<--PREV Doc #778  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #780 Document #779; July 19, 1958 To Mohammed Reza Pahlavi Series: EM, AWF, International Series: Iran ; Category: Cable. Secret The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIX - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace Part V: Forcing the President's Hand; June 1958 to October 1958 Chapter 12: America Invades the Mideast   I know that Your Majesty, like ourselves, is concerned about the recent developments in Iraq and the effect that those developments may have on certain aspects of the collective security planning we have undertaken through the mechanism of the Baghdad Pact.1 Although we believe it would be premature at this time to make final decisions as to how the coup d’etat in Iraq may modify our collective security planning, we wish Your Majesty to be assured that the United States Government is fully aware of and actively following the possible implications. Moreover, I recall that Your Majesty in our recent talks indicated your belief that there should at this time be additional strengthening of the Iranian armed forces beyond that already contemplated.2 With the foregoing in mind, we believe it is important to begin now to reconsider our collective security planning. It is also our belief that your armed forces as now supported should be brought up to agreed operational strength and to a high level of operational efficiency. I have, therefore, already directed that the delivery of a wide range of equipment for your present forces be further accelerated and I am prepared to provide your armed forces with additional training assistance on a selected but intensified basis. As you with our assistance are able to provide adequately trained manpower, my government is prepared to consider with you the desirability of activating additional units as well as the possibility of our assisting in the equipping of such units. We fully recognize that the strengthening of Iran’s military power and its efforts to achieve economic development will result in strains on the Iranian economy. You may depend on the sympathetic and prompt consideration by the United States within our available means of Iran’s needs for economic assistance as they may develop. I have every confidence that through our combined efforts with our other friends, the recent events will not be permitted to undermine joint security arrangements. It is our purpose to help assure the political independence and integrity of your country as an integral part of those security arrangements.3 1 On the July 14 overthrow of the pro-Western government of Iraq see no. 770; on the formation of the Baghdad Pact see Galambos and van Ee, The Middle Way, no. 1681, and no. 78 in these volumes. Soon after the Iraqi coup, the Shah had told U.S. embassy officials that arms were "life and death to Iran now." Iraq possessed the defense plans of the Baghdad Pact, he said, and those plans would soon be made available to Egypt and the Soviet Union (State, Foreign Relations, 1958 - 1960, vol. XII, Near East Region; Iraq; Iran; Arabian Peninsula, p. 575). The United States had long promoted a regional military alliance that included the countries of Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Pakistan--the northern tier of Baghdad Pact countries--and had provided aid to strengthen their defensive capabilities through the Military Assistance Program (MAP)(ibid., pp. 42 - 45, 55 - 60, 77, 531 - 37, 546 - 47). On July 16 Eisenhower had received a cable from the Shah and the presidents of Turkey and Pakistan, supporting his "bold and appropriate decision" to protect the independence of Lebanon. After reading the message to the Republican legislative leaders, Eisenhower had discussed the need to increase economic and military support for the three Baghdad Pact countries (Telephone conversation, Eisenhower and Dulles, July 16, 1958, Dulles Papers, Telephone Conversations; Goodpaster, Memorandum of Conversation, July 19, 1958, AWF/D; and Eisenhower to Bayar, Palhavi, and Mirza, July 16, 1958, AWF/I: Mid East). 2 The Shah had been in Washington from June 30 to July 2 (State, Foreign Relations, 1958 - 1960, vol. XII, Near East Region; Iraq; Iran; Arabian Peninsula, pp. 546 - 75). 3 The American Ambassador to Iran would present this letter to the Shah and, on instructions from Secretary Dulles, would offer to discuss the internal security program in Iran with him. In his response (July 22) the Shah would write Eisenhower that the change of regime in Baghdad made Iran as vulnerable to invasion from the west as it was from the north and northeast. He welcomed U.S. willingness to help increase the strength of the Iranian armed forces (AWF/I: Iran). At a meeting of the members of the Baghdad Pact on July 28, Dulles would promise increased military assistance to Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan and would commit the United States to partnership in the alliance. On the following day Eisenhower would ask the congressional leaders to restore more than $500 million, previously cut from the mutual security program, to bolster the governments of Turkey and Iran (see no. 791; see also Consulate General to Department of State, July 17, 1958, AWF/I: Pakistan; Minnich to Stans, July 29, 1958, AWF/D; State, Foreign Relations, 1958 - 1960, vol. XII, Near East Region; Iraq; Iran; Arabian Peninsula, p. 78; and New York Times, July 30, 1958). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Cable. Secret To Mohammed Reza Pahlavi , 19 July 1958. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 779. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/second-term/documents/779.cfm <--PREV Doc #778  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #780

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