Nine serious-looking men, all
wearing charcoal suits, jumped to their feet when John
Foster Dulles burst through the double doors of the
situation room. The two senior officials only half-rose
at the round table. "Let's get down to business, gentlemen."
Dulles exuded energy and confidence with every word
he spoke. He looked around the table: these were men
he could count on in a pinch They included R.E. Steer,
the Ambassador recalled from Iran, Kim Roosevelt's,
the CIA's best troubleshooter in the Middle East; and
of course his brother, Allen Dulles. The rest were all
specialists in some field or another.
"The first thing you should know, gentlemen,
is that the President has just made an irreversible
decision on Iran: not one penny of American aid until
Mossadeq is kicked out," Dulles began. "How do you think
this will affect Mossadeq, Steer?" "The announcement,
if and when it's made public, will humiliate him. It
could pull the rug right out from under him unless we're
careful." Roosevelt spoke up. "We've already leaked
it. We gave both Mossadeq's plea for aid and Eisenhower's
rejection of it to The Washington Post. If that upends
him, it'll just save us the trouble."
Steer tried to digest what Roosevelt had just said. Humiliating
foreign leaders was not his kind of diplomacy. And humiliating
Mossadeq at this critical juncture could destabilize the
entire Middle East, he thought."Hmmmm ..." he said aloud.
"Am I reading you right, Kim? Are you suggesting that
our policy should be to destabilize Mossadeq?"
"That's the President's decision," Dulles answered for
Roosevelt. "You might as well know the full story. Yesterday,
the National Security Council, after considering the
threat that Mossadeq's control over Europe's oil supply
posed to the Western alliance, decided that the current
government in Iran must be replaced by one more amenable
to Western interests President Eisenhower authorized
the necessary action no later than August twentieth."
"Hmmmm," Steer commented again. "What sort of action
are you contemplating, Mr. Secretary?" Ever since Roosevelt
had stopped in Iran in February, Steer had suspected
something was brewing, but hadn't known what. "We intend
to aid Iran, not Mossadeq. It's that simple," Dulles
answered. He spoke as though he were coaching a college
football team. The men in charcoal suitsł all team mates
by natureł nodded in unison. "Yes. But Mossadeq is
the head of the government of Iran," Steer persisted.
"Leaves us only one alternative, right? To get rid of
Mossadeq. Right, Steer?" "Mr. Secretary, I don't think
it's that simple. If Mossadeq goes, how can we guarantee
that the Communists won't move in to pick up the pieces?"
He glared for a moment at Dulles, refusing to be bullied
into accepting their decision. Then he continued. "The
last thing we want in the Middle East is a power vacuum.
With Mossadeq gone ..." "Good point, Steer," Roosevelt
interrupted. "But we don't intend to leave a vacuum
for the Communists. We're going to move the Shah back
in the moment Mossadeq is gone." "I see," Steer He
objected but half-heartedly, "The Embassy hardly has
the resources for anything like that ..." "Right,"
Dulles cut in. "It won't be the Embassy that does it.
Kim has worked out the necessary steps." "The code
name for the operation is Ajax," Roosevelt said, opening
his briefing book. "It's all clean and simple. The
Shah will dismiss Mossadeq. Mossadeq will refuse to
step down as Premier. Then we will neutralize his political
base. We have the assets in place. We'll keep the Shah
out of harm's way until Mossadeq is gone. It will all
take three days, and almost no bloodshed." "How are
you going to neutralize Mossadeq?" Dulles asked.. "That's
a detail Foster, I think you'd rather not know," Allen
Dulles answered "Am I correct in understanding that
this is going to be a CIA operation?" Steer looked squarely
at John Foster Dulles. "Right. It's Allen's show."
""Mr. Secretary, I think it best if I absent myself
from Iran. Been planning to take a home leave, anyway.
Kim can handle things, don't you agree?" "Right." Dulles
said, agreeing it would be best if Steer were out of
Iran during the coup. It would give Kim and the CIA
a freer hand in case things got sticky. Steer realized
that decisions had been made to which he was not privy.
He was also bothered by a coincidence. His son's professor
at Harvard had managed to predict this the course of
action Roosevelt was not recommending. For a moment
Steer stood awkwardly at the table, assessing where
his duty lay. A CIA coup was not what he had bargained
for when he flew in from Teheran. He firmly believed
that what the Middle East needed was stability. And
it seemed clear to him that sticking an unknown leader,
the Shah, on the throne of Iran could lead to more instability.
He belied it was his duty to make his case as cogently
as possible. All the chips had to be out on the table.
"The one thing I would like you to carefully consider,
Mr. Secretary, is whether the problem is Mossadeq or
the issue of who profits from Iran's oil." "Not easy
to separate them, Steer. When Mossadeq seized the British
oil concessions, he made himself the problem." Dulles
stopped, satisfied that he had made his point.
"But the British can't hold on to Middle East oil forever.
They can hold on only as long as they dominate the Persian
Gulf." Steer could see he was losing the argument, "Eventually..."
"Eventually, we'll all be dead." Dulles banged his hand
down on the table. He turned to his brother. "One final
point.Can we be sure that this will not embarrass the
President?" "There are enough cover stories built into
the Ajax scenario to cover all foreseeable contingencies,
Foster" Allan dulles answered, as tries, without immediate
success, to relight his pipe. "What about the unforeseeable
ones?" Dulles pressed. "President Eisenhower will have
plausible deniability whatever happens." Allan Dulles
answered with great confidence. "Any further thoughts?"
Dulles again moved his eyes around the table. No one
spoke up. "Good. We're all agreed then. Allan, you have
the green light. Thank you, gentlemen." The meeting
ended within seconds of Dulles' exit.
Kim Roosevelt, returning to his office, wasted no time.
His job was to make sure Ajax worked. To be on track,
THE SEVENTH MOVE, TRIBAL UPRISING IN ZEMBLIA" would
have to be initiated in the Zagros mountains on August
13th. That gave him only 5 days. His first call was
to Norman Schwartzkopf. The conversation was precisely
one word long.
"Go."
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