Memorandum of Telephone Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson and Secretary of Defense Robert Lovett

450 TOP SECRET cont September 26, 1951 289 Secretary of Defense Lovett telephoned Secretary Acheson this afternoon with reference to the Iranian situation. In the first telephone call he said he wanted to report that he had just had a visit from Sir William Elliott (Air Marshal). The latter had obviously had some sort of alert or warning from his General Staff or from British military quarters, in connection with the ejection note which the British are expecting from the Iranians. Sir William, in his conversation with Mr. Lovett, indicated concern that the situation was headed for real trouble. Sir William said that the question was a very important part of their whole strategic set-up in the Middle East. The British are faced with two al- ternatives - if they allow the British technicians'to be thrown out, the British public will be infuriated; on the other hand if they ignore the eviction note and land troops that will cause great trouble and danger. Mr. Lovett said his opinion is that, as previously in the Arabian-Palestine matter, the British are operating on bad intelligence, and think they can handle the situation, when in fact the danger is that they cannot do so any more successfully than they were able to handle the Arabian-Palestine situation. Mr. Lovett said he asked Sir William why the British con- sidered they had any grounds to land troops to keep their people in the country, unless the Iranians make real trouble. Mr. Lovett did not see that the British had any extra-territorial rights in this matter if the Iranians mantain order and simply ask the British technicians to hand in their passports. Sir William's only answer to this was that the British attached tremendous importance to the Middle East; to which Mr. Lovett said he replied that we attached the greatest importance to keeping one of the richest oil fields from falling into Soviet hands by some reckless act. DECLASSIFIED ARONIVES AND RECORDE to SERVICE" Authority NLT- 84-16 TOP SECRET By HC NLT Date 12-A-44