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November 1952-August 1953
IV. THE DECISIONS ARE MADE: ACTIVITY BEGINS
There were no redactions in this section. S E C R E T IV. THE DECISIONS ARE MADE: ACTIVITY BEGINS Since the meetings at Beirut and London had taken such a relatively short time, there was not too much that Headquarters could do in the interval from the time of Roosevelt's departure until his return. Progress had, however, been made in setting up a specific and close liaison with the State Department. The fact that an oper- ational plan was being prepared was already known to a very restricted number of individuals in the State Department,* and it should be noted that the security there seems to have been excellent up to the time of the event. The Greece-Turkey-Iran (GTI) office of the Department of State presented its informed opinion in two papers: one was a top secret paper of 6 June 1953 entitled, "Proposal to Bring about a Change of Government in Iran" and the other a top secret undated GTI memorandum on the subject, "Measues which the United States Government might take in support of a successor government to Mossadeq." _______________________ * Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles Under Secretary of State, General Walter Bedell Smith Deputy Under Secretary of State, Harrison Freeman Matthews Assistant Secretary of State/NEA, Mr. Henry A. Byroade Deputy Assistant Secretary of State/NEA, mr. John Durnford Jernagan Liaison, Mr. James Lampton Berry 16 S E C R E T S E C R E T It was not the task of officers of the State Department to obtain high level decisions on the plan. However, the State Department did assert that, prior to acceptance of the plan, assurance must be forthcoming from the British that they would be flexible in their approach to the govern- ment that succeeded Mossadeq as far as the oil question was concerned. Mr. Leslie Herbert Mitchell, UK Embassy officer (SIS representative) charged with liaison with the Agency, con- cerned himself with this point and did expedite the required assurances from the British Government. These assurances took the form of a foreign office memorandum presented by British Ambassador to the United Staes, Roger Mellor Makins, to Under Secretary of State Smith on 23 July 1953. (Copy attached as Appendix C.) Also the Department of State wanted to satisfy itself that an adequate amount of interim economic aid would be forthcoming to the successor government before it would finally approve decisive action. During this same period discussions between Agency officers and Ambassador Henderson (in Washington, having arrived on consultation 3 June) began 8 June. (This is recorded in a memorandum of conversation contained in TPAJAX files.) The Ambassador appeared to backtrack some- what from his earlier opinion that the premise of the plan 17 S E C R E T S E C R E T that the Shah would cooperate was fallacious, and that the Shah would not issue a firman naming Zahedi unless in response to a vote of inclination by the Majlis. The Ambassador, who was always thoroughly cooperative, was absorbed in a search for constructive suggestions and willingly agreed to delay his return to Tehran by arrang- ing a prolonged visit in Europe. From the standpoint of the plan it was not considered advisable to have the Ambassador in Tehran when the final operation was under- taken. In addition, his continued absence was thought to be an importan factor in the war of nerves which was to be conducted against Mossadeq. The following approvals of the operational plan were obtained on the dates indicated: Director CIA - 11 July 1953 Director SIS - 1 July 1953 Foreign Secretary - 1 July 1953 Secretary of State - 11 July 1953 Prime Minister - 1 July 1953 President - 11 July 1953 Pending final approval or disapproval of the opera- tional plan, the station was carrying forward activities already authroized toward the achievement of the goal. In addition to the general authorization of April enabling the Tehran Station to spend up to $1,000,000 in covert activity in support of Zahedi, the station on 20 May was 18 S E C R E T S E C R E T specifically authorized to spend one million rials a week (rate of 90 rials to the US dollar) in purchasing the cooperation of members of the Iranian Majlis. On or about the end of June the station had established direct contact with the Rashidian brothers and was prepared to instruct them as their role and those of their con- tacts in the development of the operation. At Headquarters two groups were organized within the NE/4 Branch on 22 June in support of Tehran Station opera- tional preparations. One group, headed by Carroll who had returned from Nicosia in mid-June, was to make an exhaustive study of the military aspects of the overthrow operation. (Carrol's final report on the military aspect of TPAJAX planning is attached as Appendix D.) The intent was to present Zahedi and his chosen military secretariat with a concrete plan for their modification or improvement. It was felt that every effort should be made to bring the rather long-winded and often illogical Persians into a position where each one knew exactly what specific action was required of him. The soundness of this feeling was demonstrated when the failure of the Persians to maintain security resulted in the initial breakdown. The other group, headed by Wilber, assumed responsibility for the psychological warfare phases of the plan. Overall direction 19 S E C R E T S E C R E T of these groups and of relations with the field station were in the hands of Mr. John Henry Waller, head of NE/4 Branch. Carroll left for Tehran in mid-July. He stopped over at London to discuss his military plan with SIS Officer Norman Darbyshire and finally reached Tehran on 21 July. Wilber's group sent guidance cables and dispatches to the station, all intended to flesh up the skeleton of psycho- logical operations as presented in the plan itself. In the meantime a considerable number of anti-Mossadeq articles were written or outlined by the group while the CIA Art Group was given constant guidance in its preparation of a large number of anti-Mossadeq cartoons and broadsheets. In addition, these artists did an effective drawing for a wall poster showing Zahedi being presented to the Iranian people by the Shah. Written and illustrative material piled up rapidly, and on 19 July a special courier took it all to Tehran. On 22 July the station began to distribute the material to several agents. What happened to this mate- rial will be described in later pages. By the time that the go-ahead had been received from all parties involved, the NEA Division had picked out qualified individuals for special assignments connected with the project: Mr. Roosevelt, Chief, NEA, was to be 20 S E C R E T S E C R E T field commander in Tehran; John H. Leavitt, NEA/CPP, was to go to Nicosia to be in contact and liaison with the SIS station and to maintain the three-way wireless contact estab- lished earlier; while Colonel Stephen Johnson Meads drew the job of representing the Agency in meetings in Paris with Princess Ashraf, energetic twin sister of the Shah. Mr. Joseph C. Goodwin, Chief of Station in Tehran, was to act for purposes of TPAJAX as chief of staff to the field com- mander, Mr. Roosevelt. Mr. George Carroll, Chief FI Tehran, was given the military planning responsibility first in Washington, then in Tehran. Dr. Donald Wilber was charged throughout the operation with the propaganda aspects of the plan and worked closely with the CIA Art Group in the prepa- ration of propaganda material. Mr. John Waller, just having returned from service as Chief FI, Tehran, was charged with the Headquarters support responsibilities during TPAJAX and maintained the required liaison with the Departments of State and Defense. Although not present in Tehran for the final implementation of TPAJAX, Mr. Roger Goiran, previous Chief of Station Tehran, directed the early stages and preliminaries of the operation in Tehran. It should be here noted that Mr. Goiran, more than any other officer, was responsible for having developed, over a five-year period, station assets which proved valuable and necessary to the operation. 21 S E C R E T |