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MILLER: As the greatest of the Iranian leaders of the early 20 th century, because he came from a noble background and devoted his life to Iran and its people. He was a Qajar, a prince, from a distinguished princely family. He was well educated in Iran and in the West as a lawyer, was considered by all as a patriot, was a nationalist who resisted British and Russian, and Reza Shah, went to prison for it. Mossadeq was a land owner, who treated his villagers humanely, a reformer, and a democrat. He believed in democratic institutions, constitutionality, and legal reform. He understood the nature and history of Iranian civilization. So he was thought by Iranians to be a great man, unfairly and unwisely removed by foreign influence. It was a big mistake, in my view, for the U.S. and Britain to have undertaken the 1953 coup. His group was called the National Front, Hesba Melli. It was a coalition of interest groups and proto-political parties that reflected the whole spectrum of Iranian society from the religious right to the Marxist, on the left, but it was put together with a Persian perspective. The National Front Party was the biggest political group in Isfahan. There were Communist elements within the party, but they were a minority. The communist party, the Tudeh, were well organized and well under the influence of Moscow because their leaders had been educated in Moscow and their funding came from Moscow. Their social causes had resonance – the urban poor, the exploitation of the masses were real issues. They had some influence in the labor unions in the textile mills of Isfahan where conditions were far from ideal. The Tudeh had no appeal in the villages, which was – at that point 70% of the population who lived in the 50,000 villages. The communists were an urban phenomenon. So I was familiar with all these groups, the Communists, the Tudeh party, and certainly the National Front people. Q: Tudeh was the Communists? MILLER: The Communists, yes. I also knew the SAVAK (National Organization for Intelligence and Security) people who were hunting them down, arresting them and killing them. Q: How efficient – and appreciated is really the wrong word – was the SAVAK, or present at that time in Isfahan? MILLER: It was a very big presence, partially because SAVAK at that point was led by a Bakhtiari General. Timor Bakhtiar was head of SAVAK, and he came from Isfahan or in the mountains near Isfahan. He was a Bakhtiari. Yes, General Timor Bakhtiar was head of SAVAK and he was considered a rival for the Shah for power because he was a player and could easily have deposed the Shah, given certain events and the attitude of the Americans and the British. The Americans and the British kept very close touch with SAVAK since they were the main training group for the secret police and supplied their equipment. We had a CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) officer in Isfahan. 32
Q: Well, now let’s talk about the consulate, not consulate-general … MILLER: There were five consulates. Q: … in Isfahan, at that time, because our reporting out of Iran has been very, has been criticized, that sometimes were too much this way or that way, you know. When you arrived what was sort of the attitude and what was the task of the consulate? MILLER: The consulate was really a kind of a – the consul was a pro-consul, in many ways, because there was a huge economic and military assistance effort, Point Four and ARMISH-MAAG effort underway. Q: Begun in the Truman administration. MILLER: Yes, it was. Point Four was the forerunner to USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development). The Point Four Plan, of course was, developed in the time of Truman, for assistance to Greece, Turkey, and Iran – Egypt, as an emergency foreign policy and security tool. That took the form of technical assistance, largely in agriculture, health, and water projects, airports, infrastructure, and there were quite a few aid technicians who gave, in many cases, extremely effective help, particularly the doctors in the universities and hospitals. The development assistance of Point Four was extremely helpful to Iran. Then we also had a very large ARMISH-MAAG (US Army Mission Military Assistance Advisory Group) contingent. ARMISH-MAAG was the military, the military security assistance. It was under the command of a general who wanted to assist a military academy in Isfahan, particularly giving access to artillery and tanks. We had a large military training component, a feature that lasted until the revolution in 1979. At the end, in 1979 they had air force training in Isfahan, and of course Bell Helicopters was building helicopters in Isfahan, and communications factories. Then there were training and technical programs in all of the structures – the police, the gendarmerie, doctors’ education. So the consulate was in formal charge of all of this. As vice-consul I was in charge of all of this when Frank Crawford was on leave. Q: There were just two of you? MILLER: There were two Foreign Service officers. Q: And the CIA. MILLER: The CIA station chief, the USIS officer, later Bill Meader and the Point Four head, Harvey Coverley and John Hollligsworth, our administrative assistant and code clerk. 33
Page 1 and 2: The Association for Diplomatic Stud
Page 3 and 4: Investigative committee Oversight C
Page 5 and 6: Q: Could you tell me when and where
Page 7 and 8: in Europe and the explosion of New
Page 9 and 10: of 98. He was my English teacher ju
Page 11 and 12: MILLER: He was a monster. He was se
Page 13 and 14: Q: Well, you graduated in ’53. Ho
Page 15 and 16: structure. Oxford and Cambridge was
Page 17 and 18: situation, particularly, attitudes
Page 19 and 20: vacations in between semesters, eig
Page 21 and 22: student. I was returning from a tra
Page 23 and 24: Q: Did you go on to get your PhD? M
Page 25 and 26: Q: I would think so. *** Okay, toda
Page 27 and 28: us in his car and lent us some mone
Page 29 and 30: its history and was a patriot in th
Page 31: MILLER: The Shah was never accepted
Page 35 and 36: Young and his archaeologist son, T.
Page 37 and 38: Q: Great opener isn’t it … MILL
Page 39 and 40: “What have you got in the village
Page 41 and 42: highly cultured city with a thousan
Page 43 and 44: MILLER: The hierarchy of power was
Page 45 and 46: and along the Persian Gulf there we
Page 47 and 48: and its independence despite the 19
Page 49 and 50: MILLER: Very ephemeral. It’s only
Page 51 and 52: Q: Well, then maybe we should move
Page 53 and 54: he had been chief of protocol, amon
Page 55 and 56: show that they were … MILLER: No,
Page 57 and 58: sustain his absolutism. That was my
Page 59 and 60: technical assistance and the secret
Page 61 and 62: streets. This astounded the nationa
Page 63 and 64: were the most important, and Bob Ko
Page 65 and 66: Symington was one of the key people
Page 67 and 68: a modern state. One could see some
Page 69 and 70: the difficulties arose was in the n
Page 71 and 72: That was the policy when I arrived.
Page 73 and 74: Q: Was the question of authority he
Page 75 and 76: no policy role, I thought that I re
Page 77 and 78: fierce guardian secretary, Martha,
Page 79 and 80: It is a mark of the Senate of this
Page 81 and 82: Today is the 12 th of December, 200
Page 83 and 84:
smaller than they are now. Everyone
Page 85 and 86:
of everyone. These views were on th
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danger. Cutting people down to size
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very carefully, and with great plea
Page 91 and 92:
Cooper retires and I go as Chief of
Page 93 and 94:
MILLER: Some, say they're taking it
Page 95 and 96:
new Select Committee had to go thro
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MILLER: The Hoover people were stil
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Q: Who? MILLER: Sam Giancana, a mob
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whole, the CIA did its duty. In any
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was doing to me and I set the rules
Page 105 and 106:
MILLER: They were a right-wing terr
Page 107 and 108:
tens of billions of dollars in the
Page 109 and 110:
very difficult then and, of course,
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problems with senators or the staff
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MILLER: The most important informat
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But now, that gap has disappeared f
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national security changed. National
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That's the value of Fletcher, and,
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know this June the Diplomatic Acade
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went to the American Committee on U
Page 125 and 126:
The board was very attractive to me
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President of the American Committee
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survived that, and was now the tuto
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great essay for me, which I treasur
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then. Sakharov wrote a draft of the
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House. This was Reagan - up to ’8
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social revolutionary change. The ch
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MILLER: No. The forces of change ha
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MILLER: Yes. The encouragement of h
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Gorbachev, so Yeltsin was sort of p
Page 145 and 146:
Q: Well, why don't we talk about '9
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peculiar sense of stasis even in th
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members on the International Founda
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MILLER: Yes, but he would have won
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Q: This is tape eight, side one, wi
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Q: Was this an American movement mo
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doing, it was a pretty good paralle
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no one stopped them. They had to do
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MILLER: They sided with the people.
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A very good case in point is how th
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Quartet, from St. Petersburg. They
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MILLER: More or less. In all of the
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Q: Well, then, when did you leave M
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no one did very well; neither the R
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laws explicitly said you can’t ha
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policy going to be, and the articul
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people who had worked with him, lik
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Ridgeway. During the time between t
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My instructions were, number one, g
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(Communist bureaucracy). Q: Who was
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MILLER: The attitude in Washington
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Kravchuk and the Ukrainian leadersh
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that message and saw this policy by
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was surrounded by gorgeous gardens.
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When Meshkov asked about U.S. assis
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Ukraine, a longstanding one, which
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language issue really didn't cause
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most dramatic and most destructive
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now running the new system and were
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are now a part of the political age
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MILLER: Yes, that’s more or less
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utility of setting up FBI liaison w
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Q: This is tape 11, side one, with
Page 211 and 212:
Q: Well, now, when you were there,
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invention, was created to provide a
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that would damage the good relation
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sense. There are Ukrainian national
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Ukrainian language nationalist, whe
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north German plain and so on is a f
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toadies and miscreants of one kind
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ase for me to go back to Ukraine an
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art of the country from the earlies
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only because I'm an example of it,
Page 231 and 232:
Q: Absolutely. There's a little bit
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