Letter from John C. Wiley to President Harry S. Truman

THE FOREIGN SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA American Embassy Tehran, Iran October 25, 1949 Dear Mr. . President: The Shah of Iran will shortly be your guest. I know that the State Department will inform you very fully with regard to him and his party. However, for such interest a.s it may present, I venture to add some intimate back- ground. The father of the Shah, Reza Shah Pahlavi, started life as a simple soldier and learned to read and write only after he became Minister of War; not very long before he grabbed the throne. He was a man of big stature, extremely tough and predatory. There is, curiously enough, a striking analogy between him and Gomez of Venezuela. The son, the present Shah, is very different. He had four years of excellent schooling in Switzerland. On his return to Iran, a Swiss tutor accompanied him and remained with him for years. The Swiss influence on the Shah has been very strong and in many ways he has become more Euro- pean than Eastern. He shows great religious tolerance and there are no complaints from the Catholics, the Protestant missionaries, or the Jews on this score, though there is much grumbling among the Mullahs that he is too sympathetic to the Christians. He is very pro bono publico, and in an entirely unpublicized manner has given a large part of his fortune to the poor. He takes his job very seriously. He is not a playboy. He has demonstrated great physical courage. Last winter when an attempt was made to assassinate him, two bullets actually hit him and three went through his hat; he didn't bat an eye. His attitude toward foreign aggression has been resolute and Iran remains outside the Iron Curtain. aneman, The President, Blair House, the AND SERVICE Washington, D. C. Re: 031729