broadcast. He announced that the Shah, encouraged by “foreign elements,” had attempted a coup d’etat, and that he—Mossadegh—was therefore compelled to take all power unto himself. He sent out orders to arrest every known supporter of the Shah in Teheran. General Riahi’s troops started turning the city upside down looking for General Zahedi, whom Mossadegh denounced as a traitor.

  They could not find Zahedi because Kim Roosevelt had taken him to a safe house near the American Embassy, a place with a big basement and surrounded by a high wall. From that spot, Zahedi began making his own radio broadcasts, claiming that he was the rightful Prime Minister, by decree of the Shah, and that Mossadegh was the real traitor.6

  At this juncture, the Shah fled Iran, with Queen Soraya, one aide, and the pilot of his Beechcraft. They had no luggage and no passports. They flew to Baghdad, where the Iraqi Government agreed to allow them to stay for a day.

  In Teheran, meanwhile, the Tudeh hit the streets. Mobs swelled, chanted “Down with the Shah,” “Death to the Americans,” “Yankees, go home!” They surged up and down the streets, smashed statues of the Shah and his father, and joyfully looted everything they could grab.

  “Frankly,” Kim Roosevelt confessed, “it scared the hell out of me.”7

  The riots went on for two days. The Shah flew to Rome. Allen Dulles hopped a plane to Rome to confer with him. Foster Dulles, after consulting with Ike, told Loy Henderson (who had been on “vacation” as a part of the AJAX cover plan) to return to Teheran to see what he could do there.

  Henderson’s return proved to be the decisive stroke. He arrived on August 18. Kim Roosevelt, again huddled on a back seat under a blanket, made his way by car to the embassy to consult. “We’ve run into some small complications,” Roosevelt ruefully confessed. He suggested that Henderson see Mossadegh, complain about harassment to Americans, and threaten to pull all American citizens out of the country if it did not stop.8

  Henderson demanded and got an immediate audience with Mossadegh. The Prime Minister launched into a condemnation of the U. S. Government. He said that CIA agents had persuaded the Shah to issue the royal decrees, which he shouted were illegal, as only Parliament could remove him from office.

  Henderson, brushing all the complaints aside, said he had come to talk about the presence of American citizens in Teheran. The Tudeh mobs were a threat to their lives and safety. In an interview years later, Henderson recalled, “I told the Prime Minister that unless the Iranian police were prepared to stop Communist pillaging and attacks, it would be my duty to order all Americans to leave the country at once.”

  Now it was old Mossy’s turn to lose his nerve. He begged Henderson not to do it. An American evacuation would look just terrible, make it appear that his government was not able to govern. He asserted that he was perfectly capable of maintaining law and order. Henderson charged that he did not believe Mossadegh realized the extent to which the Tudeh had been given a free hand to ransack the city.

  Mossadegh called in an aide and asked if it were true that the Tudeh people were roaming the streets in gangs, pillaging, destroying, and attacking foreigners. When the aide said it certainly was true, Henderson said, “In my presence Mossadegh picked up the telephone, called the Chief of Police, and gave orders that the police be instructed immediately to restore order to the streets, to break up the roving gangs who were engaging in violence.”9

  It was the old man’s fatal mistake. The Schwarzkopf-trained police, previously under orders not to take steps that might offend t
he Tudeh, were delighted to be turned loose. Kennett Love reported to the New York Times, “Policemen and soldiers swung into action tonight against rioting Tudeh partisans and Nationalist extremists. The troops appeared to be in a frenzy as they smashed into the rioters with clubbed rifles and nightsticks, and hurled tear-gas bombs.”10

  The following morning, August 19, Kim Roosevelt sprang into action. The pro-Mossadegh forces were off the streets, the day was already hot, the atmosphere oppressive. Roosevelt gave his Iranian agents the order to strike. He had earlier described these agents to the Shah: “They are extremely competent, professional ‘organizers’ who have already demonstrated their competence. They have a strong team under them, they can distribute pamphlets, organize mobs, keep track of the opposition—you name it, they’ll do it.” Roosevelt also told the Shah, “We have a gigantic safe next to my principal assistant’s office. It is in a big closet and occupies the whole space. This safe is jam-packed with rial notes.… We have the equivalent of about one million dollars in that safe.”11

  That was the money Schwarzkopf had brought in from the CIA. Roosevelt’s Iranian agents now began to buy themselves a mob.

  They started with the Zirkaneh giants, weight lifters who developed their physiques through an ancient Iranian set of exercises which included lifting progressively heavier weights. The Zirkanehs had built up tremendous shoulders and huge biceps. Shuffling down the street together, they were a frightening spectacle. Two hundred or so of these weight lifters began the day by marching through the bazaar, shouting “Long Live the Shah!” and dancing and twirling like dervishes. Along the edges of the crowd, men were passing out ten-rial notes, adorned with a handsome portrait of H.I.M. The mob swelled; the chant “Long Live the Shah!” was deafening. As the throng passed the offices of a pro-Mossadegh newspaper, men smashed the windows and sacked the place.12

  “Do you think the time has come to turn General Zahedi loose to lead the crowd?” one of Roosevelt’s assistants asked him.

  Not yet, he replied. “There is nothing to be gained by rushing. Let’s wait till the crowd gets to Mossadegh’s house. That should be a good moment for our hero to make his appearance.”13

  Roosevelt’s radio operator appeared, tears streaming down his face. He had a message from Bedell Smith, a message Smith had sent twenty-four hours earlier, but which the British on Cyprus had held up for a day. The message said, in effect, “Give up and get out.”

  With a hearty laugh and a broad grin, Roosevelt jotted down a reply for the radio operator to send back to Cyprus: “Yours of 18 August received. Happy to report Zahedi safely installed and Shah will be returning to Teheran in triumph shortly. Love and kisses from all the team.”14

  With that, Roosevelt left his basement hideout and went out into the streets. He was on his way to pick up Zahedi. He ran into General Guilanshah, chief of the Air Force, in full uniform. Guilanshah recognized Roosevelt and eagerly offered to help. Roosevelt told him to pick up a tank. Guilanshah asked where Zahedi was, and Roosevelt gave him the address.

  Arriving at Zahedi’s hiding place, Roosevelt found the Prime Minister-designate in the cellar, wearing only his winter underwear. In broken German, Roosevelt told him to get dressed. The general put on his full-dress uniform. As he buttoned his tunic, Guilanshah burst into the room. He had a tank waiting outside.15

  In telling the story years later, CIA agents embellished it until a myth developed that Kim Roosevelt, in the grand tradition of his Rough Rider grandfather, had mounted the lead tank and led the way to Mossadegh’s home. In fact, he stayed out of sight. Zahedi led the mob, supported by tanks rounded up by Colonel Nassiry and General Guilanshah. According to the Shah (who of course was not there), an amazing cross section of the people of Iran led the assault on Mossadegh’s forces—“students, artisans, manual labourers, professional men, policemen, members of the gendarmerie, and soldiers.”16 According to Times reporter Love (who was there), the two-hour battle that raged outside Mossadegh’s home was fought between those soldiers loyal to Mossadegh, and acting under General Riahi’s orders, and troops following Zahedi. One hundred were killed, three hundred injured. Zahedi’s forces prevailed, as Riahi’s men ran out of ammunition.17

  At dusk, Royalist troops overwhelmed the remaining household guard and entered Mossadegh’s home. The old man was gone—he had slipped out the back way.

  Zahedi went to the officers’ club, which was jam-packed and riotous, to celebrate. Kim Roosevelt went first to the American Embassy, where he and Loy Henderson opened champagne to toast “the Shah, Zahedi, Dwight Eisenhower, Winston Churchill, and one another.” Then Roosevelt proceeded to the officers’ club, where “everyone, total strangers as well as good friends, embraced me, kissed me on both cheeks.”18

  The Shah received the news the next day while he was lunching at his hotel in Rome. The Times reported that “he went pale and his hands shook so violently that he hardly was able to read when newspaper men showed him the first reports. ‘Can it be true?’ he asked. The Queen was far more calm. ‘How exciting,’ she exclaimed, placing her hand on the Shah’s arm to steady him.”

  A little later, in a press interview, the Shah declared, “It shows how the people stand. Ninety-nine per cent of the population is for me. I knew it all the time.”19

  That same day, August 20, Mossadegh, tears streaming down his face, his nose dripping, leaning heavily on his cane, and dressed only in his pink pajamas, accepted his fate and surrendered to Zahedi.20

  With that, Zahedi sent a telegram to the Shah. “The Iranian people, and your devoted Army, are awaiting your return with the greatest impatience and are counting the minutes. I beg you to hasten your journey back in order that your people may show you their sentiments as they so ardently wish to do.”21

  H.I.M. decided to return. After such a touching display of affection and loyalty from his subjects, how could he do otherwise? On Saturday, August 22, His Imperial Majesty, the Shahanshah, Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi, Light of the Aryans, returned in triumph to his capital. Prime Minister Zahedi, all members of the new Cabinet, the entire diplomatic corps, “and mobs of deliriously happy citizens from all ranks of life” (at least according to Kim Roosevelt) were at the airport to greet him.

  MIDNIGHT, AUGUST 23, 1953. Kim Roosevelt drove, one last time, to the palace. This time he sat up. His vehicle was plainly marked as belonging to the American Embassy. There was no blanket. Guards saluted with a flourish as he entered. Instead of sneaking into the car, the Shah received the American agent in his onice. A frock-coated attendant appeared with vodka and caviar canapés. The Shah graciously motioned for Roosevelt to be seated.

  His first words were, “I owe my throne to God, my people, my army—and to you!” He raised his glass in a toast.22

  ON HIS WAY HOME TO THE STATES, Roosevelt stopped in London to brief Churchill. At Number 10 Downing Street, he found the Prime Minister propped up in bed—the seventy-nine-year-old Churchill had suffered a stroke. Roosevelt sat beside the bed.

  “We met at your cousin Franklin’s, did we not?” Churchill asked. Roosevelt nodded. “I thought so. Well, you have an exciting story to tell. I’m anxious to hear it.”

  When Roosevelt finished his tale, Churchill smiled. “Young man,” he said, “if I had been but a few years younger, I would have loved nothing better than to have served under your command in this great venture.”

  A few days later, Roosevelt reported in Washington to the Dulles brothers, Secretary of Defense Wilson, Admiral Arthur Radford, and General Andrew Goodpaster. In the best CIA fashion, he had an easel, maps, a chart, the works. He went into great detail. His audience, he later wrote, “seemed almost alarmingly enthusiastic. John Foster Dulles was leaning back in his chair.… His eyes were gleaming; he seemed to be purring like a giant cat.”23

  Then, and later, Eisenhower and his associates were extremely coy about Roosevelt’s role in the coup. Ike did admit in his memoirs: “Throughout this crisis the United States government had done ev
erything it possibly could to back up the Shah.” Eisenhower was on vacation in Colorado when Kim Roosevelt returned. He was careful not to meet with Roosevelt or have any direct connection with AJAX. In his memoirs Ike did quote a portion of Roosevelt’s report, but only that part that dealt with the aftermath (“The Shah is a new man. For the first time, he believes in himself …” etc.), and he stated flatly that the report was prepared by “an American in Iran, unidentified to me.”24

  In a private interview two decades later, when Loy Henderson was asked if he could identify this “unknown” American, he replied, “Yes, I think I know, but I’m not at liberty to tell you.”25 Over the following decades rumors flew, myths grew, until in 1979 Kim Roosevelt decided to set the record straight and wrote his own account of the coup.*

  THE RECKONING IN IRAN went as follows: Mossadegh was tried, found guilty of treason, and sentenced to three years solitary confinement. Colonel Nassiry became Brigadier General Nassiry. Prime Minister Zahedi reestablished diplomatic relations with the British. An international consortium of Western oil companies signed a twenty-five-year pact with Iran for its oil. The old Anglo-Persian Oil Company got 40 percent, Royal Dutch Shell got 14 percent, the Compagnie Française des Petroles got 6 percent, and the Americans (Gulf, Standard of New Jersey, Texaco, and Socony-Mobil) got 40 percent. Under a special ruling by the Department of Justice, the American oil companies participated in the consortium without fear of prosecution under the antitrust laws.

  So the British had failed to stop the inevitable—they lost their monopoly—while the Americans had managed to prevent the improbable, a Communist takeover in Iran.

  In September 1953, President Eisenhower announced an immediate allocation of $45 million in emergency economic aid to Iran, with another $40 million to follow. On October 8, Ike wrote in his diary, “Now if the British will be conciliatory … if the Shah and his new premier, General Zahedi, will be only a little bit flexible, and the United States will stand by to help both financially and with wise counsel, we may really give a serious defeat to Russian intentions and plans in that area.