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

That was the policy when I arrived. That was the policy through the Kennedy
administration, through the Johnson administration, although it was contested all the way
through in the White House, not in State, not in the CIA. Yes, in the Pentagon there were
some individuals who pushed a reopening up such as Bob Komer.
[END TAPE]
Q: This is tape four, side one with Bill Miller.
MILLER: “The blowtorch”, Bob Komer, who was very close to Lyndon Johnson, and of
course was deeply involved in Vietnam policy, he and Bill Polk, in the White House, who
was a good friend of the Kennedys, were raising questions of political stability constantly,
based on the Iranian student demonstrations that were increasing in number and size even
to the extent of picketing the White House and Congress. The issue was, can the shah
withstand unpopularity? Were there alternatives to the shah? So the issues were raised.
Komer and Polk, came out, I can vividly remember on one occasion, to Iran on a U.S.
military aircraft and annoyed the hell out of Ambassador Holmes because they were very
preemptory and imperial in their manners and demanded to see the Shah and all the key
figures in the government. They were very short on courtesies.
So they went throughout Iran, saw everyone they could, and wrote a report saying that the
shah was unpopular, and was holding on to an increasingly weakening power base. But in
the end, despite this awareness of unpopularity, on all of the critical points, the decision
was made to support the shah in the face of the opposition, even democratic opposition.
The crucial point, that tipped the balance as I mentioned earlier, was a decision covering
roll-over funding for Prime Minister Ali Amini, an IMF rescheduling of debt payment.
But the real issue was support for the shah or Parliamentary governments. Yes, there was
a dispute in Washington, but the majority view was that the shah’s regime was wellfinanced,
he had the military, and would prevail. The contrary view was that he didn’t
have the military, except at the top. The younger ones were trained in the United States,
just like the students. They would take hold of different views – and we knew their views,
because we knew them in the field.
Q: We’re sort of jumping back and forth, but you went to the line of the Secretary of –
when did you go there?
MILLER: It was immediately after the Peace Corps – that was in 1966.
Q: And you were doing that for how long?
MILLER: About a year or so.
Q: So sort of ’66, ’67. What sort of things were you doing there?
MILLER: The “Line” at that point was organized to give substantive and administrative
71