NOTES

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Hajj pilgrimage stampede: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/578f12d781d04f82a7ccf14f818e9280/saudi-arabia-hajj-disaster-death-toll-least-2110

Hajj stampede death toll: Jethro Mullen, “Iranian Death Toll in Hajj Stampede Leaps to More Than 450,” CNN.com, October 1, 2015.

Demand for Saudi apology: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34372745

New Saudi oil policy: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/03/us-saudi-oil-column-idUSKCN0JG13K20141203

Risk of draining Saudi financial assets: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-21/saudis-risk-draining-financial-assets-in-five-years-imf-says

Saudi regime change: Hugh Miles, “Saudi Royal Calls For Regime Change,” Guardian, September 28, 2015.

INTRODUCTION

“Why should I plant a tree”: Abolqasem Ferdowsi, translated by Dick Davis, Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings (New York: Penguin, 2006), 252.

flew to Riyadh: “Cheney Meets Saudi King for Talks,” New York Times, November 26, 2006.

one fifth of the world’s proven oil reserves: The U.S. Energy Information Administration makes country analysis briefs available on its Web site. The one on Saudi Arabia can be accessed at http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/Saudi_Arabia/pdf.pdf.

largest producer within OPEC: Ibid. Saudi Arabia was the world’s “largest producer and exporter of total petroleum liquids” in 2010. The kingdom has the world’s largest crude oil production capacity. The latest statistics on world oil production and consumption can be found on the Web site for the U.S. Energy Information Administration at http://www.eia.doe.gov. Another good source of information is the CIA World Factbook at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook. “In 2009,” reports US EIA, “Saudi Arabia exported an average of 1 million barrels of oil a day to the United States, accounting for 9 percent of US petroleum imports.”

“to find common ground”: Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Jim Rutenberg, “Rumsfeld Resigns as Defense Secretary After Big Election Gains for Democrats,” New York Times, November 9, 2006.

“since America came into Iraq uninvited”: Nawaf Obaid, “Stepping into Iraq; Saudi Arabia Will Protect Sunnis if the U.S. Leaves,” Washington Post, November 29, 2006.

“Iran’s profits from oil rose last year”: Nazila Fathi, “Iranian’s Plans for Economy Spur Widespread Concern,” New York Times, May 1, 2006.

King Midas complex: “The legendary King Midas was the first Middle Eastern ruler to cherish the belief that untold mineral wealth would enable him to realize all his dreams and ambitions,” wrote historian Nikki Keddie in “The Midas Touch: Black Gold, Economics and Politics in Iran Today,” Iranian Studies 10, no. 4 (Autumn 1977): 243. “But just because all he touched turned into gold, he soon discovered he could no longer eat . . . . Oil income is clearly not an evil in itself, but large oil income often tempts governments into overambitious capital-intensive urban-centered projects that bring on a host of difficulties.”

“Critics said that his plans”: Nazila Fathi, “Iranian’s Plans for Economy Spur Widespread Concern,” New York Times, May 1, 2006.

80 percent of income from exports: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ir.html.

“A member of the Saudi royal family”: Hassan M. Fattah, “Bickering Saudis Struggle for an Answer to Iran’s Rising Influence in the Middle East,” New York Times, December 22, 2006.

“massive Saudi intervention”: Nawaf Obaid, “Stepping into Iraq; Saudi Arabia Will Protect Sunnis if the U.S. Leaves,” Washington Post, November 29, 2006.

severing its ties: “Saudi Arabia Fires Security Consultant for Iraq Remarks,” Washington Post, December 7, 2006.

“[Obaid] is widely expected to return”: Hassan M. Fattah, “Bickering Saudis Struggle for an Answer to Iran’s Rising Influence in the Middle East,” New York Times, December 22, 2006.

“The Saudi government disavowed”: Helene Cooper, “Saudis Say They Might Back Sunnis if U.S. Leaves Iraq,” New York Times, December 13, 2006.

not falling below $42 a barrel: According to The New York Times: “The Saudi government does not disclose what oil price it uses when it builds its budget, but analysts at Samba Financial Group, a bank in Saudi Arabia, say they believe the price is $42 a barrel for 2007, with oil production at about 9 million barrels a day. With oil averaging $66 a barrel last year, the kingdom recorded a budget surplus of nearly $71 billion, Samba said, five times more than in 2005.” See Jad Mouawad, “Saudi Officials Seek to Temper the Price of Oil,” New York Times, January 28, 2007.

surpass $80 a barrel: Jad Mouawad, “Oil Prices Continue to Rise, with a Close Above $78,” New York Times, August 1, 2007.

rocketed to $98: Jad Mouawad, “Oil Price Drops Sharply as Global Agency Sees Demand Falling,” New York Times, November 14, 2007.

President Bush personally appealed to King Abdullah: Steven Lee Myers, “Bush Prods Saudi Arabia on Oil Prices,” New York Times, January 16, 2008.

250,000 barrels a day: Jad Mouawad, “As U.S. Economy Lags, Oil Nations Rethink Cuts,” New York Times, March 3, 2008.

to 9.7 million barrels: Jad Mouawad, “Saudis Vow to Ignore OPEC Decision to Cut Production,” New York Times, September 11, 2008.

$118 in May: Jad Mouawad, “Oil Price Rise Fails to Open Tap,” New York Times, April 29, 2008.

$147.27 in July: William J. Broad, “Experts Point to Deceptions in Iran’s Military Display,” New York Times, July 12, 2008.

$107 a barrel: Jad Mouawad, “As Oil Prices Fall, OPEC Faces a Balancing Act,” New York Times, September 5, 2008.

not fall below $90: As reported in The New York Times: “The drop in prices has already created problems for oil producers. Iran and Venezuela both need oil prices at $95 a barrel to balance their national budgets, Russia needs $70 and Saudi Arabia needs $55 a barrel, according to Deutsche Bank estimates.” Jad Mouawad, “Oil Prices Slip Below $70 a barrel,” New York Times, October 17, 2008.

$43 a barrel: Jad Mouawad, “OPEC Plans Further Output Cut,” New York Times, December 17, 2008.

$33 in January 2009: Clifford Krauss, “No Change in Oil Goal, Cartel Is Watchful,” New York Times, December 22, 2009.

“While much scholarly focus”: Andrew Scott Cooper, “Showdown at Doha: The Secret Oil Deal That Helped Sink the Shah of Iran,” The Middle East Journal 62, no. 4 (Autumn 2008).

“that rarest of leaders”: Henry A. Kissinger, White House Years (Boston: Little, Brown, 1979), 1261.

“readers who seek understanding”: William Shawcross, “Through History with Henry A. Kissinger,” Harper’s 258, no. 1548 (May 1979): 39.

imports almost two thirds of its oil: According to Politifacts, in 2009 the percentage of U.S. oil imports was 62 percent. See http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/jun/07/john-kerry/kerry-says-us-imports-more-oil-now-911. “Imported oil accounts for about two-thirds of U.S. consumption,” reports the CIA World Factbook: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html.

“I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient”: Alan Greenspan, The Age of Turbulence (New York: Penguin, 2007), 463.

CHAPTER ONE: A KIND OF SUPER MAN

“If someone wraps a lion cub in silk”: Abolqasem Ferdowsi, translated by Dick Davis, Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings (New York: Penguin, 2006), 263.

Your Majesty, you’re like the radiant sun: Ibid., 328.

“I like him, I like him and I like the country”: Conversation Among President Nixon, Ambassador Douglas MacArthur II, and General Alexander Haig, Washington, April 8, 1971, 3:56–4:21 P.M. Monica Belmonte, Editor; Edward C. Keefer, General Editor, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Vol. E-4, Documents on Iran and Iraq, 1969–1972 (Washington: United States Government Printing Office), Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs.

Standing erect in elevator shoes: The Shah had a well-known preoccupation with his height. According to his biographer, Marvin Zonis, who interviewed the Shah, the monarch was “known to wear elevator shoes and shoes with relatively high heels. One can also look in vain for a picture of the Shah standing side by side with Empress Farah, for that would show all too clearly that she was taller than he.” Marvin Zonis, Majestic Failure: The Fall of the Shah (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 14.

“I pointed out that it will provide”: Asadollah Alam, The Shah and I: The Confidential Diary of Iran’s Royal Court, 1969–77 (New York: St. Martin’s, 1991), 48.

“The Shah is clearly the most important person in Iran”: National Security Council Files, VIP Visits, Visit of the Shah of Iran, October 21–23, 1969 (1 of 2), Box 920, National Archives, College Park, MD.

a stunning blue and maroon Persian rug: Julie and David Eisenhower’s rug is listed along with other gifts presented to the Nixon family and collated as a part of the Watergate political corruption investigation in the late 1970s. List of Foreign Head of State Gifts Presented to President and Mrs. Nixon by H.I.M. Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shahanshah of Iran; by H.I.H. The Princess Ashraf; by H.I.M. The Empress Farah; and by H.E. Ardeshir Zahedi, February 2, 1978, Eric Hooglund, project editor, Iran: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1977–80, National Security Archive (Alexandria, VA: Chadwyck-Healey, 1990), Document Reference No. 01316.

“stole the show”: Alam, 49.

two thirds of the world’s known petroleum reserves: Warren Unna, “Guam Policy Near Test in Gulf,” Washington Post, February 16, 1970.

one third of the petroleum used by the free world: Daniel Yergin, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991), 566.

89 percent of oil used by the U.S. military: Memorandum from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon, Washington, October 22, 1970, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

$1.5 billion in revenue: Ibid.

employed twelve thousand American expatriates: Ibid.

“assigned an area from Malaysia to South Africa”: Arthur Veysey, “Soviets Eye Rich Persian Gulf as British Withdraw,” Chicago Tribune, June 6, 1971.

Fifty-five percent of NATO Europe’s oil: Ibid.

90 percent of Japan’s petroleum supplies: Ibid.

25 million barrels of oil: Bernard Gwertzman, “It Was like Coming Home Again,” New York Times, July 29, 1973.

twenty-one miles wide at its narrowest point: The United States Department of Energy hosts a Web site that includes profiles and statistics for the world’s transportation “choke points”: www.eia.doe.gov/cabs.

“interrupted by a few mines”: Arnaud de Borchgrave, “Colossus of the Oil Lanes,” Newsweek, May 21, 1973, 15.

“The Gulf is one big gasoline bomb”: Arthur Vesey, “Soviets Eye Rich Persian Gulf as British Withdraw,” Chicago Tribune, June 6, 1971.

During a stopover on the island of Guam he described his vision: Robert B. Semple Jr., “Nixon Plans Cut in Military Role for U.S. in Asia,” New York Times, July 26, 1969. Nixon’s remarks in Guam on July 25, 1969, were not included in a set speech. Instead, he spoke to reporters accompanying him to Vietnam, as the official State Department historian later noted, “[The president’s] remarks were on a background basis, for attribution but not direct quotation.” See Louis J. Smith and David H. Herschler, eds., and David S. Patterson, general ed., Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–76, Vol. 1: Foundations of Foreign Policy, 1969–72 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2003), 91. Nixon later claimed that his comments had been taken out of context: “The Nixon Doctrine was interpreted by some as signaling a new policy that would lead to total American withdrawal from Asia and from other parts of the world as well . . . . The Nixon Doctrine was not a formula for getting out of Asia, but one that provided the only sound basis for America’s staying in and continuing to play a responsible role in helping the non-Communist nations and neutrals as well as our Asian allies to defend their independence.” Richard Nixon, RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1978), 395.

“The U.S. is no longer in a position”: Warren Unna, “Guam Policy Near Test in Gulf,” Washington Post, February 16, 1970.

“dealing with the Vietnam drawdown”: Author interview with Dr. James Schlesinger, June 5, 2009.

“His goal was to make Iran”: FISOHA interview with Armin Meyer, by William Burr, Foundation for Iranian Studies, Washington, D.C., March 29, 1985, 1–19.

Operation Ajax: Almost sixty years later, the 1953 coup remains a subject of intense debate among Iranian and Western scholars. Questions remain about the extent of the CIA’s role in the affair. Exiled Iranian scholars have challenged the conventional interpretation of events, arguing instead that the “coup” was actually a nationalist uprising by Iranians in support of the throne. For a straightforward account of the events of 1953, see Mark J. Gasiorowski, “Coup D’etat of 1332 S/1953,” Encyclopaedia Iranica Web site, December 15, 1993, www.iranicaonline.org. See also the collection of academic essays in Mark J. Gasiorowski and Malcolm Byrne, Mohammad Mossadegh and the 1953 Coup in Iran (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2004). The view that the CIA was the instrumental player is advanced by Stephen Kinzer in his best-selling book All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror (Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2003). Biographies of the major Iranian participants in the 1953 coup can be found on the Encyclopaedia Iranica Web site at www.iranicaonline.org, and also in Abbas Milani’s two-volume Eminent Persians: The Men and Women Who Made Modern Iran, 1941–1979 (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2008). Opposing views of the crisis are found in Gholam Reza Afkhami, The Life and Times of the Shah (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009), and Darioush Bayandor, Iran and the CIA: The Fall of Mossadegh Revisited (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). Two authors have recently written a book that places the 1953 coup alongside other twentieth-century Western interventions in the Middle East, focusing on the personalities of the coup makers, in this case the CIA’s Kermit Roosevelt. See Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac, Kingmakers: The Invention of the Modern Middle East (New York: W. W. Norton, 2008).

“I just know that he would have been”: FISOHA interview with Richard Helms, by William Burr, Foundation for Iranian Studies, Washington, D.C., July 10 and 24, 1985, 1–2.

“I think it was agreed”: Ibid., 1–3.

Helms followed events: Ibid.

“rather important” role: Ibid., 1–4.

“intimately involved in the planning”: Ibid., 1–1.

“The CIA felt they had sort of a proprietary interest”: FISOHA interview with Douglas MacArthur II, by William Burr, Foundation for Iranian Studies, Washington, D.C., May 29, 1985, 1–53.

the two code names it assigned the Shah: Andrew Borowice, “Shah Cracks Political Whip,” Washington Post, August 11, 1975.

“I just think it is going to be a miracle”: James A. Bill, The Eagle and the Lion: The Tragedy of American-Iranian Relations (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988), 136.

“they are dead”: Ibid.

less than 23 percent and often up to one third: During the 1950s the figure was as high as 35 percent. Robert Graham, Iran: The Illusion of Power; rev. ed. (London: Croom Helm, 1979), 170.

“The basis of the Twitchell Doctrine”: FISOHA interview with Armin Meyer, by William Burr, Foundation for Iranian Studies, Washington, D.C., March 29, 1985, 1–23.

“maintained our relationship”: Ibid., 1–31.

“The Iranians were forced to go through”: Ibid., 1–28.

“a little annoyed”: Ibid., 1–29.

the most lucrative 100,000 square miles: Amin Saikal, The Rise and Fall of the Shah: Iran from Autocracy to Religious Rule (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980), 48.

economic aid would not resume: “Nixon Ties Aid to Iran to Settlement on Oil,” New York Times, December 13, 1953.

“the oil assets belonged, in principle, to Iran”: Yergin, 476.

“oily legs”: The term “oily legs” was coined by Jahangir Amuzegar, whose brother, Jamshid, was appointed prime minister of Iran in August 1977. Jahangir Amuzegar, The Dynamics of the Iranian Revolution: The Pahlavis’ Triumph and Tragedy (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991), Part 4, Chapter 11, 171.

“oil revenues are the foundation”: A concise and thorough explanation of the role oil revenues played in propping up the Pahlavi state can be found in Marvin Zonis, The Political Elite of Iran (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971), 322–25.

topped the billion-dollar mark: Ibid., 323.

“public revenues will permit us”: Ibid., 324.

“His Majesty must see to it”: Ibid.

“The British advise me”: Alam, 173.

the prodding of the Eisenhower administration: For detailed accounts of how Iran’s oil consortium was established, see Chapter 23 of Yergin, 475–78; Chapter 2 of Saikal, 48–51; and Chapter 9 of Afkhami, 187–207.

“light and sweet”: For a straightforward explanation of how the oil markets work—there are several markets—and to learn more about the different gradations of crude oil, see the BBC Web site at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/904748.stm. “Crude oil comes in many varieties and qualities, depending on its specific gravity and sulphur content which depend on where it has been pumped from,” notes the BBC. “ ‘Sweet’ crude is defined as having a sulphur content of less than 0.5%. Oil containing more than 0.5% sulphur is said to be ‘sour.’ ”

“any drop in production”: Saikal, 50. Saikal notes that the agreement “was kept secret from the public and the Iranian government until 1974.”

“bail out King Faisal’s defense budget”: Alam, 220.

In 1971 he hosted a luncheon: Ibid.

“ripe for subversive activities”: Telegram 16 from the US Delegation to the 25 Centenary Celebrations in Shiraz, Iran, to the Department of State, October 15, 1971, 2010Z, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“serious trouble”: Ibid.

“a militarily strong Iran could safeguard”: Ibid.

“It is not likely”: Stephen D. Krasner, “The Great Oil Sheikdown,” Foreign Policy 13 (Winter 1973–74): 133.

when investment becomes self-renewing: Dana Adams Schmidt, “Iran’s Prosperity Thrives like a Bubbling Oasis,” New York Times, December 9, 1968.

“getting steeper all the time”: Ibid.

“The growth of the gross national product”: Ibid.

Ardeshir Zahedi: To learn more about Ardeshir Zahedi, see the first of two volumes of his planned four-volume set of memoirs: Ardeshir Zahedi, The Memoirs of Ardeshir Zahedi, Vol. 1: From Childhood to the End of My Father’s Premiership (Bethesda, MD: Ibex, 2006), and Ardeshir Zahedi, The Memoirs of Ardeshir Zahedi, Vol. 2: Love and Marriage, Ambassador to Washington and London (Bethesda, MD: Ibex, 2010). See also Pari Abasalti, ed. Ardeshir Zahedi: Untold Secrets (Los Angeles: Rah-e-Zendegi, 2002). Abbas Milani also has a profile of Zahedi in Eminent Persians, 327–40.

“It was Zahedi and Shahnaz”: Milani, Eminent Persians, 334.

kicking him under the table: Author interview with Ardeshir Zahedi, September 14–15, 2010.

“Don’t create a problem, Ardeshir”: Ibid.

“a great man”: Ibid.

One evening in early 1967: Ibid.

“And I got kind of mad”: Ibid.

“long hours”: Exchange of Toasts Between the President and His Imperial Majesty Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, Shahanshah of Iran, State Dining Room, National Security Council Files, VIP Visits, Visit of the Shah of Iran, October 21–23, 1969 (1 of 2), Box 920, National Archives, College Park, MD.

“We talked about security”: Author interview with Ardeshir Zahedi, September 14–15, 2010.

“In my judgement, the Nixon Doctrine”: FISOHA interview with Armin Meyer, by William Burr, Foundation for Iranian Studies, Washington, D.C., March 29, 1985, 1–21/22.

“their system has worked for them”: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–76, Volume I, Foundations of Foreign Policy, 1969–72, 6. Nixon followed up the Bohemian Grove speech with an article in Foreign Affairs. See Richard M. Nixon, “Asia After Viet Nam,” Foreign Affairs 46, no. 1 (October 1967): 113–25.

Later on in the White House: Author interview with Dr. James Schlesinger, June 5, 2009.

“You’ve been a good friend”: Author interview with Ardeshir Zahedi, September 14–15, 2010.

Nixon had few if any true friends: In 1970 Nixon told his cousin, the writer Jessamyn West, “I haven’t a friend in the world.” Anthony Summers, The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon (New York: Penguin, 2000), 105.

“If I take a liking to someone”: The Shah was a stickler for court protocol and social rank. Like Nixon, he did not cultivate friendships. James O. Jackson, “Shah: Dedicated, Dominant, Distrustful,” Chicago Tribune, January 8, 1978.

“one of those myths”: FISOHA interview with Richard Helms, by William Burr, Foundation for Iranian Studies, Washington, D.C., July 10 and 24, 1985, 2–60.

Visitors to the Nixons’ homes: List of Foreign Head of State Gifts Presented to President and Mrs. Nixon by H.I.M. Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shahanshah of Iran; by H.I.H. The Princess Ashraf; By H.I.M. The Empress Farah; and By H.E. Ardeshir Zahedi, February 2, 1978, Eric Hooglund, project editor, Iran: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1977–80, National Security Archive (Alexandria, VA: Chadwyck-Healey, 1990), Document Reference No. 01316.

“The President has a strong feeling”: Telcon, Kissinger-Sisco, 8:00 A.M., September 18, 1970, National Security Archive.

“a strong leader”: Memorandum of Conversation, Washington, April 1, 1969, 10:00 A.M., FRUS 1969–77, Vol. E-4.

“more venturesome”: Memorandum of Conversation, Washington, April 1, 1969, FRUS 1969–77, Vol. E-4.

one million barrels of oil a day: Henry A. Kissinger, Years of Upheaval (Boston: Little, Brown, 1982), 857. Curiously, Kissinger’s notes from his meeting with the Shah in April 1969 do not include this detail.

officials recommended a $100 million extension: Record of National Security Council Interdepartmental Group for Near East and South Asia Meeting, Washington, April 3, 1969, FRUS 1969–77, Vol. E-4.

“although Iran’s economic progress”: Ibid.

“The general issue since this [arms sales] program”: Memorandum from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon, Washington, April 29, 1969, FRUS 1969–77, Vol. E-4.

The Shah had also been warned: Alam, 39.

“Briefed HIM on recent developments”: Ibid.

“a traumatic event in my memory”: Farah Pahlavi, An Enduring Love: My Life with the Shah (New York: Miramax, 2004), 119.

“A few years later I refused to accompany my husband”: Ibid.

Among the 105 guests: To read the list of guests who attended the October 1969 state visit, see Marie Smith, “Formal Era Back with the Shah,” Washington Post, October 22, 1969.

the president and the Shah lavished praise on each other: To read a transcript of the state toasts, see Exchange of Toasts Between the President and His Imperial Majesty Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, Shahanshah of Iran, State Dining Room, National Security Council Files, VIP Visits, Visit of the Shah of Iran, October 21–23, 1969 (1 of 2), Box 920, National Archives, College Park, MD.

a five-year, $11 billion economic development plan: Thomas F. Brady, “Iran and Western Companies Clash over Oil,” New York Times, March 9, 1968.

20 percent a year: Ibid.

“a giant poker game”: Ibid.

bankrolled Kurdish guerrillas: See Alam, 39, 41.

daily intelligence briefs from the CIA: Nixon harbored an antipathy toward the CIA in general. CIA director Richard Helms first became aware that Nixon was not reading his President’s Daily Brief even before Inauguration Day in January 1969. Helms wrote in his memoir that he was never sure “how often Nixon even glanced at his PDB.” Richard Helms with William Hood, A Look over My Shoulder: A Life in the Central Intelligence Agency (New York: Ballantine, 2003), 377–79.

“impossible fags”: Henry Kissinger’s biographer, Walter Isaacson, described how when Nixon met with the NSC staff “for the first and last time” in March 1969 he commiserated with them for having to deal with those “impossible fags” at the State Department. Walter Isaacson, Kissinger: A Biography (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), 197.

a history of correcting the Pentagon’s top brass: “He was familiar with everything going on in the world,” Ambassador Armin Meyer recalled of the Shah. “He could tell you the price of rice in Mazanderan [province] as over the price in the Philippines. In military things he was smarter than most of our Pentagon people.” FISOHA interview with Armin Meyer, by William Burr, Foundation for Iranian Studies, Washington, D.C., March 29, 1985, 1–18.

Nixon squirmed to avoid personal confrontations: Kissinger recalled that Nixon displayed “an extraordinary nervousness” when he first met the president-elect on November 25, 1969. “His manner was almost diffident; his movements were slightly vague, and unrelated to what he was saying, as if two different impulses were behind speech and gesture.” Henry A. Kissinger, White House Years (Boston: Little, Brown, 1979), 11. Kissinger’s biographer Walter Isaacson related in great detail Nixon’s propensity for sequestering himself in a White House hideaway with a notepad for hours at a time. Kissinger concluded that Nixon “dreaded meeting new people or conveying a disappointing decision to someone’s face.” Isaacson, 145.

“The Shah is in dead earnest”: Telegram 4054 from the Embassay in Iran to the Department of State, October 6, 1969, 1230Z, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“nudge oil companies”: Ibid.

sold on the idea by Herbert Brownell: Memorandum for the President Through John Ehrlichman from Clark Mollenhoff, “Potential Problem Area in Connection with the Visit of the Shah of Iran,” October 17, 1969, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“and Iran would use the proceeds”: Ibid.

“there have been some scandals”: Ibid.

his schedule for October 18: Telegram 04195 from the Embassy in Iran to the Department of State, October 14, 1969, 1000Z, National Security Council Files, VIP Visits, Visit of the Shah of Iran, October 21–23, 1969 (1 of 2), Box 920, National Archives, College Park, MD.

giving in to the Shah’s demands: Intelligence Note No. 743 from Deputy Director George C. Denney Jr., of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research to Secretary of State Rogers, Washington, October 17, 1969, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“deepening the involvement”: Memorandum from Harold Saunders of the National Security Council Staff to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger), Washington, October 20, 1969, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

American personnel be deployed: Intelligence Note No. 295 from the director of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (Hughes) to Secretary of State Rogers, Washington, April 22, 1969, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“concerned about the implications”: Memorandum from Harold Saunders of the National Security Staff to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger), Washington, October 20, 1969, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“What is the use of friendship”: Telegram 116791 from the Department of State to the Embassy of Iran, July 15, 1969, 2048Z, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“Although we have suggested that the President”: Memorandum from Harold Saunders of the National Security Council Staff to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger), Washington, October 20, 1969, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“is a persistent bargainer”: Memorandum from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon, Washington, October 21, 1969, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

a private meeting that lasted an hour and forty minutes: President Richard Nixon’s Daily Diary, Tuesday, October 21, 1969, http://nixon.archives.gov/virtuallibrary/documents/dailydiary.php.

“excellent understanding of Iran”: Memorandum of Conversation, Washington, October 22, 1969, 10:00 A.M., FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

to boost Iran’s income from oil: Ibid.

“an overkill capability”: Ibid.

“the problem of strengthening”: FISOHA interview with Douglas MacArthur II, by William Burr, Foundation for Iranian Studies, Washington, D.C., May 29, 1985, 1–18.

“didn’t completely promise”: Telcon, Kissinger-Laird, 2:30 P.M., October 23, 1969, National Security Archive.

“a way will be found”: Memorandum from the Executive Secretary of State (Eliot) to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger), Washington, December 1, 1969, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“Predictably, the Shah will be sharply disappointed”: Ibid.

“As there is no written record”: Ibid.

“There are, as you know”: Letter from President Nixon to the Shah of Iran, Washington, February 23, 1970, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“we should have no”: Telegram 1247 from the Ambassador in Iran to the Assistant Secretary of State for Near East and South Asian Affairs (Sisco), April 1, 1970, 1430Z, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“The Shah continues to play hard”: Memorandum from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon, Washington, May 13, 1970, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“would have trouble digesting”: Memorandum of Conversation, Washington, April 14, 1970, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“threatened areas”: Ibid.

“should the need arise”: Ibid.

“There is little question”: Letter from Secretary of Defense Laird to Secretary of State Rogers, Washington, October 27, 1970, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“the unique nature of Tehran’s special relationship”: Letter from Deputy Secretary of Defense (Packard) to the Under Secretary of State (Richardson), Washington, April 14, 1970, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

a long breakfast with CIA director: Memorandum for the Record, Washington, October 22, 1969, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

for the first time in 1957: Richard Helms, A Look over My Shoulder, 417.

“He agreed that he would sponsor it”: FISOHA interview with Richard Helms, by William Burr, Foundation for Iranian Studies, Washington, D.C., July 10, 24, 1985, 1–11.

A second base: In retirement Helms confirmed the existence of two CIA stations in Iran during this period. Ibid., 1–10.

indirect personal connection: Ibid., 1–1.

“The Shah nodded his head”: Memorandum for the Record, Washington, October 22, 1969, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“on grounds of cost, lack of urgency”: Memorandum from Harold Saunders of the National Security Council Staff to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger), Washington, April 16, 1970, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“vital to our national security”: Memorandum from the Office of the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency to the Honorable Henry A. Kissinger, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, included in Memorandum for the President from Henry A. Kissinger, April 16, 1970, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“island of stability”: Memorandum from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon, Washington, April 16, 1970, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

One month later, at 3:00 P.M.: “The President’s Schedule,” New York Times, May 14, 1970, and “For the Record,” New York Times, May 15, 1970. This meeting was brought up by Ambassador Zahedi in our interview of September 14–15, 2010, when he recalled his encounter with Nixon after a meeting of CENTO ambassadors. Nixon’s schedule confirms that the only time he met with CENTO ambassadors in the Oval Office in the 1969–72 period was on May 14, 1970.

“Tell the Shah”: Author interview with Ardeshir Zahedi, September 14–15, 2010.

“he was not suggesting”: Memorandum of Conversation, Washington, April 8, 1971, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

lobbied Kissinger to kill off a study: Memorandum from the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (Helms) to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger), September 2, 1970, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“exotic equipment”: Memorandum from [name not declassified] of the Near East and South Asia Division of the Directorate of Plans, Central Intelligence, to the Deputy Director’s Executive Assistant [name not declassified], August 10, 1970, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“We don’t know just how keenly”: Central Intelligence Agency Office of National Estimates, “Nothing Succeeds like a Successful Shah,” October 8, 1971, National Security Archive.

At 3:56 on the afternoon of April 8, 1971: All notes from the Nixon-MacArthur conversation are attributed to Conversation Among President Nixon, Ambassador Douglas MacArthur II, and General Alexander Haig, Washington, April 8, 1971, 3:56–4:21 P.M.,” FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4. This citation also covers all subsequent remarks made by Nixon, MacArthur, and Haig during their April 8, 1971, conversation in the White House.

“scared stiff”: FISOHA interview with William Lehfeldt, by William Burr, Foundation for Iranian Studies, Washington, D.C., April 29, 1987, February 9 and April 19, 1988, 1–9.

“These boys opened fire”: FISOHA interview with Douglas MacArthur II, by William Burr, Foundation for Iranian Studies, Washington, D.C., May 29, 1985, 1–32.

“I am particularly anxious that this matter”: Telegram 5142, from the Embassy in Iran to the Department of State, December 1, 1970, 0955Z, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4. Ambassador MacArthur provided a vivid description of the attempted assassination or kidnapping in 1985. See his FISOHA interview, by William Burr, Foundation for Iranian Studies, Washington, D.C., May 29, 1985, 1–32 and 33.

The ambassador was haunted by a remark: Ibid., 1–23.

“Both our countries”: “Israeli Mission Flourishes in Iran,” Washington Post, June 8, 1969.

5 Takht-e Jamshid Avenue: Ibid.

sixty thousand Iranian Jews: Ibid.

$40 million worth of Iranian oil: Ibid.

Yet Tehran’s newest supermarket: John K. Cooley, “Israeli Mission Functions ‘Diplomatically’ in Iran,” Christian Science Monitor, May 9, 1970.

film distribution companies: Ibid.

El Al, flew two regularly scheduled flights: Ibid.

dig deep water wells in Qazvin: Ibid.

The U.S. Embassy cabled Washington: Telegram 668, from the Embassy in Tehran to the Department of State, February 24, 1970, 140Z, (FRUS) 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

thirty thousand soccer fans: Ibid.

the Shah’s 1963 White Revolution: For fuller discussion of the White Revolution, its origins, the reforms, and their impact on Iranian society and the Pahlavi dynasty, the following books are helpful: Afkhami, Chapter 10, 208–37; Ali M. Ansari, Modern Iran Since 1921: The Pahlavis and After (London: Longman, 2003), Chapter 6, 147–65; Said Amir Arjomand, The Turban for the Crown: The Islamic Revolution in Iran (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), Chapter 3, 71–74; Nikki R. Keddie, Roots of Revolution: An Interpretive History of Modern Iran (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981), Chapter 7, 160–82; and A. Saikal, Chapter 3, 71–96.

“a numb and dispirited snake and lice who float in their own dirt”: Baqer Moin, Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah (London: I. B. Tauris, 1999), 89.

“O Mr. Shah, dear Mr. Shah”: Ibid., 104.

it was Alam who issued the order for troops: The June 1963 crackdown is a subject of lively debate among Iranian scholars with some suggesting the Shah was in charge. Most believe that Alam stiffened the Shah’s backbone when he offered to take responsibility if the bloodshed led to even more unrest. “Who else but Your Majesty had the courage to support me,” Alam asked the Shah on January 22, 1973. “Nobody,” answered the Shah. Alam, 279–80. See also Afkhami, 235–36, and Milani, Eminent Persians, Vol. 1, 51–52.

General Hassan Pakravan: To learn more about General Pakravan’s life, see his biography in Milani, Eminent Persians, 474–82.

“a man of great culture”: Farah Pahlavi, An Enduring Love, 131.

CHAPTER TWO: GUARDIAN OF THE GULF

“Iran will get all available sophisticated weapons”: Telegram 4575, Major General Williamson to Under Secretary of Defense Kenneth Rush, June 5, 1972, National Security Archive.

“Now is time to cash in credit with Iranians”: Telegram 192358, from the Department of State to the Embassy in Iran, October 20, 1972, 2246Z, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

Shell blasts and the crackle of rifle fire: The following newspaper articles describe in detail the Iranian takeover of the three islands: John K. Cooley, “As Britain Exits, Iran Commandeers Head of Persian Gulf,” Christian Science Monitor, December 2, 1971; William Dullforce, “Iran Seizes 3 Strategic Gulf Islands,” Washington Post, December 1, 1971; “Iranian Troops Occupy Three Strategic Islands in Persian Gulf, and a Sheikdom Protests,” New York Times, December 1, 1971.

“I will wipe my ass”: Author interview with Ardeshir Zahedi, September 14–15, 2010.

expelled sixty thousand Iranian nationals: “Thousands of Iranians Are Expelled from Iraq,” New York Times, January 1, 1972.

“close to $1 billion”: John K. Cooley, “Iraqi-Iranian Relations Nearing Crisis,” Christian Science Monitor, January 8, 1972.

“We will not use our fist”: Ibid.

35 cents to $2.15: Amin Saikal, The Rise and Fall of the Shah: Iran from Autocracy to Religious Rule (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980), 116. Saikal’s Chapter 4, “The Emergence of Iran as an Oil Power,” 97–131 is essential reading to gain an understanding of the Shah’s oil policies and Iran’s emergence as a Middle East petropower.

“Am I hearing the big voice of a superpower?”: Asadollah Alam, The Shah and I: The Confidential Diary of Iran’s Royal Court, 1969–1977 (New York: St. Martin’s, 1991), 192.

“Finally Iran was able to rely on oil”: Robert Graham, The Illusion of Power, rev. ed. (London: Croom Helm, 1979), 36.

The Shah boasted to Alam: Alam, 197.

roads, tourist facilities, public health clinics: The Iranian government failed to capitalize on the influx of foreign press by encouraging reporters to focus on the magnificence of the tent city to the detriment of more practical achievements such as road construction, health, and education. For a thorough account of the planning that went into the Persepolis celebrations from the Iranian perspective, see Gholam Reza Afkhami, The Life and Times of the Shah (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009), Chapter 18, 404–15.

Zahedi wrote a strongly worded letter: Abbas Milani, Eminent Persians: The Men and Women Who Made Modern Iran, 1941–1979 (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2008), Vol. 1, 330.

“plebeian looking gentleman”: Alam, 98.

Carnival Cruise atmosphere: The Persepolis celebrations—dubbed “The Party of Parties”—attracted worldwide interest and were broadcast live on the American television network NBC. A photo essay appeared in the October 30, 1971, edition of Paris Match, “La Fête Des Fêtes,” 50–63. Reporter Sally Quinn, who attended Persepolis, wrote colorful and shrewdly perceptive articles for The Washington Post describing in often humorous detail the leaders’ tent encampment in the desert. Quinn’s interview with Empress Farah, who took the lead in planning Persepolis, is particularly insightful: Sally Quinn, “It Isn’t Easy Being the Empress of Iran,” Washington Post, October 8, 1971. Alam’s diary does not mention the actual festivities. As someone who was consumed with the event planning he abandoned his diary writing for the year due to pressures of work. For a defense of the Persepolis celebrations, see Afkhami, Chapter 18, 404–22.

“the Shah’s revenge”: As described by Sally Quinn in “The Party’s Over,” Washington Post, October 16, 1971.

“acquired nearly $750 million”: Memorandum for Dr. Brzezinski, The White House, from Anthony Lake, National Security Council, “Attachment: One-Volume Compilation of Summaries of Documents Relating to the US-Iranian Relationship, 1941–79, January 29, 1980.” The memorandum is included in the National Security Archive’s collection of diplomatic documents, Eric Hooglund, project editor, National Security Archive, Iran: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1977–80 (Alexandria, VA: Chadwyck-Healey, 1990). See Chapter 2 “Military/Security Issues,” Document Reference No. 03558, 9.

“had fallen to a six-year low”: Office of Economic Research and Coordinated Within the Directorate of Intelligence, “Intelligence Memorandum: Some Revenue Implications of the 14 February Oil Settlement with the Persian Gulf States,” The Central Intelligence Agency (March 1971), FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

more than 10 percent of GNP: Office of National Estimates, “Memorandum: Nothing Succeeds like a Successful Shah,” The Central Intelligence Agency (8 October 1971), National Security Archive, Document Reference No. IR00757.

“not have enough money to pay”: Ibid.

“the Shah of Iran is counting upon you”: Rogers’s memorandum of December 2, 1971, is included with a cover letter sent by Kissinger to the president on December 28: Memorandum from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon, Washington, December 28, 1971, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“the bitch”: Nixon’s feelings toward Mrs. Gandhi were no secret in the White House. Walter Isaacson, Kissinger: A Biography (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), 373.

It was Nixon’s belief that Mrs. Gandhi had deceived him: Telcon, Kissinger-Nixon, 11:15 P.M., September 18, 1973, National Security Archive.

“I was treating her as a leader”: Ibid.

Kissinger egged on the president: Telcon, Nixon-Kissinger, December 4, 1971, National Security Archive.

“Because we are sympathetic to anything”: Telcon, Afshar-Kissinger, December 4, 1971, National Security Archive.

“another thing we have done”: Telcon, Nixon-Kissinger, December 4, 1971, National Security Archive.

Kissinger briefed Ambassador Huang Hua: For a detailed account of who attended the talks and what was discussed, see Memorandum of Conversation, Friday, December 10, 1971, 6:05 P.M.–7:55 P.M., New York City, East Side, National Security Archive.

to monitor Kissinger’s back-channel communications: Walter Isaacson described the methods used by Laird at Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon to spy on Kissinger in his biography of the national security adviser. See Chapter 18, “Winter of the Long Knives,” and in particular the section “Yeoman Radford’s Spy Ring, December 1971,” 380–85.

“Henry was very Machiavellian”: Ibid., 198.

“He worked his technique marvelously”: Author interview with Dr. James Schlesinger, June 5, 2009.

young Radford was a social friend of . . . Jack Anderson: The Radford-Anderson relationship is detailed in Isaacson, 383.

“with considerable feeling tinged with bitterness”: Telegram 77, from the Embassy in Tehran to Secretary of State Rogers and Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs (Sisco), January 5, 1972, 1235Z, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“replied stonily that he had visited us”: Ibid.

“While I had my doubts previously”: Memorandum from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon, Washington, December 28, 1971, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

at 4:04 P.M., local Tehran time: See the president’s daily schedule for a minute-by-minute breakdown of his overnight stay in Tehran at http://nixon.archives.gov/virtuallibrary/documents/dailydiary.php.

“absorb and return the affection”: Robert B. Semple, “Nixon Welcomed Warmly by Iranians,” New York Times, May 31, 1972.

“Tens of thousands of ordinary citizens”: Ibid.

“the most jubilant overseas welcome”: Courtney R. Sheldon, “Iranian Cheers Warm Nixon,” Christian Science Monitor, May 31, 1972.

“that the streets were not nearly so well-lined”: Alam, 222.

The Shah had asked his court minister: According to Alam’s diary, the Shah “then went on to say that he would like to meet Nixon in private on the first day of his stay. Only Kissinger should be allowed to attend a second meeting.” Alam, 212.

The Shah fretted: During a trip to Iran by West Germany’s chancellor, Willy Brandt, the Shah warned him “that one effect of East-West détente in Europe would be to allow the Soviets to increase pressure on the Middle East.” Ibid., 211.

two of the thirteen men convicted and executed: The International Commission of Jurists, The Review 8 (June 1972), National Security Archive Document Reference No. IR0074.

gunned down on his own doorstep: “Chief of Iran Military Court Dies of Assassins’ Bullets,” New York Times, April 12, 1971.

The Shah’s nephew: An account of the attempted kidnapping of Prince Shahrem, the son of the Shah’s twin sister, Princess Ashraf, appeared in a feature article on the Shah’s rule and record in office: Jonathan C. Randel, “The Shah’s Iran: Arms Debts and Repression Are the Price of Progress,” Washington Post, October 10, 1971.

bombers struck American landmarks: No mention of the bombings appeared in the American press. Embassy Tehran filed its own description of the attacks to Secretary of State Rogers. Telegram 331, from the Embassy in Iran to the Department of State, January 17, 1972, 1950Z, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

bombs ripped through a pro-government political rally: The rally had been carefully staged by the regime to counter complaints about human rights abuses in Iran. It turned out to be one more embarrassment for the Shah. Telegram 1218, from the Embassy in Iran to the Department of State, February 29, 1972, 1410Z, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“criticism and dissatisfaction with the United States”: Airgram A-56, from the Embassy in Iran to the Department of State, February 22, 1971, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“The past year or so has seen”: Office of National Estimates, “Memorandum: Nothing Succeeds like a Successful Shah,” Central Intelligence Agency (8 October 1971), National Security Archive, Document Reference No. IR00757.

“The manner in which the Shah projects his royal will”: Ibid.

“Financial difficulties arising from overspending”: Ibid.

“His demise will usher in change”: Ibid.

“producing increasing internal dislocations”: Memorandum from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon, Washington, May 18, 1972, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“voiced concern”: Ibid.

a wish list of five big-ticket items: Memorandum from the Deputy Secretary of Defense (Rush) to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger), Washington, May 18, 1972, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

The Defense Department recommended “in principle”: Ibid.

Kissinger drafted a memorandum: Memorandum from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon, Washington, May 18, 1972, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“Precise and frank talk about”: Memorandum from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon, Washington, October 21, 1969, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

Within ten minutes of their arrival: See the president’s daily schedule for a minute-by-minute breakdown of his overnight stay in Tehran at http://nixon.archives.gov/virtuallibrary/documents/dailydiary.php.

no other American or Iranian officials were present: FIOSHA interview with Harold Saunders, by William Burr, Foundation for Iranian Studies, Washington, D.C., February 12 and 27, April 8 and May 1, 1987, 2–55.

Their first session involved: As an example of how little we actually know about what transpired in Nixon’s private talks with the Shah, there are three widely varying time frames for their first session on the late afternoon of May 30, 1972. Alam in his diary says the president and the Shah met for one and a half hours. See Alam, 222. The president’s daily schedule allotted him an hour and forty-five minutes, from 5:30 P.M. until 7:14. See http://nixon.archives.gov/virtuallibrary/documents/dailydiary.php. Kissinger’s notes say that the three men met from 5:35 P.M. until 6:35. See Memorandum of Conversation, Tehran, May 30, 1972, 5:35 P.M. to 6:35 P.M., FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4. Kissinger’s notes have been proven to be unreliable. The president’s schedule was prepared in advance and probably did not reflect a late start or early end to the talks, let alone a runover in time. Because Alam was on the scene and watching events like a hawk, then jotting them down in his diary, his version is the most reliable.

The Shah said he hoped: Memorandum of Conversation, Tehran, May 30, 1972, 5:35 P.M. to 6:35 P.M., FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

Prime Minister Hoveyda took Kissinger out clubbing: Alam was of the opinion that Hoveyda wanted to pump Kissinger for details of his talks with the Shah. See Alam, 222–23. A photograph of Nadina Parsa dancing for Kissinger was published in the next day’s Washington Post. The New York Times also mentioned the incident. See Robert B. Semple Jr., “Bomb Rocks Site in Iran Just Before Visit by Nixon,” New York Times, June 1, 1972, and Carroll Kilpatrick, “Nixon’s Departure from Iran Marred by Terrorist Explosions,” Washington Post, June 1, 1972.

sat in Kissinger’s lap: Carroll Kilpatrick, “Nixon’s Departure from Iran Marred By Terrorist Explosions,” Washington Post, June 1, 1972.

when he spotted Kissinger skulking: Alam, 223.

But the Shah had instructed Alam: Ibid., 212.

“In connection with the schedule”: Memorandum from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon, Washington, May 18, 1972, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“fondness for martinis”: For a vivid description of Nixon’s drinking habits, see Isaacson, 145–46.

“the only time [the president] drank a lot”: Ibid., 262–63.

The president’s imbibing: Ibid., 145–46.

“obscenities,” “my drunken friend,” etc.: Ibid., 145.

the first bombs went off: Carroll Kilpatrick, “Nixon’s Departure from Iran Marred by Terrorist Explosions,” Washington Post, June 1, 1972.

attracting the attention of Alam: Alam, 223.

“Oh, it’s nothing very serious”: Ibid., 230.

a loud roar shook the area behind them: For an account of the terrorist attacks, see Robert B. Semple Jr., “Bomb Rocks Site in Iran Just Before Visit by Nixon,” New York Times, June 1, 1972; Carroll Kilpatrick, “Nixon’s Departure from Iran Marred by Terrorist Explosions,” Washington Post, June 1, 1972; and “Tomb in Iran Bombed Before Visit by Nixon,” Los Angeles Times, June 1, 1972.

the illiterate, ambitious, and strong-willed Reza Khan: For further reading on Reza Shah and the origins of the Pahlavi dynasty, including the reforms of the 1920s and 1930s, see Ervand Abrahamian, A History of Modern Iran (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), Chapter 3, 63–96; Afkhami, Chapters 1, 2, 3–41; Ali M. Ansari, Modern Iran Since 1921: The Pahlavis and After (London: Longman, 2003), Chapters 2, 3, 20–74; Said Amir Arjomand, The Turban for the Crown: The Islamic Revolution in Iran (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), Chapter 3, 59–68; and Sandra Mackey, The Iranians: Persia, Islam and the Soul of a Nation (New York: Plume, 1998), Chapter 6, 157–86.

“every advantage, yet they couldn’t”: Alam, 223.

Alam urged the Shah not to let terrorists: Ibid.

“any of the reported incidents”: “Tomb in Iran Bombed Before Visit by Nixon,” Los Angeles Times, June 1, 1972.

“I’m going to withdraw the statement”: Carroll Kilpatrick, “Nixon’s Departure from Iran Marred by Terrorist Explosions,” Washington Post, June 1, 1972.

the leaders held a final round of talks: Alam’s diary, Nixon’s schedule, and Kissinger’s notes all agree on one thing: the second session of formal talks on Wednesday, May 31, lasted an hour and a half, beginning at 10:30 A.M. and concluding at noon.

“with a discussion of terrorism”: Memorandum of Conversation, Tehran, May 31, 1972, 10:30 A.M. to 12:00 P.M., FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

an intimate luncheon for twenty-one: The guest list for the Nixons’ luncheon at Saadabad Palace on May 31, 1972, is attached to the president’s daily schedule at http://nixon.archives.gov/virtuallibrary/documents/dailydiary.php.

“he’d like to see the culprits executed”: Alam, 224.

five young Iranians accused of subversive activities: The Washington Post reported the executions “last week for a string of alleged terrorist acts, bringing the total of such executions to 38 in the past 16 months.” Carroll Kilpatrick, “Nixon’s Departure from Iran Marred by Terrorist Explosions,” Washington Post, June 1, 1972.

Iran’s dreaded secret police: For an overview of SAVAK’s functions in the 1970s and its management under General Ne’matollah Nasiri, see Afkhami, Chapter 17, 381–403; Graham, 67–71; and Milani, Eminent Persians, 468–73.

“the Kremlin may be a palace”: Asadollah Alam recalled Nixon’s remarks in his diary. See Alam, 224. No reporters were in the room. However, the White House press secretary gave at least one American reporter a general overview of the president’s comments—minus the comment about his wish to have American citizens executed. Nixon’s remarks about his stay in the Soviet Union were softened to read: “While the Kremlin is a great palace, to be there for eight days is a long time.” Carroll Kilpatrick, “Nixon’s Departure from Iran Marred by Terrorist Explosions,” Washington Post, June 1, 1972.

recalled his surprise: Alam, 224.

students ran out and hurled rocks: American reporters and U.S. and Iranian officials were witness to the assault on the presidential convoy as it drove to the airport. See Alam, 225, and Carroll Kilpatrick, “Nixon’s Departure from Iran Marred by Terrorist Explosions,” Washington Post, June 1, 1972.

“ensure that Nixon and his entourage”: Alam, 221.

“agreed to sell U.S. nuclear power plants”: “The Growing U.S. Involvement in Iran,” The United States Department of Defense, January 22, 1975, National Security Archive, Document Reference No. IR00927. There is no doubt that Nixon, Kissinger, and the Shah discussed the possibility of Iran attaining nuclear technology and fuels at their Tehran meeting in 1972. This was alluded to in a January 1975 report prepared by the U.S. Department of Defense on the American presence in Iran. The authors of the report made one factual inaccuracy: they mistakenly placed Nixon in Tehran in 1974 instead of 1972. They then cited Secretary Kissinger’s November 1974 visit to Iran as the occasion for further consultations and the signing of a joint communiqué on cooperation in the field of nuclear energy. See “The Growing U.S. Involvement In Iran,” The United States Department of Defense, January 22, 1975, National Security Archive. The Shah believed Iran had to obtain nuclear power to sustain its economy once its oil reserves ran out in the first decades of the twenty-first century. The issue of nuclear power would also be discussed during the Shah’s July 1973 state visit to Washington.

“Iran will get all available sophisticated weapons”: Telegram 4575, Major General Williamson to Under Secretary of Defense Kenneth Rush, June 5, 1972, National Security Archive.

twenty thousand: William J. Coughlin, “Egypt Ousts Russ Advisers, Experts,” Los Angeles Times, July 19, 1972.

“operational positions in Iranian units”: Memorandum from Harold Saunders of the National Security Council to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger), Washington, August 2, 1972, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

asked Kissinger for guidance: Ibid.

Farland had helped facilitate: In the first volume of his memoirs, White House Years, Kissinger wrote of Farland: “We were fortunate that our Ambassador in Pakistan at that moment was a man outside the regular Foreign Service Establishment.” For more details on Farland’s role as China intermediary, see Henry A. Kissinger, White House Years (Boston: Little, Brown, 1979), 722–23.

Farland was a former agent: Farland’s status as a former FBI agent was reported in his obituary in The New York Times. Dennis Hevesi, “Joseph Farland, 92, Envoy Who Helped in Kissinger Ruse,” New York Times, February 1, 2007. Farland was ambassador to the Dominican Republic in 1960. Opponents who wanted to overthrow the nation’s dictator, Rafael Trujillo, approached the ambassador at a cocktail party to ask him for sniper rifles. Farland personally relayed their request to the CIA upon his recall in May 1960. Trujillo was assassinated a year later, on May 30, 1961, reportedly with weapons supplied by the CIA. Washington Post columnist Jack Anderson frankly described Farland as a CIA agent. Thomas Powers, The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), 167.

“this is one of those cases”: Kissinger’s reply to Embassy Tehran was made on August 31, 1972. But the archival reference is included as a bundle with the actual request, which dates from August 2. Memorandum from Harold Saunders of the National Security Council to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger), Washington, August 2, 1972, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

Kissinger on June 15, 1972, informed: Memorandum from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to Secretary of State Rogers and Secretary of Defense Laird, Washington, June 15, 1972, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“WOW!”: Ibid.

Nixon sent John Connally: Kissinger’s aide Harold Saunders briefed Nixon on Connally’s talks with the Shah on July 12, 1972. Memorandum from Harold Saunders of the National Security Council to President Nixon, Washington, July 12, 1972, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

preferred successor: In his memoir Nixon wrote of John Connally’s decision to leave the White House during the Watergate scandal: “I tried to talk him into staying, but my heart was not in it; I could not ask a man I liked and respected—and who I hoped would succeed me in the White House in 1976—to tie himself to my troubles.” Richard Nixon, RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1978), 908. Walter Isaacson wrote that Nixon angled for a way to appoint Connally, his “golden boy,” to the post of secretary of state in 1973. See Isaacson, 502.

the 40 Committee: Also described as the “interagency group in charge of reviewing covert activities” in Isaacson, 258.

presented with a single piece of paper: U.S. House Select Committee on Intelligence, CIA: The Pike Report (Nottingham: Spokesman, 1977), 196. Details of the Kurdish operation were investigated by the U.S. House Select Committee on Intelligence led by Congressman Otis Pike. The Pike Report and its findings on covert operations and abuses by the CIA during the Cold War were leaked to the Village Voice newspaper in February 1976. It was published in book form in 1977 in Great Britain.

“encouraging separatist aspirations”: Ibid., 211.

“Furthermore, the road is open-ended”: Ibid.

“negative views were not presented more forcefully”: Ibid., 212.

“has hesitated to push US armament sales”: Memorandum from Harold Saunders of the National Security Staff to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger), Washington, July 14, 1972, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“counseled accordingly”: Ibid.

“And what about Kissinger?”: Alam, 232.

“should leave decisions on what to buy”: Memorandum from Harold Saunders of the National Security Staff to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger), Washington, July 14, 1972, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“The decision to let the Shah buy”: FISOHA interview with Harold Saunders, by William Burr, Foundation for Iranian Studies, Washington, D.C., February 12 and 27, April 8 and May 1, 1987, 2–56.

and approved the sale: Alam, 230.

a crisply worded presidential directive: Memorandum from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to Secretary of State Rogers and Secretary of Defense Laird, Washington, July 25, 1972, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“pretty much gives us carte blanche”: Letter from Jack C. Miklos to The Honorable L. Douglas Heck, Minister-Counselor at the American Embassy, Tehran, Iran, July 26, 1972, Eric Hooglund, project editor, Iran: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1977–80, National Security Archive (Alexandria, VA: Chadwyck-Healey, 1990), Document Reference No. 00784.

John Ehrlichman was reassuring the president’s personal lawyer: Kalmbach met with Ehrlichman on July 26 and demanded an assurance that what he was about to do—raise hush money—was legal “and that this is something that is proper that I should go forward with.” Ehrlichman replied, “Herb, this is proper. It’s for those fellows [the Watergate defendants] and their attorneys’ fees and their families. Herb, you are to go forward with this.” J. Anthony Lukas, Nightmare: The Underside of the Nixon Years (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1999), 253.

During a six-hour aerial inspection: Alam, 233.

“Turning to the practicalities of the election”: Ibid.

Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York placed a telephone call: Telcon, Kissinger-Rockefeller, 2:58 P.M., July 28, 1972, National Security Archive.

At 1:45 P.M. Kissinger phoned Rockefeller: Telcon, Kissinger-Rockefeller, 1:45 P.M., July 29, 1972, National Security Archive.

“[The Shah] had no control”: Author interview with Dr. James Schlesinger, June 5, 2009.

to relay Nixon’s response: Alam, 233.

to cough up a million dollars: Anthony Summers, The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon (New York: Penguin, 2000), 396.

totaling $2 billion: Pranay Gupte, “Lobbyists in Iran Paid by Grumman,” New York Times, December 13, 1975.

fiscal year 1972–73 came to $2.8 billion: Hossein Razavi and Firouz Vakil, The Political Environment of Economic Planning in Iran, 1971–83: From Monarchy to Islamic Republic (Boulder: Westview, 1984), 63.

a secret $10 million Nixon presidential campaign fund: Bernard Gwertzman, “GAO Report Asks Justice Inquiry into GOP Funds; Says ‘Apparent Violations’ Were Committed by Nixon Re-election Committee,” New York Times, August 27, 1972.

Nixon’s “Mexican laundry”: “The Mexican Laundry and the Presidency,” Washington Post, September 15, 1972.

four cashier’s checks worth $89,000: Ibid.

it was the president’s “wish”: Marjorie Hunter, “CIA Memo Said to Quote Haldeman on Nixon ‘Wish’ to Halt FBI Fund Study; Denial by Ex-Aide,” New York Times, May 22, 1973.

Anderson was close to Watergate burglar Frank Sturgis: Agis Salpukas, “Suspect in Raid on Democrats Drew $89,000 from Bank, Hearing Is Told,” New York Times, June 24, 1972.

“the Shah had routed hundreds of thousands of dollars”: Jack Anderson, “Shah Link to Nixon Campaign Hinted,” Washington Post, June 10, 1974. Ferdinand Marcos, the dictator of the Philippines, was also suspected of making illegal donations to the Nixon campaign in 1972. Summers, 396.

“the Shah had transferred more than $1 million”: Ibid.

the Nixon campaign discouraged donations: Summers, 396–97.

“It’s all very mysterious”: Jack Anderson, “Shah Link to Nixon Campaign Hinted,” Washington Post, June 10, 1974.

Later, in 1974, Anderson gleefully recalled: Ibid.

“Our inquiries, including overseas calls”: Ibid.

CIA Director Helms . . . inviting Anderson to lunch: “CIA Files Show 16 Agents Spied on Jack Anderson in One Day,” Los Angeles Times, May 5, 1977.

Operation Mudhen: Ibid.

He asked Rogers to sue: Author interview with Ardeshir Zahedi, September 14–15, 2010.

“The President’s preoccupation”: Arthur F. Burns Handwritten Journals, Journal II (Blue Notebook), Gerald R. Ford Library, November 5, 1971, 135.

A telephone transcript from February 1972: Telcon, Kissinger-Flanagan, 12:35 P.M., February 7, 1972, National Security Archive.

“My lips are sealed”: Author interview with Henry Precht, June 4, 2009.

Ambassador Farland received a notice from the White House: Telegram 192358, from the Department of State to the Embassy in Iran, October 20, 1972, 2246Z, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“I wanted to punch Kissinger in the mouth”: Isaacson, 453.

“You don’t understand”: Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History (New York: Penguin, 1997), 663.

Operation Enhance Plus: Ibid.

“entire Iranian air force”: Telegram 192358, from the Department of State to the Embassy in Iran, October 20, 1972, 2246Z, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“Now is time to cash in credit”: Ibid.

“accelerated delivery of military equipment”: Telegram 6317, from the Embassy in Iran to the Department of State, October 21, 1972, 1520Z, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“We believe that peace is at hand”: Isaacson, 459.

an additional sixteen aircraft: Telegram 196855, from the Department of State to the Embassy in Iran, October 30, 1972, 2115Z, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

left behind a piece of paper: Telegram 6520, from the Embassy in Iran to the Department of State, October 31, 1972, 1345Z, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“we will have to offer”: Ibid.

The Shah was incensed: Telegram 6611, from the Embassy in Iran to the Department of State, November 4, 1972, 1405Z, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“atmosphere and spirit of goodwill: Telegram 6611, from the Embassy in Iran to the Department of State, November 4, 1972, 1405Z, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

He dismissed as bogus: Telegram 210666, from the Department of State to the Embassy in Iran, November 18, 1972, 1948Z, FRUS 1969–76, Vol. E-4.

“several sales previously consummated”: Ibid.

CHAPTER THREE: MARITAL VOWS

“We welcome you here”: “Nixon and Shah Exchange Praise, Confer in Oval Office,” New York Times, July 25, 1973.

“Nixon has the audacity to tell me”: Asadollah Alam, The Shah and I: The Confidential Diary of Iran’s Royal Court, 1969–1977 (New York: St. Martin’s, 1991), 277.

American oil imports from Saudi Arabia: “Saudi Arabia Supplying More U.S. Oil,” New York Times, November 11, 1972.

“the swing producer for the entire world”: Daniel Yergin, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991), 594.

21 percent of global oil production: Ibid.

“Oil isn’t a weapon”: Rachel Bronson, Thicker than Oil: America’s Uneasy Partnership with Saudi Arabia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 112.

“My main worry was”: Geoffrey Robinson, Yamani: The Inside Story (London: Simon & Schuster, 1988), 203.

“Fuel policy emanates from everywhere”: “America’s Energy Crisis,” Newsweek, January 27, 1973, 39.

“Here we were”: Arthur F. Burns Handwritten Journals, Journal I (Green Notebook), Gerald R. Ford Library, May 26, 1971, 141.

“a field Kissinger knew nothing about”: Walter Isaacson, Kissinger: A Biography (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), 428.

“Peterson, that’s just a minor economic consideration”: Ibid.

“I did not really want to make Henry secretary of state”: Ibid., 502.

“I had not been involved in the negotiation”: Henry A. Kissinger, Years of Upheaval (Boston: Little, Brown, 1982), 867.

On August 2, 1972, Connally phoned Kissinger: Telcon, Connally-Kissinger, 12:32 P.M., August 2, 1972, National Security Archive.

“I’ve sort of lost track”: Telcon, Jamieson-Kissinger, 9:05 A.M., August 5, 1972, National Security Archive.

“were using us”: Telcon, Connally-Kissinger, 1:40 P.M., August 5, 1972, National Security Archives.

“the companies would become instruments of nations”: Kissinger, Years of Upheaval, 868.

“if they get into a confrontation with us”: Telcon, Connally-Kissinger, 1:40 P.M., August 5, 1972, National Security Archive.

“during a change of administration”: Richard Helms with William Hood, A Look over My Shoulder: A Life in the Central Intelligence Agency (New York: Ballantine, 2003), 410.

“The President rose from a small sofa”: Ibid., 411.

“new blood”: Ibid.

“Get rid of the clowns”: Ibid., 410.

blamed former spy chief Allen Dulles: Ibid., 382.

“The explanations for [Nixon’s] attitudes”: Ibid.

sanctioned lawbreaking: J. Anthony Lukas, Nightmare: The Underside of the Nixon Years (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1999), 29.

lying to the public and his own employees: Ibid.

“Nixon and Helms have so much on each other”: Stanley I. Kutler, The Wars of Watergate: The Last Crisis of Richard Nixon (New York: W. W. Norton, 1992), 201.

“surprised at the Agency policy”: Richard Helms, 411.

“a good butcher”: Kutler, The Wars of Watergate, 100.

“Suddenly, as if it were a totally new idea”: Cynthia Helms, An Ambassador’s Wife in Iran (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1981), 2.

“floored by the prospect”: Richard Helms, 411.

“I’m not sure how the Russians might interpret”: Ibid.

“That’s a good point”: Ibid., 412.

“Iran is in an area”: Cynthia Helms, 2.

“Dick and I talked for long hours”: Ibid., 3.

“He feels more positively about it”: Thomas Powers, The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), 311.

Haldeman and Ehrlichman gossiped: Isaacson, 466.

“He’s been under care”: Ibid.

Kissinger confronted Helms: Richard Helms, 412.

“I was silent for a moment”: Ibid.

“Henry bristled a bit”: Ibid.

Their conversation on the evening of November 28, 1972: Telcon, Kissinger-Haldeman, 7:30 P.M., November 28, 1972, National Security Archive.

“we understand word has gone out”: Telegram 7749, from the Embassy in Iran to the Department of State, December 27, 1972, 1318Z, Monica Belmonte, Editor; Edward C. Keefer, General Editor, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Vol. E-4, Documents on Iran and Iraq, 1969–1972, Washington: United States Government Printing Office, Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs.

“was literally in tears of grief”: Alam, 264.

“for 15 minutes of your time today”: Telcon, Farland-Kissinger, 10:55 (no A.M. or P.M. given), December 23, 1972, National Security Archive.

“you’re the best intelligence professional I know”: Telcon, Helms-Kissinger, 11:30 A.M., December 15, 1972, National Security Archive.

a call came through to inform him: Richard Helms, 412.

Helms’s biographer Thomas Power: Thomas Power, The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), 310.

the oil tanker Overseas Aleutian: “Soviet Oil on the Way to East Coast; Amount Still Small, but It’s a Big ‘First’; Stocks Down from ’72,” Christian Science Monitor, January 9, 1973.

Texaco, the company that serviced: Robert J. Samuelson, “3 Airlines’ Flights Disrupted by Shortage of Fuel in N.Y.,” Washington Post, January 10, 1973.

Natural gas supplies were cut off: Thomas O’Toole, “Lack of Fuel Is Crippling Middle West; 6 Midwest States Hurt by Shortages of Fuel,” Washington Post, January 6, 1973.

The Denver school system shut down: Ibid.

an eternal flame dedicated to war veterans: “Eternal Flame Put Out due to Gas Shortage,” Hartford Courant, January 11, 1973.

In Sioux City: Thomas O’Toole, “Lack of Fuel Is Crippling Middle West; 6 Midwest States Hurt by Shortages of Fuel,” Washington Post, January 6, 1973.

postponed resumption of classes: “Oil-Rich Texas University Caught in Fuel Shortage,” Wall Street Journal, January 11, 1973.

Mississippi’s chicken broiler industry: Gene Smith, “Northeast Is Bracing Itself for Possible Energy Crisis,” New York Times, January 15, 1973.

barges were requisitioned: Ibid.

“If anyone still needs evidence”: “Nation Without Power,” New York Times, January 21, 1973.

“We’ve had a happy era of low costs”: “America’s Energy Crisis,” Newsweek, January 22, 1973, 38.

250,000 tons of U.S. wheat: “Soviet Oil on the Way to East Coast; Amount Still Small, but It’s a Big ‘First’; Stocks Down from ’72,” Christian Science Monitor, January 9, 1973.

“the nation’s total energy resources”: “America’s Energy Crisis,” Newsweek, January 22, 1973, 39.

oil production peaked at 11.3 million barrels per day: Yergin, 567.

2.2 million barrels of oil per day in 1967 to 6.2 million barrels per day in 1973: Ibid., 567, 591.

19 percent of domestic consumption in 1967 to 35 percent: Ibid. For more news analysis from the period on U.S. oil imports, see Ray Vicker, “Fight over Fuel; Oil Crisis Points Up Huge Western Reliance on Producing Nation,” Wall Street Journal, February 4, 1972, and, Edward Cowan, “Oil Imports Climbing with No End in Sight; Upward Trend to U.S. Affluence and Fuel Needs Oil Imports Are Continuing to Climb,” New York Times, May 22, 1973.

70 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves: Marvin Howe, “In Middle East, Oil Pays the Way,” New York Times, January 21, 1972.

the United States imported 28 million barrels of oil: David Ottaway, “Saudi Threat to Cut Oil Flow Million Barrels Daily Reported,” Los Angeles Times, September 5, 1973.

“Like it or not, during the next decade”: Lawrence Mosher, “Arab Oil Policy Means a Crisis for US,” Chicago Tribune, September 16, 1973.

“3 million barrels per day of excess capacity”: Yergin, 586.

“in light of our long friendship”: Alam, 277.

“I say to hell”: Ibid.

would not have their contracts renewed: “Iran Tells Oil Consortium Pact Will Not Be Renewed,” New York Times, January 24, 1973.

a new five-year $32.5 billion economic development plan: “Iran Tells Oil Firms to Sharply Increase Production or Leave When Pacts Expire,” Wall Street Journal, January 24, 1973.

Iranian arms orders exploded from $500 million: Memorandum for Dr. Brzezinski, The White House, from Anthony Lake, National Security Council, “Attachment: One-Volume Compilation of Summaries of Documents Relating to the US-Iranian Relationship, 1941–79, January 29, 1980,” Eric Hooglund, project editor, Iran: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1977–80, National Security Archive (Alexandria, VA: Chadwyck-Healey, 1990).

Richard Helms saw President Nixon: Memorandum of Conversation, 2/14/73, folder “Nixon, Ambassador Helms,” Box 1, National Security Adviser, Gerald R. Ford Library.

“I want you not just to think of your CIA background”: Ibid.

“As a matter of fact”: FISOHA interview with Richard Helms, by William Burr, Foundation for Iranian Studies, Washington, D.C., July 10 and 24, 1985, 2–63.

“What happened to our understanding”: Richard Helms, 412.

“our policymakers”: Bernard Gwertzman, “Fulbright Warns of a War over Oil,” New York Times, May 22, 1973.

a secret visit to Tehran: Alam, 287.

“I found the Shah very relaxed”: Memorandum of Conversation, 9:50–10:40 A.M., Saturday, May 12, 1973, Dr. Kissinger’s Office in the White House, National Security Archive.

“should be out of here in a few years”: Bernard Weinraub, “U.S. Quietly Sending Servicemen to Iran,” New York Times, May 2, 1973.

five hundred American soldiers, sailors, and Marines: Ibid.

“He wants the latest stuff”: Ibid.

On the morning of June 2: “U.S. Officer Shot Dead by Iran Gunmen,” Washington Post, June 3, 1973.

“As he passed a kucheh”: Cynthia Helms, 33.

The Helmses had arrived in Tehran: The date was April 5, 1973. “Helms Assumes Post as Iran Ambassador,” Los Angeles Times, April 6, 1973.

“It was like coming home again”: Bernard Gwertzman, “It Was like Coming Home Again,” New York Times, July 29, 1973.

“Aren’t you annoyed that the Americans”: Ibid.

“Why else has Helms been sent here?”: James Bill, The Eagle and the Lion: The Tragedy of American-Iranian Relations (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988), 213.

“May God save America!”: Arthur F. Burns Handwritten Journals, Journal I (Green Notebook), Gerald R. Ford Library, April 22, 1973, 181.

“evidently was the first foreign visitor”: “Nixon and Shah Exchange Praise, Confer in Oval Office,” New York Times, July 25, 1973.

“probably come down to the office”: Telcon, Kissinger-The President, 11:25 A.M., July 18, 1973, National Security Archive.

“all those beautiful broads”: Isaacson, 364.

comparable to a moral vice: In his book on Henry Kissinger, Walter Isaacson recorded several choice scenes in which Nixon expressed displeasure at news reports of Kissinger on the Hollywood social circuit. “He’s making a fool of himself,” Nixon told Haldeman on one occasion. “Grown men know better. Henry has got to stop this. Do something. Do something.” Ibid.

asked his daughter Julie: Telcon, Eisenhower-Kissinger, 7:45 P.M., July 10, 1973, National Security Archive.

“Nixon’s Secret Agent”: “Nixon’s Secret Agent,” Time, Vol. 99, No. 6, Feb. 7, 1972.

“Danny, what I’m calling you about”: Telcon, Kaye-Kissinger, 7:55 P.M., July 10, 1973, National Security Archive.

“great admiration”: Farah, Shahbanou of Iran, trans. Felice Harcourt, My Thousand and One Days (London: W. H. Allen, 1978), 120.

enjoyed the company of continental blondes: William Shawcross, The Shah’s Last Ride: The Fate of An Ally (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988), 339–41. Shawcross interviewed one of Madame Claude’s girls, Ange, who provided a vivid depiction of her time as the Shah’s favorite paramour.

“pimps”: Gholam Reza Afkhami, The Life and Times of the Shah (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009), 51.

“born courtier”: Ibid.

“The encounters did not always conclude”: Ibid., 53.

“Farah knew about her husband’s adventures”: Ibid.

a nineteen-year-old: Shawcross, 96.

exercise his rights as a Muslim husband: Afkhami, 53–54.

“They have spread the rumor”: Habib Ladjevardi, ed., Memoirs of Fatemeh Pakravan, Harvard Iranian Oral History Project (Cambridge: Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University, 1998), 97–98.

One report claimed that she fled to Europe: Shawcross, 96. Shawcross wrote that the queen’s flight to Europe was in 1972. Alam’s diaries now confirm that the Gilda affair unfolded in the summer of 1973.

“sun-drenched red-carpeted platform”: “Nixon and Shah Exchange Praise, Confer in Oval Office,” New York Times, July 25, 1973.

“We welcome you here”: Ibid.

two hundred protesters across the street: Murrey Marder, “Shah Arrives to Bid for Bombers,” Washington Post, July 25, 1973.

a two-hour tête-à-tête: All comments from this first session of talks are quoted directly from Memorandum of Conversation, Meeting with His Imperial Majesty Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, Shahanshah of Iran on Tuesday, the 24th of July at 10:43 A.M. –12:35 P.M., in the Oval Office, National Security Archive.

blocked by Kissinger from sitting: Author interview with Ardeshir Zahedi, September 14–15, 2010.

control the official transcript: “He wanted to write it in his own way,” recalled Zahedi. This explains the gaps in the historical record noted by historians curious to learn more about Nixon’s promises to the Shah on arms sales, oil prices, and nuclear energy. Ibid.

yawned his way through the meeting: Ibid.

the second round of talks: All comments from this session of talks are quoted directly from Memorandum of Conversation, Meeting with His Imperial Majesty Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, Shahanshah of Iran on Tuesday, the 24th of July, 5:00–6:40 P.M., the Shah’s Reception Room at the Blair House, National Security Archive.

“a renewal of vows”: FISOHA interview with James Schlesinger, by William Burr, Foundation for Iranian Studies, Washington, D.C., May 15 and June 27, 1986, 1–20.

He sang “Tea for Two”: Donnie Radcliffe and Dorothy McCardle, “Chateaubriand and Tony Martin,” Washington Post, July 25, 1973.

“unusual friendliness to reporters”: Ibid.

“a strapless tube of sequins”: Linda Charlton, “The Shah and Empress of Iran Are Feted at a White House State Dinner,” New York Times, July 25, 1973.

“I can’t understand what it’s all about, can you?” Donnie Radcliffe and Dorothy McCardle, “Chateaubriand and Tony Martin,” Washington Post, July 25, 1973.

“and rejected comparison”: Dana Adams Schmidt, “Shah Proclaims Iran Newest ‘Big Power,’ ” Christian Science Monitor, July 27, 1973.

given him everything he asked for: Alam, 308.

CHAPTER FOUR: CONTINGENCIES

“It’s America’s inaction”: Asadollah Alam, The Shah and I: The Confidential Diary of Iran’s Royal Court, 1969–1977 (New York: St. Martin’s, 1991), 326.

“Can’t we overthrow one of the sheikhs”: Memorandum of Conversation, 11/29/73, folder “Kissinger, Schlesinger, Colby, Moorer,” Box 2, National Security Adviser, Gerald R. Ford Library.

the largest desert warfare training exercises: “Reservists Join Regulars in Marine Corps Exercise,” Washington Post, August 20, 1973.

“Officially, no parallels are drawn”: David DeVoss, “The Marines Battle for Argos,” Time, August 27, 1973, 29.

“Although most troops were lectured”: Ibid.

“They told us not to say anything political”: Ibid.

“The Pentagon has a computer plan”: Ibid.

“the entire war, all its battles”: Ibid.

“I can give you my opinion”: Ibid.

They retreated to their tents with crates of beer: “Reservists Join Regulars in Marine Corps Exercise,” Washington Post, August 20, 1973.

Men fainted in the heat: Ibid.

writing an article on skiing in Europe: David DeVoss, “The Marines Battle for Argos,” Time, August 27, 1973, 29.

“Our unit was supposed to be in a tank battle”: Ibid.

“Can you picture Hogan’s Heroes”: “Reservists Join Regulars in Marine Corps Exercise,” Washington Post, August 20, 1973.

“Goddamn!” screamed Dennis: David DeVoss, “The Marines Battle for Argos,” Time, August 27, 1973, 29.

“Come on men!”: Ibid.

30 percent of its oil: Daniel Yergin, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991), 578.

2 million people: “The Arab World: Oil, Power, Violence,” Time, April 2, 1973, 19.

daily exports of 2.3 million barrels of oil: “Libya Takes More U.S. Oil Firms,” Washington Post, September 2, 1973.

expelled Libya’s Italian community: “The Arab World: Oil, Power, Violence,” Time, April 2, 1973, 19.

$200 million order: Ibid., 18.

“This Qaddafi is a real nut”: Memorandum of Conversation, 5/15/75, folder “Ford, Kissinger, Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi,” Box 11, National Security Adviser, Gerald R. Ford Library.

30 cents a barrel: Yergin, 580.

over rolls and a revolver: This episode is recounted in ibid., 579.

“commercial bargaining”: Henry A. Kissinger, Years of Upheaval (Boston: Little, Brown, 1982), 859.

jumped 72 percent: “The Arab World: Oil, Power, Violence,” Time, April 2, 1973, 18.

“did not as a general practice”: Kissinger, Years of Upheaval, 864.

“Our hands-off policy”: Ibid., 865.

“increasingly alarmed by the escalating demands”: Ibid., 870.

“a quick word because I know”: Telcon, Clements-Kissinger, 10:14 A.M., May 15, 1973, National Security Archive.

“with extreme urgency”: Yergin, 596.

“because I don’t think anyone”: Telcon, Clements-Kissinger, 10:14 A.M., May 15, 1973, National Security Archive.

“I had in all the heads of the companies”: Telcon, Rush-Kissinger, 7:10 P.M., May 29, 1973, National Security Archive.

“Henry wanted State”: Walter Isaacson, Kissinger: A Biography (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), 503.

“Tell the president to go fuck himself”: Ibid.

“for Nixon my appointment”: Kissinger, Years of Upheaval, 423.

“in reducing Treasury’s role”: Arthur F. Burns Handwritten Journals, Journal II (Blue Notebook), Gerald R. Ford Library, April 4, 1974, 200.

“cause economic trouble for the French?”: Ibid., April 19, 220–21.

“H. at times strikes me as a madman”: Ibid.

the Libyan leader announced the expropriation: Henry Tanner, “Libya Takes over All Oil Companies Operating There,” New York Times, September 2, 1973.

hiking their oil prices by 30 percent: David Otttaway, “Saudi Threat to Cut Oil Flow Million Barrels Daily Reported,” Los Angeles Times, September 5, 1973.

refuse payment in dollars: Ibid.

“restrict oil production increases”: Jim Hoagland, “Faisal Seen Backing Cairo by Using Oil to Press U.S.,” Washington Post, September 2, 1973.

8.5 million barrels to 20 million barrels: Ibid.

11 million barrels of oil per day: Nicholas C. Proffitt, “An Arab Blend of Oil and Politics: Faisal’s Threat,” Newsweek, September 10, 1973, 15.

require 24 million: Ibid.

from 1.6 billion tons in 1970 to 2.8 billion tons: Juan de Onis, “Arabs’ Emerging Oil Strategy,” New York Times, September 4, 1973.

an annual 6.9 percent: Ibid.

soared by 30 percent: Ibid.

“Faisal is no bluffer”: Nicholas C. Proffitt, “An Arab Blend of Oil and Politics: Faisal’s Threat,” Newsweek, September 10, 1973, 13.

warnings provided to them: For details of the warning provided to Nixon and Kissinger by King Hussein of Jordan, see Patrick Tyler, A World of Trouble: The White House and the Middle East—From the Cold War to the War on Terror (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2009), 125. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev’s warning is described in detail in the same book on pages 122–30. Nixon’s account can be read in his memoir. See Richard Nixon, RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1978), 885.

“The result would be catastrophic for them”: Memorandum of Conversation Between Abba Eban, Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Dr. Henry Kissinger, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, Saturday, May 12, 1973, 9:50–10:40 A.M., National Security Archive.

“Sadat is not bright”: Ibid.

“told us in August, 1973”: “Aramco Aide Says Faisal Warned U.S. Last August of War,” New York Times, February 22, 1974.

“Logic requires”: Nicholas C. Proffitt, “An Arab Blend of Oil and Politics: Faisal’s Threat,” Newsweek, September 10, 1973, 12.

“a more suitable political atmosphere”: Ibid.

“keep the Persian Gulf”: Memorandum of Conversation, 9/5/73, folder “Kissinger, Schlesinger,” Box 2, National Security Adviser, Gerald R. Ford Library.

“Let’s talk contingency plans”: Ibid. When the author asked Dr. Schlesinger to review the transcript and place it in context, he paused before giving a considered and measured response. He said he misspoke when he used the words “contingency plans” during his September 5, 1973, discussion with Kissinger. A contingency plan, he explained, would describe what the United States might do. It would have been more accurate for him to have said to Kissinger, “Let’s talk contingencies.” That would have implied what the Iranians might do. Left unsaid was the reality that the Shah would never have invaded and occupied Kuwait without receiving the permission of his American ally. Schlesinger was reluctant to provide details about the role the Shah was supposed to play in any U.S. decision to seize oil fields in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. He did confirm that he had not been briefed by Kissinger on the meeting with the Shah in Blair House in July 1973 when Persian Gulf contingency planning was first raised. He left the impression that he believed at the time that he had inherited a contingency plan prepared by U.S. officials—not one developed in Tehran. Dr. Schlesinger offered his views in an interview with the author on June 5, 2009.

“The Shah wants to know if the F-14 and F-15 mix”: Memorandum of Conversation, 9/5/73, folder “Kissinger, Schlesinger,” Box 2, National Security Adviser, Gerald R. Ford Library.

“Oil without a market”: Bernard Gwertzman, “A Mideast Pledge: President Is Seeking a Settlement to End Oil Threats by Arabs,” New York Times, September 6, 1973.

“Because of our relationship with Nixon”: Author interview with Ardeshir Zahedi, September 14–15, 2010.

“It was hardly market forces”: Editorial, “Inflation, Oil and the Press Conference,” Washington Post, September 9, 1973.

“dangerous poppycock”: Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, “Mr. Nixon’s Empty Threat,” Washington Post, September 10, 1973.

news reports of the Marine exercises in the Mojave: Jim Hoagland, “Arab Fear of Invasion Stirs Anger Toward U.S.,” Washington Post, September 24, 1973.

“to drop paratroopers”: Henry Tanner, “U.S. Neutrality on Mideast Urged,” New York Times, October 4, 1973.

“Do they think in Washington”: Jim Hoagland, “Arab Fear of Invasion Stirs Anger Toward U.S.,” Washington Post, September 24, 1973.

“Nixon gang”: Ibid.

“The backlash is definitely there”: Ibid.

“My God, doesn’t he realize”: Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, “Mr. Nixon’s Empty Threat,” Washington Post, September 10, 1973.

“Because he was advised by a fool”: Harry B. Ellis, “Saudis Becoming ‘Bankers’ to the World,’ ” Christian Science Monitor, October 10, 1973.

“are no longer compatible”: Clyde H. Farnsworth, “Oil Nations Will Ask Rise in Prices at Oct. 8 Parley,” New York Times, September 17, 1973.

The fourth Arab-Israeli war: Robert MacFadden, “Arabs and Israelis Battle on Two Fronts; Egyptians Bridge Suez; Air Duels Intense,” New York Times, October 7, 1973; “Black October: Old Enemies at War Again,” Time, October 15, 1973, 6.

“Tell him he’s under an obligation”: Alam, 326.

a Mirage jet loaded with an atomic bomb: as recalled in Tyler, 141.

Early on the morning of October 10: For a complete transcript of their conversation, see Kissinger-Schlesinger, 8:27 A.M., October 10, 1973, National Security Archive.

to a dramatic and historic pause at 2:05 P.M.: James M. Naughton, “Agnew Quits Vice Presidency and Admits Tax Evasion in ’67; Nixon Consults on Successor,” New York Times, October 11, 1973.

“with barely trembling hands”: Ibid.

President Nixon nominated Gerald Ford: John Herbers, “Gerald Ford Named by Nixon as the Successor to Agnew,” New York Times, October 13, 1973.

quit the talks: Felix Kessler, “Persian Gulf Oil Producers, Western Firms Halt Talks; Concerns Mull OPEC Demands,” Wall Street Journal, October 10, 1973.

“would have exceptionally serious”: Clyde H. Farnsworth, “Talks Collapse on Oil Price Rise,” New York Times, October 12, 1973.

At 12:49 A.M. on Saturday, October 13: For a complete transcript of their conversation, see Schlesinger-Kissinger, 12:49 A.M., October 13, 1973, National Security Archive.

“As Israel began to fall apart”: Isaacson, 521.

“The step is being taken”: John W. Finney, “U.S. Reported Ready to Replace Some Jet Fighters Lost in Israel,” New York Times, October 14, 1973.

Nixon’s national security team: For a full transcript of their meeting, see Memorandum of Conversation, Approximately 9:16 A.M. –11:00 A.M., Sunday, October 14, 1973, The Situation Room in the White House, National Security Archive.

Saudi oil minister Zaki Yamani warned: Edward Cowan, “A Saudi Threat on Oil Reported,” New York Times, October 16, 1973.

8.5 million barrels per day, with 600,000 of those bound for: Ibid.

“the policy we followed in 1958”: Dana Adams Schmidt, “Nixon Hints U.S. Intervention,” Christian Science Monitor, October 16, 1973.

monthly 5 percent cuts in production: Richard Eder, “U.S. Chief Target: Reduction Is Smaller Than Expected—Effect Uncertain,” New York Times, October 18, 1973.

from $3.01 per barrel to $3.65: “Rise in Oil Prices Seems a Record,” New York Times, October 19, 1973.

10 percent: “Saudis Cut Oil Output by 10% to Put Pressure on U.S.,” New York Times, October 19, 1973.

from $4.90 to $8.92: William D. Smith, “Cutoff in Oil to U.S. Ordered by Libya,” New York Times, October 20, 1973.

jumped by 70 percent to $5.11: “Rise in Oil Prices Seems a Record,” New York Times, October 19, 1973.

“We are masters of our own commodity”: Yergin, 606.

“Stunned and confused”: William D. Smith, “Cutoff in Oil to U.S. Ordered by Libya,” New York Times, October 20, 1973.

“what the producing countries appear to have done”: Ibid.

“at least one million barrels”: Ibid.

fired Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox: Douglas E. Kneeland, “Nixon Discharges Cox for Defiance; Abolishes Watergate Task Force; Richardson and Ruckelshaus Out,” New York Times, October 21, 1973.

“not surprised”: “Oil Flow to U.S. Halted by Saudis,” New York Times, October 21, 1973.

The next day, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Dubai: Richard Eder, “4 More Arab Governments Bar Oil Supplies for U.S.,” New York Times, October 22, 1973.

“as agitated and emotional as I had ever heard him”: Kissinger, Years of Upheaval, 581.

“those bastards”: Tyler, 169.

drunken stupor: In A World of Trouble, Patrick Tyler writes: “By evening on October 24, Nixon, exhausted by the week’s events, was drinking heavily. See Tyler, 67. Presidential historian Robert Dallek, noting Haig’s and Kissinger’s opinion that Nixon was “too distraught to participate in the preliminary discussion,” raised the possibility that the president was not only inebriated but sedated during the crisis. See Robert Dallek, Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), 530. Roger Morris, a Nixon aide, later quoted aides to Kissinger as saying Nixon was “upstairs drunk . . . slurring his words and barely roused when Haig and Kissinger tried to deal with him in the first moments of the crisis.” See Anthony Summers, The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon (New York: Penguin, 2000), 460.

Kissinger asked Haig if he should wake up the president: Dallek, 530.

“No I haven’t”: Ibid.

“who was shuttling back and forth”: Author interview with Dr. James Schlesinger, June 5, 2009.

“Haig reported that the President was about and following events”: Ibid.

“stood down their forces”: Ibid.

“increases readiness without the determination”: Kissinger, Years of Upheaval, 587–88.

he told his colleagues that Nixon: In Years of Upheaval, Kissinger alleges that he “did not know what conversations Haig had had with Nixon in the early hours of the morning.” In fact, Kissinger knew very well the president was passed out upstairs in the Residence, and that he and Haig had engaged in an elaborate deception with their colleagues to hide the extent of Nixon’s true condition. Kissinger, Years of Upheaval, 593.

Kissinger turned to Admiral Thomas Moorer: Author interview with Dr. James Schlesinger, June 5, 2009.

To reinforce the message: The additional steps are outlined in Kissinger, Years of Upheaval, 589.

“to move at full speed”: Ibid., 589.

“sped to secret positions off the Soviet coast, prepared to launch”: Summers, 460.

“If we can’t do what is right”: Kissinger, Years of Upheaval, 589.

“You and I were the only ones for it”: Dallek, 530.

“dreadfully anxious”: Alam, 330.

Kissinger telephoned Israeli ambassador Simcha Dinitz: For a complete transcript of their conversation, see Kissinger-Dinitz, 9:38 A.M., October 26, 1973, National Security Archive.

120,000 barrels of oil per day: Drew Middleton, “U.S. Air Force and Navy Help on Saudis’ Defenses,” New York Times, November 18, 1973.

a Soviet flotilla of ninety vessels: Ibid.; Drew Middleton, “U.S. Navy Setback Giving Soviet an Edge in Mideast,” New York Times, November 10, 1973.

“Well, we only have one facility”: Telcon, Schlesinger-Kissinger, 3:03 P.M., October 23, 1973, National Security Archive.

“The Naval War College”: As recounted in Jeffrey Robinson, Yamani: The Inside Story (London: Simon & Schuster, 1988), 101.

the first shipment of Northrop F-5E jet fighters: Drew Middleton, “U.S. Air Force and Navy Help on Saudis’ Defenses,” New York Times, November 18, 1973.

thirty Phantom F-4 aircraft: Ibid.

“We are tracking down”: Juan de Onis, “Saudi Arabia Is Tracking ‘Every’ Barrel of U.S. Oil,” New York Times, November 6, 1973.

met over breakfast on Saturday, November 3: Memorandum of Conversation, 11/03/73, folder “Kissinger, Schlesinger, Colby, Moorer” Box 2, National Security Adviser, Gerald R. Ford Library.

its native population: Edward R. F. Sheehan, “Unradical Sheiks Who Shake the World,” New York Times Magazine, March 24, 1974.

“I was prepared to seize Abu Dhabi”: Robinson, 102. Dr. Schlesinger told Jeffery Robinson, author of Yamani, that he had been prepared to order the invasion of Abu Dhabi. But he provided no information on the actual military planning that was involved. He confirmed to this author the validity of those attributed statements. He also confirmed that the invasion would have been an amphibious operation involving the Marines. Declassified transcripts of the Washington Special Action Group meetings in 1973 provide revealing new details and suggest that the plan came closer to activation than anyone outside the White House ever knew. Indeed, Schlesinger’s remarks confirm that Marines were being moved into place in the last week of November and readied for action. In his interview with the author, Dr. Schlesinger confirmed that version of events.

“Something small”: Ibid.

“Abu Dhabi would give us what we want”: Memorandum of Conversation, 11/03/73, folder “Kissinger, Schlesinger, Colby, Moorer” Box 2, National Security Adviser, Gerald R. Ford Library.

the Shah received formal notification: Alam, 330.

“allow any foreign power to establish”: Dev Muraka, “Growing U.S. Ties to Iran Irk Kremlin,” Christian Science Monitor, June 5, 1975.

“opined that the Watergate affair”: National Security Council Files, VIP Visits, Visit of the Shah of Iran, July 24–26, 1973 (1 of 2), Box 920, National Archives, College Park, MD.

stopped receiving fortnightly reports: Alam, 316.

8.3 million barrels to 6.2 million barrels: Juan de Onis, “Kissinger Fails to Sway Saudis from Oil Embargo,” New York Times, November 10, 1973.

“You can make Israel withdraw”: Memorandum of Conversation, 11/29/73, folder “Kissinger, Schlesinger, Colby, Moorer,” Box 2, National Security Adviser, Gerald R. Ford Library.

“for the time being”: Bernard Gwertzman, “U.S. Retaliation on Oil Rejected,” New York Times, November 20, 1973.

“countermeasures”: Marilyn Berger, “Arabs Warned by Kissinger on Oil Cutoff,” Washington Post, November 22, 1973.

“because your whole economy”: “Saudi Arabia Warns U.S. Against Oil Countermoves,” New York Times, November 23, 1973.

Kuwait laid land mines: “Kuwait Threatens Oilfield Destruction Should U.S. Step In,” New York Times, January 10, 1974.

“the Arab character of Jerusalem”: “Faisal Interview,” Washington Post, November 23, 1973.

“They think we knocked off [King] Idris”: Memorandum of Conversation, 11/29/73, folder “Kissinger, Schlesinger, Colby, Moorer,” Box 2, Gerald R. Ford Library.

“a very interesting message from Saudi Arabia”: Telcon, Schlesinger-Kissinger, 10:15 A.M., November 28, 1973, National Security Archive.

“is a friend of the United States”: Memorandum of Conversation, 11/29/73, “Kissinger, Schlesinger, Colby, Moorer,” Box 2, National Security Adviser, Gerald R. Ford Library.

Eighty-nine percent of the fuel: Memorandum from the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon, Washington, October 22, 1970, Monica Belmonte, editor; Edward C. Keefer, General Editor, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Vol. E-4, Documents on Iran and Iraq, 1969–1972, Washington: United States Government Printing Office, Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, Vol. E-4.

“Can’t we overthrow one of the sheikhs”: Memorandum of Conversation, 11/29/73, “Kissinger, Schlesinger, Colby, Moorer,” Box 2, Gerald R. Ford Library.

“The energy crisis is like Watergate”: “A Time of Learning to Live with Less,” Time, December 3, 1973, 35.

“through the wind-blown Atlantic”: Ibid., 33.

reduce private automobile use by 30 percent: Ibid.

impact of a 9.6 percent jump: Ibid.

18 percent reduction: Ibid.

“proprietor of a licensed house of prostitution”: Ibid., 35.

“has found a way to retain heat”: Ibid.

“Tell the people to turn off their electric blankets and cuddle”: Ibid.

a woman was crushed to death: Ibid., 46.

gossip exchanged between two shoppers: Ibid.

“It’s a mad final fling”: “The Beleaguered Islands,” Newsweek, November 26, 1973, 38.

shedding 133 points: “A Time of Learning to Live with Less,” Time, December 3, 1973, 34.

prices of Cadillacs collapsed 25 percent: Ibid., 35.

closing sixteen assembly plants: Ibid.

10 percent reduction in oil consumption: “Prospects for America,” Newsweek, December 3, 1973, 40.

“Oil is like bread”: “Shah Asks End of Oil Embargo,” Washington Post, November 23, 1973.

“In their hearts”: Author interview with Ardeshir Zahedi, September 14–15, 2010.

CHAPTER FIVE: OIL SHOCK

“If I was the President”: Telcon, Scowcroft-Kissinger, 9:35 A.M., January 30, 1974, National Security Archive.

“To hell with Kissinger”: Asadollah Alam, The Shah and I: The Confidential Diary of the Royal Court, 1969–1977 (New York: St. Martin’s, 1991), 366.

Fifteen miles outside Tehran: The Army Day celebrations followed a highly scripted format each year. This account includes important details provided by Imperial Court Minister Asadollah Alam, and also by the American writer Richard T. Sale, who wrote about Army Day in the fourth of a series of highly critical articles on Iran that appeared in The Washington Post in 1977. Richard T. Sale, “Army Is the Keystone to the Shah’s Power,” Washington Post, May 11, 1977.

“silver breastplates and helmets”: Ibid.

a flyover of 150 Phantom jets: Alam, 343.

two secret auctions: William D. Smith, “Price Quadruples for Iran Crude Oil,” New York Times, December 12, 1973.

less than 4 percent of Iran’s: Bernard Weinraub, “Iran Keeps Oil Flowing Despite Reported Pressure from Arabs,” New York Times, December 18, 1973.

43 percent of the petroleum consumed: Bernard Weinraub, “Shah of Iran Urges Arabs to End Their Oil Embargo,” New York Times, December 22, 1973.

pulling their money from American banks: Clyde H. Farnsworth, “Arabs Cut Funds at Banks of U.S.,” New York Times, December 7, 1973.

another 750,000 barrels: Juan de Onis, “Arabs Set New Oil Cutbacks,” New York Times, December 9, 1973.

“dumbfounded” and “flabbergasted”: Bernard Weinraub, “Record Oil Prices in Iran Are Expected to Affect Arabs,” New York Times, December 16, 1973.

$17.40 per barrel: William D. Smith, “Price Quadruples for Iran Crude Oil,” New York Times, December 12, 1973.

$1.5 billion in new government revenues: Bernard Weinraub, “Record Oil Prices in Iran Are Expected to Affect Arabs,” New York Times, December 16, 1973.

“There are a lot of people groping”: Ibid.

“The countries see how hungry”: Ibid.

“wan and weary”: Bernard Weinraub, “Shah of Iran Urges Arabs to End Their Oil Embargo,” New York Times, December 22, 1973.

“until shale or gasification of coal becomes profitable”: Memorandum of Conversation, Meeting with His Imperial Majesty Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, Shahanshah of Iran on Tuesday, the 24th of July at 10:43 A.M. –12:35 P.M., in the Oval Office, National Security Archive.

“Of course it’s going to rise”: Oriana Fallaci, “An Oriana Fallaci Interview: The Shah of Iran,” The New Republic, December 1, 1973.

from 5.8 million barrels per day: Memo from the State Department to National Security Adviser, National Security Council Files, VIP Visits, Visit of the Shah of Iran, July 24–26, 1973 (1 of 2), Box 920, National Archives, College Park, MD.

“You’ve increased the price of the wheat you sell us”: Oriana Fallaci, “An Oriana Fallaci Interview: The Shah of Iran,” The New Republic, December 1, 1973.

“explosive deficit in the balance of payments”: Hossein Razavi and Firouz Vakil, The Political Environment of Economic Planning in Iran, 1971–1983: From Monarchy to Islamic Republic (Boulder: Westview, 1984), 62.

“Iranian purchases and orders”: Memo from the State Department to National Security Adviser, National Security Council Files, VIP Visits, Visit of the Shah of Iran, July 24–26, 1973 (1 of 2), Box 920, National Archives, College Park, MD.

Major items on the Shah’s shopping list: The items are listed in the State Department’s memo to Kissinger. Ibid.

Moscow’s new rapid mobility force: Robert Graham, Iran: The Illusion of Power, rev. ed. (London: Croon Helm, 1979), 177. The Soviets’ rapid mobility force had also been a top concern of White House officials when they declared their nuclear alert in October 1973 (see Chapter 4).

“Although Iran’s economic growth was averaging”: Michael Raoul-Duval Papers (Domestic Council; White House Intelligence Coordinating Group; White House Operations Office), OPEC Objectives—FEA Study (1)-(2), Box 6, Prepared for Frank G. Zarb, Administrator, Federal Energy Administration, by International Energy Affairs, April 4, 1974, Gerald R. Ford Library.

The $36 billion Fifth Plan: Graham, 79.

annual economic growth rate of 11.4 percent: Razavi and Vakil, 70.

“perilously close to absorptive capacity”: Ibid.

The one third of the state budget: Graham, 170.

“The pressures for an increase”: Razavi and Vakil, 70.

“anticipated inflows of financial resources”: Ibid., 68.

“signaled that there was indeed an understanding”: Ibid.

“that he thought there was a growing gap”: Memorandum for Dr. Henry A. Kissinger, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, from Mr. Kermit Roosevelt, April 26, 1972, “Meeting with the Shah of Iran,” National Security Archive.

plot to either kill or kidnap: “12 Accused in Iran in Plot to Kill Shah,” New York Times, October 3, 1973.

“some sort of blood disorder”: Gholam Reza Afkhami, The Life and Times of the Shah (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009), 548. According to Queen Farah, the symptoms of her husband’s illness first appeared in the “autumn of 1973.” See Farah Pahlavi, An Enduring Love: My Life with the Shah (New York: Miramax, 2004), 242.

“listless; looked sad”: Arthur F. Burns Handwritten Journals, Journal II (Blue Notebook), Gerald R. Ford Library, December 6, 1973, 200–204.

“not the slightest understanding”: Ibid.

Helms left their meeting: Alam, 350.

“So we charged experts to study”: “A Talk with the Shah of Iran,” Time, April 1, 1974, 41.

The British ambassador later told Alam: Alam, 348.

“that he had assumed”: Walter Isaacson, Kissinger: A Biography (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), 563.

“could not understand”: Telcon, Kissinger-Anderson, 3:10 P.M., June 5, 1975, National Security Archive.

“use our influence for moderation”: Kissinger, Years of Upheaval, 885.

“we are establishing the prices ourselves”: The U.S. embassy in Tehran obtained a summarized text of the Shah’s remarks and forwarded them to Washington on January 23, 1974. “Department of State Airgram from American Embassy in Tehran, on Shah’s Remarks to Delegates to Tehran OPEC Meeting, January 23, 1974,” National Security Archive.

double the price of a barrel of oil: Bernard Weinraub, “Oil Price Doubled by Big Producers on Persian Gulf,” New York Times, December 24, 1973.

“The industrial world will have to realize”: Ibid.

470 percent: “Arab Oil Has Gone Up 470% in a Year,” New York Times, December 30, 1973.

$112 billion: “Faisal and Oil: Driving Toward a New World Order,” Time, January 6, 1975, 8.

Iran quadrupled its oil revenues: Ibid., 11.

to climb to $98 billion: Graham, 79.

50 percent a year: “Faisal and Oil: Driving Toward a New World Order,” Time, January 6, 1975, 11.

soared from $3.9 billion to $24 billion: Ibid., 12.

“Among other things, this means”: “Arab Oil Has Gone Up 470% in a Year,” New York Times, December 30, 1973.

France calculated: “Energy: How High Is Up?”, Newsweek, January 7, 1974, 22.

Spain’s $500 million trade surplus: Joe Gandelman, “Madrid Loses Some of Its Glow,” Christian Science Monitor, October 29, 1976.

“In pushing up prices”: “The Shah Goes to the Brink,” The Economist, December 29, 1973, 22.

“The oil increase to us is $10 billion”: Memorandum of Conversation, December 28, 1973, “Kissinger, Schlesinger, Colby, Moorer,” Box 3, National Security Adviser, Gerald R. Ford Library.

“We had a policy in the Department of Defense”: Author interview with Dr. James Schlesinger, June 5, 2009.

“Kissinger had nothing to contribute”: Arthur F. Burns Handwritten Journals, Journal II (Blue Notebook), Gerald R. Ford Library, January 8, 1974, 214.

“The diplomatic response was to try”: FIOSHA interview with Richard Helms, by William Burr, Foundation for Iranian Studies, Washington, D.C., July 10 & 24, 1985, 1–37.

“As I recall, His Imperial Majesty”: Alam, 350.

“I was involved in delivering”: FIOSHA interview with Richard Helms, by William Burr, Foundation for Iranian Studies, Washington, D.C., July 10 & 24, 1985, 1–37.

“idiot”: Alam wrote that on the eve of the Tehran conference the British ambassador read the morning’s papers and realized that something was afoot. He wrote a letter for Alam to give to the Shah expressing concern “that OPEC is greatly to increase the posted price of Gulf crude.” The ambassador wrote the note before the Shah held the press conference and before the final price was announced. Alam, 348. This exchange makes clear that the British ambassador did not know of the Shah’s real intentions.

“relations between the United States and the Saudis”: Author interview with Dr. James Schlesinger, June 5, 2009.

a secretly recorded telephone conversation: Telcon, Kissinger-Anderson, 3:10 P.M., June 5, 1975, National Security Archive.

authorize an increase in Iranian oil production: Dan Morgan, “Iran Asks Goods for Oil,” Washington Post, January 18, 1974.

“enable Iran”: Memo from the State Department to the National Security Adviser; National Security Council Files, VIP Visits, Visit of the Shah of Iran, July 24–26, 1973 (1 of 2), Box 920, National Archives, College Park, MD.

“definitely using oil as a lever”: Dan Morgan, “Iran Asks Goods for Oil,” Washington Post, January 18, 1974.

The president had flown out to California: “Energy: How High Is Up?,” Newsweek, January 7, 1974, 18.

“Look at Amin”: Memorandum of Conversation, 2/9/74, “Nixon, Kissinger, Shultz, Simon,” Box 3, National Security Adviser, Gerald R. Ford Library.

with fists and knives: “Panic at the Pump,” Time, January 14, 1974, 17.

what looked like a hand grenade: Ibid.

“You are going to give me gas”: Ibid.

gasoline trucks were hijacked: Ibid., 18.

Motorists in Hawaii: “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” Newsweek, February 18, 1974, 22.

“and there have been scores of fist fights”: Ibid., 20.

Truckers besieged the town of Streator: Ibid., 21.

“The key during that period”: Author interview with Frank Zarb, June 11, 2009.

gas lines in the nation’s capital: “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” Newsweek, February 18, 1974, 19.

“I went into a line”: Telcon, Kissinger-Sisco, 9:20 A.M., February 18, 1974, National Security Archive.

“If I was the President”: Telcon, Kissinger-Scowcroft, 9:35 A.M., January 30, 1974, National Security Archive.

traffic deaths: Memorandum of Conversations, 2/21/74, “Cabinet Meeting,” Box 3, National Security Adviser, Gerald R. Ford Library.

a man who “terrified” his staff: Judy Bachrach, “William Simon, the Energetic Czar,” Washington Post, January 13, 1974.

“Clean off your desk”: Ibid.

he contributed $15,000: William E. Simon with John M. Caher, A Time for Reflection: An Autobiography (Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2004), 54.

“Albert Speer’s position”: Ibid., 84.

“A Fitzgerald Hero in Washington”: “The Whirlwind Confronts the Skeptics,” Time, January 21, 1974, 22–27.

He worked till ten o’clock each night: Judy Bachrach, “William Simon, The Energetic Czar,” Washington Post, January 13, 1974.

half an hour a day at most: Ibid.

emptying buckets of cold water: Benjamin Wallace-Wells, “Giuliani’s Policy Professor,” Washington Post, October 26, 2007.

“fun, charming, enchanting and witty”: Simon, 120.

“NO! East Coast Establishment!”: Ibid., 65.

“I thought that Simon was a wipe-out”: Telcon, Nixon-Kissinger, 7:00 P.M., January 23, 1974, National Security Archive.

“He has himself locked in concrete”: Telcon, Nixon-Kissinger, 5:35 P.M., February 5, 1974, National Security Archive.

“in the presence of our ambassador”: Telcon, Kissinger-Haig, 5:31 P.M., February 6, 1974, National Security Archive.

Nixon held a thirty-five-minute meeting: Memorandum of Conversation, 2/7/74, “Nixon, Ambassador al-Sowayel, Scowcroft,” Box 3, National Security Adviser, Gerald R. Ford Library.

“what ought to happen”: Telcon, Nixon-Kissinger, 9:04 A.M., October 14, 1973, National Security Archive.

American newspapers republished his interview: Oriana Fallaci, “An Oriana Fallaci Interview: The Shah of Iran,” The New Republic, December 1, 1973.

“The sugar-coated image”: “Shah of Iran: Visions, Wives.” Los Angeles Times, January 7, 1974.

“two or three times”: Wolfgang Saxon, “Shah Finds No Cut in Oil Flow to the U.S.,” New York Times, February 24, 1974.

“created tremors in Washington”: William D. Smith, “Oil Watchers Focus on the Shah of Iran,” New York Times, March 7, 1974.

he gashed his head: Simon, 88.

“in considerable pain and discomfort”: Ibid., 89.

“irresponsible and just plain ridiculous”: “Denies Shah’s Charge,” Chicago Tribune, February 26, 1974.

“Are you telling me the Shah of Iran”: Simon, 89.

“I’ll say this Mr. Simon”: Tim O’Brien, “Defends Nixon on Crisis ‘End,’ ” Washington Post, February 27, 1974.

twenty-four-hour Secret Service protection: Simon, 93.

“I remember the Secret Service”: Ibid.

“well-placed sources”: “Simon May Have Hurt Chance for Promotion,” Chicago Tribune, February 27, 1974.

“consternation and anger”: “Iran Considered Action Against U.S.,” Washington Post, March 2, 1974.

He apologized: Alam, 361.

“The Shah, in my opinion”: Simon, 89.

“We are going all out now on the Saudis”: Telcon, Kissinger-Clements, 2:45 P.M., March 7, 1974, National Security Archive.

“as you know, Mr. President”: Telcon, Nixon-Kissinger, 5:50 P.M., March 11, 1974, National Security Archive.

“Washington relies on Zaki Yamani”: Alam, 359.

The oil embargo was lifted: Juan de Onis, “Most Arab Lands End Ban on Oil Shipments for U.S.; Saudis Plan Output Rise,” New York Times, March 19, 1974.

raising oil prices by a further 5 percent: Juan de Onis, “Saudis Said to Have Issued Ultimatum to Prevent Oil-Price Increase at Parley,” New York Times, March 20, 1974.

8.3 million barrels a day: William D. Smith, “Saudi Oil Output Up by Million Barrels,” New York Times, March 26, 1974.

11.2 million barrels a day: Ibid.

increase of 37 percent: Ibid.

Iraq’s Saddam Hussein: Daniel Yergin, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991), 614.

9 percent of the 55.8 million barrels of oil: Ibid.

“made even more severe”: Ibid.

Kissinger hosted a top-level meeting: The comments made during this meeting can be found in Secretary’s Meeting with Oil Company Executives, Friday, March 29, 1974, 5:15 P.M., National Security Archive.

“This reflects a sharp acceleration”: “Inflation Rises to 2-Digit Rate in 17 Countries,” Los Angeles Times, April 12, 1974.

Rates of inflation: “Faisal and Oil: Driving Toward a New World Order,” Time, January 6, 1975, 12.

$10 billion fuel bill: Ibid.

rice harvests collapsed 40 percent: Ibid.

“The desire of Iran’s leadership”: Michael Raoul-Duval Papers (Domestic Council; White House Intelligence Coordinating Group; White House Operations Office), OPEC Objectives—FEA Study (1)-(2), Box 6, Prepared for Frank G. Zarb, Administrator, Federal Energy Administration, by International Energy Affairs, April 4, 1974, Gerald R. Ford Library.

“Iran is not a volcano”: Mohamed Heikal, The Return of the Ayatollah: The Iranian Revolution from Mossadeq to Khomeini (London: André Deutsch, 1981), 104.

the Shah broke from his vacation: Alam, 362.

“In the 33rd year of an often uncertain reign”: “Oil, Grandeur and a Challenge to the West,” Time, November 4, 1974, 28.

“But I have so many aspirations”: Alam, 360.

who asked him to send: Ibid., 363.

“I was told”: Email from Kambiz Atabai, office of Her Majesty Queen Farah Pahlavi, October 30, 2010, to the author.

Dr. Fellinger later recalled: Fellinger made his observations on the Shah’s diagnosis to Dr. Amir Aslan Afshar, an aide to the king, after the revolution. Afshar recalled his discusion with Dr. Fellinger in an interview with Dr. Mostafa Alamouti in November 2003. The interview can be accessed online at www.iranvajahan.net.

ending his association: Author interview with Kambiz Atabai, November 2, 2010.

“Had he gone”: Ibid.

commented on his wan appearance: Bernard Weinraub, “Shah of Iran Urges Arabs to End Their Oil Embargo,” New York Times, December 22, 1973.

Pompidou’s quiet determination: Alam, 361.

“Pompidou is dying”: Memorandum of Conversation, 9/5/73, “Kissinger, Schlesinger, Wickham, Scowcroft,” Box 2, National Security Adviser, Gerald R. Ford Library.

“had an analysis made”: Memorandum of Conversation, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary of Great Britain and Dr. Henry A. Kissinger, Secretary of State, Tuesday, February 26, 1974, 9:07 A.M. –10:45 A.M., National Security Archive.

“two cars with flashing lights”: Farah Pahlavi, An Enduring Love, 244.

Flandrin took note: Ibid., 245.

“as far as he was concerned”: Ibid., 247.

They settled on a diagnosis: Ibid.

“We have to prepare”: Author interview with Kambiz Atabai, November 2, 2010.

“The Shah is pushing”: Ibid.

“To hell with Kissinger”: Alam, 366.

Cabinda oil was low in sulfur: Arthur Vecsey, “Perspective: Portugal Feeling Burden of Colonies,” Chicago Tribune, May 1, 1974.

Portugal’s $400 million in income: Ibid.

$650 million annual cost: Ibid.

“Discontent over unchecked inflation”: “Portugal’s Army Seizes Control and Proclaims Democratic Goal,” New York Times, April 26, 1974.

$200 million military base at Bandar Abbas: Drew Middleton, “Shah of Iran Due in U.S. to Seek Weapons,” New York Times, July 22, 1973.

$600 million naval base at: Ibid.

secure an “option”: The word “option” was used by then Secretary of Defense Schlesinger to describe what he referred to as “conversations” between the Pentagon and Iranian officials over Chabahar: “I have no doubt that there were exploratory conversations on the part of naval officers with their Iranian counterparts regarding the availability of bases in the Indian Ocean during periods of emergency. Indeed, I vaguely recall those conversations. But that is quite different from a commitment as is implied here. A commitment by the United States to use certain facilities. Commitment is the wrong word. If they were seeking options on those facilities, that would have been quite appropriate. And indeed I expect that that indeed was the case.” In fact, under the terms of the treaty signed between Iran and the Soviet Union in 1962, the Shah had promised Moscow he would never allow the construction of rocket-launching sites by outsiders on Iranian soil. Schlesinger’s use of the word “option” suggests that Tehran and Washington were looking for ways to avoid needlessly antagonizing the Soviet Union, which was always sensitive to base construction on its southern periphery. FISOHA interview with James Schlesinger, by William Burr, Foundation for Iranian Studies, Washington, D.C., May 15 and June 27, 1986, 2–53.

CHAPTER SIX: CRUEL SUMMER

“The financial markets”: Memorandum of Conversation, 7/9/74, “Nixon, Simon, Scowcroft,” Box 4, National Security Adviser, Gerald R. Ford Library.

“I will have to meet and talk with the Shah”: Memorandum of Conversation, 7/30/74, “Nixon, Simon, Rush, Scowcroft,” Box 4, National Security Adviser, Gerald R. Ford Library.

the “queen bee at the center of the hive”: Ibid.

“If you have money”: Henry Mitchell, “Henry and the Prince and 1,400 Guests,” Washington Post, June 8, 1974.

sworn in almost a month earlier: Bill Simon was confirmed by the Congress as the new treasury secretary on April 30, 1974, and sworn in on May 8. William E. Simon with John M. Caher, A Time for Reflection: An Autobiography (Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2004), 104.

5.7 million people living atop 132 billion barrels of crude oil: “A Desert King Faces the Modern World,” Time, January 6, 1975.

“America runs on oil”: Henry Mitchell, “Henry and the Prince and 1,400 Guests,” Washington Post, June 8, 1974.

“had been first in the swimming pool”: “His Highness Prince Fahd had been the first in the swimming pool at an afternoon party, an utterly reliable source said—at this party every woman who went swimming got an Arabian dress.” Henry Mitchell, “Henry and the Prince and 1,400 Guests,” Washington Post, June 8, 1974.

everyone ate from full plates: “It was great, we ate out on the terrace and they ate it up. But we really filled their plate with more than they could handle.” Telcon, Simon-Kissinger, 3:00 P.M., June 7, 1974, National Security Archive.

turned down by David Rockefeller: Arthur F. Burns Handwritten Journals, Journal II (Blue Notebook), Gerald R. Ford Library, 217–18.

“grave shortcomings”: Ibid.

“What a mess!”: Ibid.

“Dependent on the West for military and diplomatic support”: Henry A. Kissinger, Years of Renewal (New York: Touchstone, 1999), 672.

“one minister of his training and capacities”: Ibid., 673.

“was, I think, a little hurt”: Telcon, Simon-Kissinger, 10:45 A.M., June 21, 1974, National Security Archive.

“[Bill Simon] and Henry had”: Author interview with General Brent Scowcroft, April 6, 2010.

“mesmerized”: Ibid.

“And whatever Yamani was”: Ibid.

“The two of them were always at loggerheads”: Author interview with Frank Zarb, June 11, 2009.

“With a two-by-four!”: Ibid.

In Yamani’s telling of the story: Yamani recounted the story to his biographer, Jeffrey Robinson, Yamani: The Inside Story (London: Simon & Schuster, 1988), 115–16.

“We used to correspond quite regularly”: Ibid., 206.

His ambassador in Washington wisely talked him out of it: Author interview with Ardeshir Zahedi, September 14–15, 2010.

“By no means”: Alam, 373.

Alam assumed Nixon: Ibid., 376.

“There’s more than meets the eye”: Alam, 380.

At 10:00 A.M. on July 9: Memorandum of Conversation, 7/9/74, “Nixon, Simon, Scowcroft,” Box 4, National Security Adviser, Gerald R. Ford Library.

“He is getting a lot of mail”: Arthur F. Burns Handwritten Journals, Journal II (Blue Notebook), Gerald R. Ford Library, April 21, 1974, 223.

“began by expressing his skepticism”: Ibid., June 24, 1974, 229.

total $60 billion: “Simon’s Tough Tour,” Time, July 29, 1974.

King Faisal would hold $10 billion: Ibid.

“With Faisal, I have raised it privately”: Memorandum of Conversation, 7/9/74, “Nixon, Simon, Scowcroft,” Box 4, National Security Adviser, Gerald R. Ford Library.

While in the French Riviera: “Simon’s Tough Tour,” Time, July 29, 1974.

“The Shah is a nut”: “Simon to Skirt ‘Nut’ Meeting,” Chicago Tribune, July 16, 1974.

“Simon to Skirt ‘Nut’ Meeting”: Ibid.

“I am besieged by queries”: Simon, 89.

“taken out of context”: Ibid.

“Just exactly how do you call”: Ibid.

“was using the vernacular”: James L. Rowe Jr., “Simon Calls Shah Quote ‘Misleading,’ ” Washington Post, July 17, 1974.

Kissinger telephoned Ambassador Ardeshir Zahedi: Telcon, Kissinger-Zahedi, 4:23 P.M., July 15, 1974, National Security Archive.

“I can remember it being rolled out one day”: Eugene L. Meyer, “When the Iranians Bore Gifts: Remembering the Subtle Seduction of High US Officials by Zahedi,” Washington Post, December 1, 1979.

“He’s certain they turned”: Ibid.

There had been a scene: Author interview with Ardeshir Zahedi, September 14–15, 2010.

Yamani hoped to break the Shah’s lock: Details of the oil auction were outlined in the following article by Juan de Onis, “Saudi Arabia and Iran in Oil-Price Stalemate,” New York Times, September 10, 1974.

“is speaking about lower oil prices”: Jack Anderson, “Shah of Iran Culprit in High Oil Prices,” Washington Post, June 5, 1979.

“My belief”: Ibid.

the president was still asleep: Simon, 111.

he was told the president was in the Lincoln Sitting Room: Ibid.

“It was as if he could pull down a screen”: Ibid., 113.

“The Arabs are acting like nouveaux riches”: Memorandum of Conversation, 7/30/74, “Nixon, Simon, Rush, Scowcroft,” Box 4, National Security Adviser, Gerald R. Ford Library.

The president clenched his fountain pen: Jack Anderson, “Nixon Let Shah Drive Up Oil Prices,” Washington Post, June 1, 1979.

the first of four German banks to fail: “Fears of Deep Recession Grow in Western Europe,” Washington Post, August 30, 1974.

predicted inflation of 20 percent in Britain: Ibid.

“In France there’ll be a popular front”: Memorandum of Conversation, 2/9/74, “Nixon, Kissinger, Shultz, Simon,” National Security Adviser, Gerald R. Ford Library.

“We will have to aid Italy”: Memorandum of Conversation, 7/30/74, “Nixon, Simon, Rush, Scowcroft,” Box 4, National Security Adviser, Gerald R. Ford Library.

“the felon”: Arthur F. Burns Handwritten Journals, Journal II (Blue Notebook), Gerald R. Ford Library, December 6, 1973, 200–204.

Everyone was lying to him: “Nixon got very paranoid . . . . He thought at the end everyone was lying”: Ronald Kessler, In the President’s Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with the Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect (New York: Crown, 2009), 32.

He was drinking every other night now: Ibid.

“[Treasury] would like to have a meeting”: Telcon, Kissinger-Ingersoll, 5:15 P.M., August 1, 1974, National Security Archive.

had climbed from $2.8 billion: Hossein Razavi and Firouz Vakil, The Political Environment of Economic Planning in Iran, 1971–1983: From Monarchy to Islamic Republic (Boulder: Westview, 1984), 63.

revenues rocketed to $17.8 billion: Ibid.

“We have no real limit on money”: Lewis M. Simons, “Shah’s Dreams Are Outpacing Iran’s Economic Boom,” Washington Post, May 26, 1974.

$1 billion in oil receipts each month: James Clarity, “Rich but Undeveloped, Iran Seeks More Power,” New York Times, June 3, 1974.

“For at least a dozen years”: Ibid.

“Inflation is running wild”: Lewis M. Simons, “Shah’s Dreams Are Outpacing Iran’s Economic Boom,” Washington Post, May 26, 1974.

In the city of Mashhad: James F. Clarity, “A ‘Revolution’ in Iran—Report on the Progress,” New York Times, December 22, 1974.

unable to feed their families: Alam, 374.

“standing on what appears to be the top of the world”: Lewis M. Simons, “Shah’s ‘Phobia’ Pushes Iran,” Washington Post, May 27, 1974.

movie stars Jeff Chandler and Sophia Loren: Ibid.

recorded the bizarre scene: Alam, 387.

approving the appointments and promotions: Steven R. Ward, Immortal: A Military History of Iran and Its Armed Forces (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2009), 209.

“His Imperial Majesty has an extraordinary ability”: Lewis M. Simons, “Shah’s Dreams Are Outpacing Iran’s Economic Boom,” Washington Post, May 26, 1974.

“The primary topic in all our meetings”: David Rockefeller, Memoirs (New York: Random House, 2003), 356.

“increased dramatically”: Ibid., 360.

“we were never successful”: Ibid., 361.

“had told me that the Shah”: Ibid., 359.

“an arrogance that underlay”: Ibid.

“really feeling their oats”: Ibid.

“the embassy was certainly concerned”: FISOHA interview with Richard Helms, by William Burr, Foundation for Iranian Studies, Washington, D.C., July 10 & 24, 1985, 1–42.

“I not only make the decisions”: Joseph Kraft, “What Restrains the Shah?,” Washington Post, April 27, 1975.

25.9 percent each year for the next five years: Robert Graham, Iran: The Illusion of Power, rev. ed. (London: Croon Helm, 1979), 80.

doubled from $35 billion to $69 billion: Ibid., 78.

“My head is spinning”: Alam, 382.

“was subject to the vagaries of world supply”: Razavi and Vakil, 68.

“At the end of the Ramsar meeting”: Graham, 83.

infatuation with Big Push economics: Razavi and Vakil, 67.

unveiled a $3 billion plan: Eric Pace, “Teheran Planning One of the World’s Largest Plazas,” New York Times, September 1, 1975.

a staff of five thousand: Dee Wedemeyer, “Iran’s Grand Library,” New York Times, March 7, 1976.

to rebuild the seven fluted columns of Xerxes: Eric Pace, “Iran, Glorifying Her Past, Will Rebuild 7 Columns of Xerxes,” New York Times, September 7, 1975.

two supersonic Concorde airliners: “Iranian Concorde Accords,” Wall Street Journal, October 6, 1972.

He signed a $6 billion trade deal with France: “France in $6 Billion Iran Pacts; Premier Sees No Devaluations,” New York Times, December 24, 1974.

“I will sell you aspirins”: David Holden, “Shah of Shahs, Shah of Dreams,” New York Times Magazine, May 26, 1974.

At 10:00 A.M. on Saturday, August 3: Memorandum of Conversation, 8/3/74, “Kissinger, Simon, Burns, Ingersoll, Enders,” Box 4, Gerald R. Ford Library.

“Falling prices would quickly bring the revenues”: Stephen D. Krasner, “The Great Oil Sheikdown,” Foreign Policy 13 (Winter 1973–74): 131–32.

total monetary reserves of $453 billion: Leonard Silk, “Energy War Rumblings,” New York Times, September 25, 1974.

“the world banking system”: Ibid.

“huge foreign debts”: Christopher C. Joyner, “The Petrodollar Phenomenon and Changing International Economic Relations,” World Affairs, Vol. 138, No. 2 (Fall 1975), 152–76.

“I would like to discuss the most important issue”: Simon, 114.

“I expect to continue”: Ibid., 115.

“seemed to hear nothing”: Ibid.

“It’s all over, Bill”: Ibid., 116.

“Bill, what are you doing?”: Ibid.

“walked past Ken and me”: Ibid., 117.

“frozen in my spot”: Ibid.

“The American people are too wise”: Ibid.

Cynthia Helms, wrapped in a dressing gown: Cynthia Helms, An Ambassador’s Wife in Iran (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1981), 85.

“It was a warm and starry night”: Ibid., 86.

“For us, it was a dramatic and sobering moment”: Ibid.

the then princely sum of $60,000: Ibid., 11.

Cynthia Helms likened the compound: Ibid.

a hybrid of contemporary American and Persian architecture: William H. Sullivan, Mission to Iran (New York: W. W. Norton, 1981), 38.

“We were charged a monthly rent”: Cynthia Helms, 11.

“In inquiring why this was so”: Sullivan, 40.

Shi’a Muslims cited cultural reasons: Ibid.

The warehouse was actually a basement: FISOHA interview with Armin Meyer, by William Burr, Foundation for Iranian Studies, Washington, D.C., March 29, 1985, 1–44.

took a close interest: Richard Helms with William Hood, A Look over My Shoulder: A Life in the Central Intelligence Agency (New York: Ballantine, 2003), 421.

Cynthia Helms came downstairs: The account of the intruder at the embassy is found in Cynthia Helms, 52–54.

galloping inflation of 18.7 percent: Clyde H. Farnsworth, “Inflation in U.S. Worrying Europe,” New York Times, September 5, 1974.

800,000 unemployed: “A Question of Stability—And Survival,” Time, November 18, 1974, 17.

a $2 billion loan: Paul Hoffman, “Italian Reds Bid for Power Share,” New York Times, September 2, 1974.

Italy agreed to pay interest of 8 percent: Ibid.

buildings in the Portuguese capital Lisbon: For an overview of voting patterns and electoral strength of support of Communist Party chapters in Western Europe, see “Western Europe’s New Landscape,” Newsweek, October 28, 1974, 10–13.

Inflation was running at between 30 and 40 percent: Bowen Northrup, “Living with Democracy: After Dictatorship, Portugal Finds Adjusting to Free Government Is Harder than Expected,” Wall Street Journal, July 11, 1974.

$2.8 billion trade deficit: “New Greek Leaders Hope to Get Economy Back on Course ‘Soon,’ ” Wall Street Journal, July 29, 1974.

“perennial deficit in Greece’s international payments account”: Ibid.

Greek tourism revenues: Charles Mohr, “Athens Expected to Move on Economic Problems,” New York Times, July 27, 1974.

“They want a new patron”: Steven V. Roberts, “Greek Minister Tours Western Europe,” New York Times, September 6, 1974.

“Nobody really wants them”: Ibid.

“The increasing cost of oil”: Bernard Gwertzman, “Kissinger Sees Oil Crisis Periling Western Society,” New York Times, September 27, 1974.

“You have to look upon him”: Ibid.

CHAPTER SEVEN: SCREAMING EAGLE

Bring up a little lion cub: Abolqasem Ferdowsi, translated by Dick Davis, Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings (New York: Penguin, 2006), 243.

“I will tell the Shah”: Memorandum of Conversation, “Kissinger, Dinitz,” Monday, December 23, 1974, 6:45–7:45 P.M., National Security Archive.

“Pride comes before a fall”: Asadollah Alam, The Shah and I: The Confidential Diary of Iran’s Royal Court, 1969–1977 (New York: St. Martin’s 1991), 391.

“or face possible social unrest”: Harry B. Ellis, “Ford Told More Inflation May Spark Unrest; Narrows List for Key White House Posts,” Christian Science Monitor, August 14, 1974.

“My first priority”: Ibid.

“Henry is a genius”: Walter Isaacson, Kissinger: A Biography (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), 601.

“Ford has just got to realize”: Ibid.

“I would take however long it required”: Ibid., 604.

President Ford’s first briefing on oil: Memorandum of Conversation, 8/17/74, “Ford, Kissinger,” Box 5, National Security Adviser, Gerald R. Ford Library.

“Yes, and I think we all thought that”: Author interview with General Brent Scowcroft, April 6, 2010.

“To some extent, arguments over oil prices”: Emphasis in the original document authored by Kissinger’s aide Winston Lord. Briefing Memorandum for the Secretary of State from S/P Winston Lord, Department of State, “Strategies for the Oil Crisis and the Scenario for the September 28 Meeting,” September 21, 1974, 6, Eric Hooglund, project editor, Iran: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1977–80, National Security Archive (Alexandria, VA: Chadwyck-Healey, 1990), Document Reference No. 00893.

Iran’s ambassador Ardeshir Zahedi was ushered into the Oval Office: Memorandum of Conversation, 8/21/74, “Ford, Iranian Ambassador Ardeshir Zahedi,” Box 5, National Security Adviser, Gerald R. Ford Library.

Umar al-Saqqaf . . . stopped by the Oval Office eight days later: Memorandum of Conversation, 8/29/74, “Ford, Kissinger, Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Umar al-Saqqaf,” Box 5, National Security Adviser, Gerald R. Ford Library.

high-water mark of 1,051 points: “Economic Ills: Any Prescription?,” Newsweek, September 30, 1974, 32.

collapsed a staggering 86 percent: “Seeking Relief from a Massive Migraine,” Time, September 9, 1974, 35.

79 percent: Ibid.

“Investors have seemed frightened”: Ibid.

Housing starts fell 38 percent: Ibid., 39.

taxpayer-funded bailout of $10 million a month: Ibid.

Massachusetts General Hospital stopped changing bed linen every day: Ibid.

rose by 5.6 percent: Memorandum for the Vice President, July 3, 1975, U.S. Council of Economic Advisers, “Alan Greenspan—1975 (2),” Box 19, Gerald R. Ford Library.

children living in poverty: “Draft Copy of Report on Poverty in the United States,” July 2, 1975, U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Council of Economic Advisers, “Alan Greenspan—1975 (2),” Box 19, Gerald R. Ford Library.

real income declined 4 percent: Memorandum for the Vice President, July 3, 1975, U.S. Council of Economic Advisers, “Alan Greenspan—1975 (2),” Box 19, Gerald R. Ford Library.

46 percent of Americans told Gallup: “Seeking Relief from a Massive Migraine,” Time, September 9, 1974, 36.

“the soaring cost of oil and fertilizer”: “Economic Ills: Any Prescription?,” Newsweek, September 30, 1974, 38.

“lost enough wheat”: Ibid., 39.

child mortality in Tanzania: Ibid., 38.

207 percent annually in Chile: Ibid., 31.

the price of heating oil jumped 60 to 100 percent: “Faisal and Oil: Driving Toward a New World Order,” Time, January 6, 1975, 12.

French president Válery Giscard d’Estaing: Ibid.

Electrical light displays were banned in Britain: Ibid.

the floodlights around the Acropolis: Ibid.

“making love to a corpse”: Peter R. Kann, “Land of No Peace: As Vietnamese Keep Losing Lives, US Loses Only Money,” Wall Street Journal, September 13, 1974.

“overwhelmed”: George McArthur, “A Crisis Swells Amid the Bustle,” Los Angeles Times, June 3, 1974.

$1.50 a gallon: Ibid.

vast oil deposits in the coastal waters off the Mekong Delta: “South Vietnam: Land of High-Risk Opportunity,” Nation’s Business, March 1974, 26.

“Please God, just let them bring in one well”: George McArthur, “A Crisis Swells Amid the Bustle,” Los Angeles Times, June 3, 1974.

“What happens in the economic realm”: Thomas E. Mullaney, “Scrutinizing Worldwide Ills,” New York Times, September 8, 1974.

$100 billion: Ibid.

$16 billion: Ibid.

“The quadrupling of the price”: Ibid.

“a screaming eagle”: Leonard Silk, “Energy War Rumblings,” New York Times, September 25, 1974.

“The danger is clear”: Dennis Farney, “Ford Warns of Possible Retaliation if Oil Nations Threaten Economy,” Wall Street Journal, September 24, 1974.

“harsh and even threatening”: Ibid.

“What has gone up by political decision”: Bernard Gwertzman, “Ford and Kissinger Warn Exorbitant Prices of Oil Imperil World’s Economy,” New York Times, September 24, 1974.

“Yesterday’s actions were a signal”: Marilyn Berger, “2 Objectives Seen in U.S. Moves on Oil,” Washington Post, September 25, 1974.

“economic catastrophe”: Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, “Economic Fears and Frustrations,” Washington Post, September 28, 1974.

“a drastic business decline”: Ibid.

“on the brink of a terrifying collapse”: “How the City Was Saved,” The Economist, January 5, 1974, 79–80.

Franklin National: “The Big Cash Crunch,” Newsweek, September 30, 1974, 44.

“in danger of succumbing”: Ibid.

“skyrocketing escalation of energy costs”: Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, “Economic Fears and Frustrations,” Washington Post, September 28, 1974.

“America Warns the Arabs”: “U.S. Oil Warning Stirs Arab Anger,” Los Angeles Times, September 25, 1974.

“Ford Threatens to Seize”: Ibid.

“It is calling for cooperation”: Ibid.

“No one can dictate to us”: “Shah Rejects Bid by Ford for Cut in Prices of Oil,” New York Times, September 27, 1974.

“Ford is an utter booby”: Alam, 389.

“Pride comes before a fall”: Ibid., 391.

He was much more preoccupied: Ibid.

“military understanding”: “Shah Offers Plan for Indian Ocean,” New York Times, September 29, 1974.

“It was primarily used for university research”: Maziar Baheri, “The Shah’s Plan Was to Build Bombs,” http://www.newstatesman.com, September 11, 2008.

“I was resisting the efforts of American firms”: Author interview with Dr. James Schlesinger, June 5, 2009.

“Certainly, and sooner than is believed”: Department of Defense, National Military Command Center, “Subject: Interview with the Shah,” Message Center, June 24, 1974, National Security Archive.

“I always suspected”: Maziar Baheri, “The Shah’s Plan Was to Build Bombs,” http://www.newstatesman.com, September 11, 2008.

“off the cuff”: Department of Defense, National Military Command Center, “Subject: Shah’s Alleged Statement on Nuclear Weapons,” Message Center, June 25, 1974, National Security Archive.

“At that time, reprocessing”: William Burr, “A Brief History of U.S.-Iranian Nuclear Negotiations,” The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, January/February 2009, Vol. 65, No. 1, p. 23.

“If Iran were to seek a weapons capability”: memorandum for Secretary of Defense, “Subject: Nuclear energy Cooperation With Iran (U)—Action Memorandum,” June 22, 1974, National Security Archive.

“I should make it meticulously clear”: Michael Getler, “Long-Term Impact of Arms Sales to Persian Gulf Questioned,” Washington Post, January 30, 1975.

“By mid-1974, the shape and scope”: Memorandum for Dr. Brzezinski, The White House, from Anthony Lake, National Security Council, “Attachment: One-Volume Compilation of Summaries of Documents Relating to the US-Iranian Relationship, 1941–79, January 29, 1980.” The memorandum is included in the National Security Archive’s collection of diplomatic documents, Eric Hoogland, project editor, Iran: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1977–80, National Security Archive (Alexandria, VA: Chadwyck-Healey, 1990). See Chapter 2, “Military/Security Issues,” Document Reference No. 03558.

“He was our baby, but now he has grown up”: Jack Anderson, “Kissinger to Press Shah on Oil Costs,” Washington Post, November 1, 1974.

“The latest surge in oil revenues”: Eric Hoogland, project editor, Iran: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1977–80, National Security Archive (Alexandria, VA: Chadwyck-Healey, 1990), Document Reference No. 00899.

“The Shah’s ambitious development program”: Ibid., 2.

“The cost of living in Iran”: James F. Clarity, “Iran’s Flood of Oil Money Aggravates Her Inflation,” New York Times, October 7, 1974.

a rash on his face: Alam, 386.

not responded to the French doctors’ diagnosis: Farah Pahlavi, An Enduring Love: My Life with the Shah (New York: Miramax, 2004), 251.

“Medically, the patient was still in excellent shape”: Farah Pahlavi, An Enduring Love, 252.

“a very painful exercise”: Alam, 388.

$500 million project: Seymour Hersh, “Iran Signs Rockwell Deal for Persian Gulf Spy Base,” New York Times, June 1, 1975.

According to one of the few published reports: Seymour Hersh of The New York Times and Bob Woodward of The Washington Post provided the most detailed accounts of Ibex and the tensions it generated within the U.S. government and between the United States and Iran. Two articles by Christian Science Monitor reporters provide additional helpful insights. See Harry B. Ellis, “Behind ‘Listening Post’ Deal Closer U.S.-Iran Relations,” Christian Science Monitor, June 5, 1975; Seymour Hersh, “Iran Signs Rockwell Deal for Persian Gulf Spy Base,” New York Times, June 1, 1975; Dev Muraka, “Growing U.S. Ties to Iran Irk Kremlin,” Christian Science Monitor, June 5, 1975; and Bob Woodward, “IBEX: Deadly Symbol of U.S. Arms Sales Problems,” Washington Post, January 2, 1977.

eleven ground monitoring posts: Bob Woodward, “IBEX: Deadly Symbol of U.S. Arms Sales Problems,” Washington Post, January 2, 1977.

fifteen CIA employees: Ibid.

$50 million contract: Seymour Hersh, “Iran Signs Rockwell Deal for Persian Gulf Spy Base,” New York Times, June 1, 1975.

the bidders were cautioned by the CIA: Bob Woodward, “IBEX: Deadly Symbol of U.S. Arms Sales Problems,” Washington Post, January 2, 1977.

Rockwell hired Universal Aero Services Co. Ltd.: Ibid.

“the necessary marketing services”: Ibid.

On February 17, 1975: Ibid.

When he visited Andrews Air Force Base: “Shah Visits Air Base and then Meets Schlesinger,” New York Times, May 17, 1975.

Toufanian, no stranger to intrigue: For a comprehensive biography of General Toufanian’s life, see Abbas Milani, Eminent Persians: The Men and Women Who Made Modern Iran, 1941–79, Vol. 1 (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2008), 490–94.

liable for the grand sum of $4,526,758: Bob Woodward, “IBEX: Deadly Symbol of U.S. Arms Sales Problems,” Washington Post, January 2, 1977.

Chase Manhattan bank account in Geneva: Ibid.

the Ibex money trail: As reported by Woodward, ibid. “It has become a standard practice on ‘covert’ projects, such as Ibex, to hide or insulate some of the payments that go out to U.S. contractors,” wrote Woodward. “This is done in the interests of secrecy. In the case of Ibex, letters of credit of more than $47 million were sent to Riggs [National Bank] by the Iranian government. Checks to contractors on the project were drawn following a series of complicated transactions involving the CIA and the Touche Ross Washington office.” On one occasion, the Iranian government deposited a check for $5 million in Riggs National Bank in Washington “for payment on demand” by two men identified as CIA employees. A second time, former CIA employee Donald Patterson was paid a $55,000 commission to authorize payments of $1.1 million to the prominent auditing and accounting firm Touche Ross. His action in turn triggered “payments to U.S. defense contractors from another $47 million deposited at the Riggs bank by Iran.” Touche Ross’s contract included language that conveniently relieved the firm of “liability for any fraud, collusion, illegalities and malfeasance.”

shut out of Ibex: Seymour Hersh, “Iran Signs Rockwell Deal for Persian Gulf Spy Base,” New York Times, June 1, 1975.

Office of Munitions: Ibid.

hire away former and: Ibid.

“amazed”: Ibid.

“We can’t say who the Shah’s targets would be”: Ibid.

front-page article: Dev Muraka, “Growing U.S. Ties to Iran Irk Kremlin,” Christian Science Monitor, June 5, 1975.

“it will be built by Americans”: Ibid.

climbed to 7.1 percent: “The Economy: Trying to Turn It Around,” Time, January 20, 1975.

6.5 million unemployed: “A World Out of Work,” Newsweek, January 20, 1975.

Ron and Jill Stuber: The Stubers’ story was reported in The New York Times: “U.S. Job Seekers Looking to Iran,” New York Times, April 20, 1975.

more than one hundred applications: Ibid.

“We are being flooded”: Ibid.

seventeen thousand Americans were already living in Iran: Director, Special Regional Studies, The Pentagon, “The Growing U.S. Involvement in Iran,” January 22, 1975, National Security Archive.

increase 20 percent a year: Ibid.

Sixty-eight percent of the incoming arrivals: Ibid.

“to provide advanced weapons systems”: Ibid.

eighteen to thirty months: Ibid.

$6 billion in expenditure: Ibid.

eventually numbering fifty thousand: Ibid.

“Our ambition is to make as much of America”: Richard T. Sale, “The Shah’s Americans,” Washington Post, May 12, 1977.

They worshipped at a Presbyterian church: Director, Special Regional Studies, The Pentagon, “The Growing U.S. Involvement in Iran,” January 22, 1975, National Security Archive.

three exclusively American elementary and secondary schools: Ibid.

sixty school buses: James A. Bill, The Eagle and the Lion: The Tragedy of American-Iranian Relations (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988), 387.

three football teams: Ibid.

the largest of its kind: Ibid., 388.

They preferred to buy their Coca-Cola: Ibid.

Georgetown University signed an $11 million contract: “U.S. Job Seekers Looking to Iran,” New York Times, April 20, 1975.

George Washington University trained fifty-four Iranian army officers: Ibid.

Harvard accepted a $400,000 grant: William Claiborne, “U.S. Colleges Help Plan Schools for Iran,” Washington Post, April 9, 1975.

New York’s Columbia University accepted $361,000: Ibid.

“There are tons of dollars there”: Ibid.

“We’re spending so much money”: Alam, 524.

Many of the government-to-government deals: For a list of government-to-government contracts in 1974, see Director, Special Regional Studies, The Pentagon, “The Growing U.S. Involvement in Iran,” January 22, 1975, National Security Archive, 12–13.

U.S. defense contractors rushed to enter: For a list of co-production contracts in 1974 see ibid., 21.

“The major distributional change”: Ibid.

“Many American families”: Ibid., 23.

He liked to take his family: William Lehfeldt’s story of his family’s drive into the countryside outside Kashan was included in an oral history interview. See FISOHA interview with William Lehfeldt, by William Burr, Foundation for Iranian Studies, Washington, D.C., April 29, 1987, February 9 and April 19, 1988, 3–139.

The secretary of state assured the king: Memorandum of Conversation, “King Faisal, Secretary Kissinger,” Riyadh, October 13, 1974, National Security Archive.

Kissinger was in Islamabad: Memorandum of Conversation, “Bhutto, Kissinger,” Prime Minister’s Office, Islamabad, Pakistan, October 31, 1974, 1400–1530, National Security Archive.

Kissinger was in Tehran: Memorandum of Conversation, “Ansary, Kissinger,” Saturday, November 2, 1974, 9:40 A.M. –10:35 A.M., Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance, Tehran, Iran, Meeting of U.S.-Iran Joint Commission, National Security Archive. During the meeting Ansary recited a list of economic statistics to impress upon the Americans the great strides being made “under the dynamic leadership and initiative of His Imperial Majesty, the Shahanshah.” Iran expected “to pump $180 billion into the development of our country,” and by 1983 Iran’s gross national product would be $190 billion. Per capita income would reach $4,000 by that time. Industry would grow at a rate of 16–18 percent annually and agriculture by 7 percent. By 1983, “we hope we will produce one million cars a year, 3 million television sets a year, 3.2 million refrigerators a year . . . 400 million pairs of shoes, 15 million tons of steel and one million tons of aluminum.” By 1983, every third Iranian household would have two cars and two telephones, and every family would have a television and refrigerator. The statistics were so fantastic as to be meaningless but that did not stop Kissinger from applauding the vision behind them, “Because you certainly think in big terms, and that is what the world needs right now.”

“Kissinger flew in this afternoon”: Alam, 395.

“hopeless old donkey”: Ibid., 442.

“that idiot Ford”: Ibid., 440.

“that Ford was so thick”: Ibid., 486.

“And one of the notions”: Author interview with Brent Scowcroft, April 16, 2010.

“the United States is now attempting”: Murrey Marder, “Kissinger: Oil Price Cut Not Goal Now,” Washington Post, November 3, 1974.

“B-S,” “F. Bull!”: State Department Telegram, “Subj: Press Conference of Shah of Iran,” November 2, 1974, National Security Archive.

Kissinger was in the prime minister’s residence: Memorandum of Conversation, “Rabin, Peres, Kissinger,” Thursday, November 7, 1974, 9:45–11:26 P.M., The Prime Minister’s Residence, Jerusalem, National Security Archive.

Hawadess published an interview: Joseph Fitchett, “Shah Hints Policy Tilt to Arabs,” Washington Post, December 13, 1974.

“rushed to high officials”: Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, “A Warning from the Shah,” Washington Post, December 19, 1974.

“is causing high-level consternation”: Ibid.

On Monday evening, December 23: Memorandum of Conversation, “Kissinger, Dinitz,” Monday, December 23, 1974, 6:45–7:45 P.M., The Secretary’s Office, Department of State, National Security Archive.

in December Kissinger and Zahedi agreed: Telcon, “Kissinger-Zahedi,” 8:48 A.M., December 10, 1974, National Security Archive.