Department of State Memorandum of Conversation with President Harry S. Truman and Ambassador of Iran Allahyar Saleh

DEPARTMENT OF STATE Memorandum of Conversation On.H File DATE: SUBJECT: 3 September 24, 1952 Call of the newly appointed Ambassador of Iran on the President PARTICIPANTS: The President His Excellency Allahyar Saleh, Ambassador of Iran John F. Simmons, Chief of Protocol COPIES TO: Fill Confidention White House (original) Secretary of State EB NEA GTI 1-1493 The Ambassador of Iran, by special previous arrangement and at his own request, was granted an extension of his time with the President in connection with the presentation of his credentials at 12:30 p.m. today. x The Ambassador said that he was not a career diplomat and that he had accepted his new post of Ambassador here entirely through his sense of crisis at the turn matters were taking in his own country, and with a desire to do whatever might be pos- sible to improve its relations with the United States. He men- tioned the fact that he had always been pro-American and that his early education had occurred in an American Presbyterian school in Iran. He had always had close American friends there and had done all he could to promote the best possible relations between Iran and this country. He said that the present political situation in Iran is critical. He described the situation there, both economically and politically, as deteriorating from day to day. He described certain elements there, concentrating their efforts through the Tudeh Party, as working hard to throw Iran into the Soviet camp. He said that these siren voices were gaining a constantly in- creasing hearing among his people who, though basically friendly to the United States, felt that we had not always been fair in our dealings with Iran. DECLASSIFIED He said E.0.12065 PROJECT NCT 78.5 CONT IDENTIAL BYNLT.NC NARS, Date 7-17-79 pe75