1 The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign ...

Q: Well, then maybe we should move on to the time you went to Tehran. You were in
Tehran from when to when?
MILLER: 1962 until ’65.
Q: When you went up to Tehran, what job did you have?
MILLER: Isfahan was my first post in the service. Then I was assigned to go back to
Greek training in Washington. However, the ambassador in Tehran, Julius Holmes, asked
that I stay to be his assistant. So I went up as a political officer and as ambassador’s aide.
Q: Was Julius Holmes there the entire time you were there?
MILLER: No, Wailes was there when I first arrived in 1959.
Q: Would Julius Holmes, who is one of the names that one thinks of being one of the
major figures in that great time – how did you find him? What was his method of
operation as a person?
MILLER: This is a very typical foreign service staff. One of the people in my class, A-
100, was Allen Holmes. Julius Holmes was his father. I met Julius Holmes on a number
of occasions when we were in A-100 course. Julius – Ambassador Holmes and his wife
Henrietta had us to dinner a number of times to their home in Washington. Allen and I
were good friends and still are. Ambassador Holmes had come to Isfahan a number of
times and I had helped him with his official trips. He had read my dispatches and liked
them. He thought I could be useful. I was very happy to stay. Suzanne and I were very
delighted to stay. We were given huge latitude by Ambassador Holmes. My beat, so to
speak, was the opposition, which meant my friends, really. I was allowed to continue to
travel, even in my new post in Tehran, to keep that pattern up, and given all kinds of
freedoms. For example, I found, a house near the embassy that I was allowed to rent. It
was a lovely house with a big compound two blocks from the embassy right in the middle
of Tehran. This 19 th century compound had a water storage pool called a hozh, which we
made into a swimming pool. It also had a lovely orchard which included persimmon trees
with abundant delicious fruit that ripened at Halloween. We used to carve the
persimmons into pumpkin faces, jack-o’-lanterns.
Q: How did your wife find the difference between Isfahan and Tehran?
MILLER: We just continued our life that we had had there. Our first child was born in
Isfahan, Will was born in the Christian Mission hospital there. She had many, many
friends who were also the wives of my friends. She was never isolated in the sense of
being a foreigner. She had no difficulty taking Will in a carriage down the Chaharbagh.
The Iranian women would look in and say normal things. She fitted in very well. In fact,
we have a Persian friend from those days visiting with us now.
51