After speaking with the Shah and failing to allay his fears, Schwarzkopf convinced Kim that the only possible way to sway the Shah into cooperating was if Kim spoke to the monarch himself. If a meeting were held, however, Kim’s undercover involvement would be disclosed. Schwarzkopf emphasized: “And if this undertaking fails – we’ll all be in such hot soup that I really don’t think disclosure of your name could make much difference.”9 Realizing there was no other way Kim decided to work out a clandestine, personal meeting.
He would continue to maintain his anonymity to all Persians except for the Shah, General Zahedi and the general’s associate, Mustapha Vaysi. Even his British contacts were unaware of his true identity. Despite his precautions, as a relief to the enormous tensions associated with his mission, he did take an unnecessary risk:
“In the meantime I was entertaining myself in a mildly dangerous way by playing tennis, either at the Turkish Embassy court or on those of the French Institute. I played with a girl in the U. S. Embassy staff against one of our own officers and his wife. The danger came not from the game but from a habit I had then, and still have, of saying, ‘Oh Roosevelt’ when I missed a shot. I did my best to pass myself off as a black hearted reactionary Republican to whom “Roosevelt” meaning FDR, was a heartfelt obscenity.”10
The meeting was arranged with the Shah through an intermediary saying “…that and American authorized to speak for Eisenhower and Churchill desired a secret audience.”11 Kim arrived on the palace grounds after midnight huddled under a blanket in the back seat of a common black sedan.
As Kim approached the palace steps the Shah appeared from the shadows commenting “Good evening, Mr. Roosevelt. I cannot say that I expected to see you, but this is a pleasure.” Kim replied, “Good evening, Your Majesty. It is a long time since we met each other, and I am glad you recognize me. It may make establishing my credentials a bit easier.”12
The U. S. President would shortly confirm the meeting by a phrase he would utter in a broadcasted San Francisco speech as Churchill signaled his agreement via a BBC broadcast the next night. Rather than saying “It is now midnight,” the announcer would comment “It is now-pause-exactly midnight.”13
A second meeting was held the following night. Zahedi was agreed upon as the replacement for Mossadegh. The Shah would symbolically flee to the Caspian as Mohammed had from Mecca to Medina in 622 AD, after he signed a set of royal decrees delegitimizing Mossadegh and appointing Zahedi. If their plans went awry, the Shah and Queen Soraya would actually abscond to Baghdad in his private plane.
As Kim was organizing his resources and scheming details of the coup, the police were tipped-off about unusual goings-on at his safe-house and conducted a raid: “The gates were forced open. Cars swept in, disgorging armed men who made a very thorough search of the house and grounds.”14
Nothing was uncovered and Kim was absent but the surveillance of the location forced Kim into securing an unlikely venue for his meetings – a Hillman Minx taxi – a bug proof and suitably portable location.
The time for action had arrived. Gaining support of the Mullahs was essential and large sums of cash were the inducement. Receipt of the questionably legal decrees signed by the Shah deposing Mossadegh and appointing Zahedi as prime minister were secured and were delivered. If rejected they were to be enforced even under gunpoint. The newspapers stepped-up a campaign of spreading propaganda. Organizing a select group of military commanders, loyal to the Shah who would lead the rank and file in revolt was arranged for the night of August 14.
However, Mossadegh got advanced warning of the coup and deployed troops and tanks around his home. The Shah’s officers were seized when they attempted to arrest him and the operation appeared a colossal failure. Zahedi was sequestered in a hideout as the Shah fled the country. Mossadegh announced to the country of the failed coup.
In the absence of any information to Washington for a number of days, Under Secretary of State General Walter Bedell Smith sent a message to Kim, “Give up and get out.”
However, within hours the conditions on the ground changed and Kim messaged back: “Yours of 18 August received. Happy to report R. N. Ziegler (the pseudonym for Zahedi) safely installed and KGSAVOY (the cryptonym for the Shah) will be returning to Teheran in triumph shortly. Love and kisses from all the team.”15
In the interim, Kim, with the aid of CIA bribe money, frantically organized his street goons and began provoking demonstrations and riots throughout the streets of Tehran as Iranian Army officers loyal to the Shah began to mobilize outlying troops. Hundreds died in the street fighting that ensued.
In the vanguard of the chaos were a gang of famous Iranian weightlifters, the Zurkhaneh giants who made a showing in the streets and motivated the crowds as “…these huge figures started marching westward, shouting and twirling more like dervishes than what they actually were.”16
Simultaneous to the mayhem and unrestrained violence in the streets, Tabriz radio was broadcasting dissension to the masses and strong support for the Shah.
Throughout the mass confusion Kim remained ensconced in the American Embassy compound. When realizing the tide had turned, he entered the street and forced his way through the mobs to liberate Zahedi from his hiding place. From the shoulders of his numerous supporters, the general mounted a column of tanks and proceeded to Mossadeg’s residence. Kim later commented:
“As I learned later but did not know then, they didn’t reach old Mossy’s house until he had already fled – over the garden wall and into a house from which he somehow managed to vanish. It was not until several days later that he called into the police station – hoping for help perhaps – and gave himself up.”17
On August 22, 1953, the Shah returned to Tehran as the new, supreme leader of Iran as Mossadeg was being incarcerated. He was to spend three-years in house arrest then exiled to remain within the confines of his home village there dying in 1967. The once democratically governed country whose prime minister was elected by popular vote now became a monarchy.
Kim slipped out of Iran posing as Mr. “Scar on Right Forehead” on a military air transport service plane as unknown and mysteriously as he entered weeks before.
In the ensuing years the Shah ruled the country with an iron hand through the army and the hated SAVAK secret police organization. His efforts to modernize and secularize the country angered many in the country’s Islamic majority. The United States subsidized the regime with military support and enormous amounts of cash. In return, Iran provided a reliable ally in the region along with very generous oil concessions for the U. S. and Great Britain.
By 1979, suffering under the severe repression of the Shah’s rule and the stress of his lightning fast modernization program, the people rose in revolt toppling the Pahlevi monarchy and forcing the Shah into exile. In November, 1979 Iranian students stormed the American Embassy in Tehran and held the 52 American diplomats hostage for 444 days creating a major crisis for the United States. This event, and President Jimmy Carter’s failed attempts to liberate the Americans, are considered one of the major reasons for his loss to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election and the Republicans winning control of the Senate for the first time in decades.
The deposed Shah died in Egypt in July 1980 from non-Hodgkin lymphoma as the Iranian Revolution elevated Ayatollah Khomeini as Supreme Leader of the country.
Upon his journey home, Kim met with Winston Churchill in London to relate his story. When he debriefed President Eisenhower and the Secretary of Defense in Washington, he stated:
“If we, the CIA, are ever going to try something like this again, we must be absolutely sure that people and army want what we want. “If not, you had better give the job to the Marines!”
He later commented,
“Within weeks I was offered command of a Guatemalan undertaking already in preparation. A quick check suggested that my requirements were not likely to be met. I declined the offer. Later, I resigned from the CIA – before the Bay of Pigs d
isaster underlined the validity of my warning.”18
On March 17, 2000, then Secretary of State, Madeleine K. Albright gave a speech on American-Iranian relations. She remarked:
“In 1953 the United States played a significant role in orchestrating the overthrow of Iran's popular Prime Minister, Mohammed Massadegh. The Eisenhower Administration believed its actions were justified for strategic reasons; but the coup was clearly a setback for Iran's political development. And it is easy to see now why many Iranians continue to resent this intervention by America in their internal affairs.”
To this day, the Iranian people harbor a resentment for the United States originating with the overthrow of their government in 1953. Following the revolution in 1979, this isolated country has become one of the greatest threats to the State of Israel and the stability of the Middle-east region. The Iranian Government has been providing arms and technology to America’s enemies in both the Iraq War and the outlawed jihadist group, Hamas. The regime under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been actively pursuing a nuclear arms program in contradiction to the United Nations and the Western World and remains today one of the greatest threats to world peace. The legacy of Kim Roosevelt’s 1953 Iranian coup d’etat has had an enormous and lasting impact on the Middle-East and the world.
United States Navy repair ship named after Kermit Roosevelt. Commissioned in 1945, the vessel also saw service in the Korean War.
Despite TR’s legendary patriotism and well-publicized adventures, Kermit and his son equaled and perhaps exceeded their famous forebear’s “strenuous life” and thirst for action. Kermit by his heroism in the Great War; his peripatetic wanderings in search of rare and exotic species and failed, but gallant effort to serve under arms in the Second World War. And Kim, in a later era continued in the family tradition in a manner that not only is remarkable for its audacity, but for its importance and lasting influence on international relations and the world’s economy to the present day. Unfortunately, both of these extraordinary individuals have today, been lost in the shadow of their family’s fame.
Notes:
1. Counter Coup – The Struggle for the Control of Iran by Kermit Roosevelt, page 199
2. Ibid., page 207
3. Ibid., page 110
4. The World Crisis 1911-1914 by Winston Churchill, page 134; Charles Scribner’s Sons
5. CIA Clandestine Service History, “Overthrow of Premier Mossadeq of Iran, Novermber 1952-August 1953,” March 1954 by Dr. Donald Wilber.
6. Legacy of Ashes the History of the CIA by Tom Weiner, page 83; Doubleday, 2007
7. Counter Coup – The Struggle for the Control of Iran by Kermit Roosevelt, page 139
8. Legacy of Ashes the History of the CIA by Tom Weiner, page 84; Doubleday, 2007
9. Counter Coup – The Struggle for the Control of Iran by Kermit Roosevelt, page 148
10. Ibid., page 154
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid., page 156
13. Ibid., page 157
14. Ibid., page 161
15. Ibid., page 190
16. Ibid., page 186
17. Ibid., page 193
18. Ibid., page 210
Additional Reading
Published Material
Collier, Peter with David Horowitz, The Roosevelts: An American Saga: Simon & Schuster, 1994.
Donn, Linda, The Roosevelt Cousins: Growing Up Together, 1882-1924: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.
Kinzer, Stephen, All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2003, 2008.
Millard, Candice, The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey: Broadway Books, 2005.
Miller, Nathan, The Roosevelt Chronicles: The story of a great American family: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1979.
Morris, Sylvia Jukes, Edith Kermit Roosevelt: Portrait of a First Lady: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, Inc., 1980.
Ornig, Joseph R., My Last Chance to Be a Boy: Stackpole Books, 1994.
Persico, Joseph E. Roosevelt’s Secret War: Random House, 2001.
Renenhan Jr., Edward J., The Lion’s Pride: Theodore Roosevelt and His Family in Peace and War: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Roosevelt, Kermit, War in the Garden of Eden: The Echo Library, 2007.
Roosevelt, Kermit, The Long Trail: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1912, 1920.
Roosevelt, Kermit, Counter Coup: The Struggle for the Control of Iran: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1979.
Roosevelt, Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., Day Before Yesterday: The Reminiscences of Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1959.
Roosevelt, Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., Mrs. Kermit Roosevelt, Richard Derby, Kermit Roosevelt, Cleared for Strange Ports: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1924, 1927.
Roosevelt, Theodore, Through the Brazilian Wilderness: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1922.
Roosevelt. Theodore, African Game Trails: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1926.
Roosevelt, Theodore and Kermit, East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1926.
Roosevelt, Theodore and Kermit, Trailing the Giant Panda: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1929.
Weiner, Tim, Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA: Doubleday, 2007.
Non-published Material
The Belle and Kermit Roosevelt Papers reside in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division in Washington D.C. and contain approximately 56,900 items. The files span the years 1725 to 1975, with the bulk of the material dating from 1900 to 1964. The collection includes diaries, family correspondence, subject files, business papers and miscellaneous items.
The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, New York contain many letters and other pieces of correspondence before and during World War II between the War Department, the White House and Roosevelt family members and friends.
The National Archives National Military Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri contain Kermit Roosevelt’s military records for World War I and World War II. Also at this location relating to his death is the coroner’s report, autopsy report, death certificate, medical records, report of the Fort Richardson military command’s investigation into his death with witness testimony and much correspondence between various military officers, the War Department and the White House.
The Explorer’s Club, the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. contain much detailed information pertaining to Kermit’s many exploratory and hunting trips.
* * *
[1] *Major Archibald Willingham Butt perished on the Titanic. He was a military aide to Theodore Roosevelt and also served as an aide to President Taft. During his White House assignment he became a close friend of the Roosevelt family.
[2] *J. Bruce Ismay, a passenger on the Titanic, at the time of the disaster was chairman and managing director of the ship owner, the White Star Line. He received bitter criticism for boarding a life boat and saving himself. He additionally was charged with pursuing a speed record for the ill-fated cruise and with ignoring the warnings that icebergs were crossing their route.
[3] *Many years later the Hooker Chemical Company gained national attention and notoriety for pollution of the Love Canal outside Niagara Falls, New York.
[4] *McMillan was an enormously overweight American (at approximately 300 pounds) who hailed originally from Canada. During World War I he distinguished himself with the famous Legion of Frontiersman in Africa and was knighted by the Queen in 1918 for his exploits.
[5] *The entire collection of roughly 4400 mammal specimens procured in East Africa (1909-1910) by Edgar A. Mearns, Edmund Heller, J. Alden Loring, Theodore Roosevelt, and Kermit Roosevelt has been cataloged and incorporated into the research collection in the Division of Mammals at the Smithsonian Institution. Researchers studying African mammals have used these specimens for almost 100 years; many scientific publications have cited specimens from this expedition. While the Roosevelts were interested in the big game
species, Mearns, Heller, and Loring, as professional mammalogists, actively collected small mammals such as rodents, bats, and shrews, and these groups comprise a major part of the Smithsonian collection. Only a small portion of the collection has been exhibited to the public, mainly large game specimens taken by the Roosevelts. The Division of Mammals currently has about 400 specimens on public exhibition, out of a collection of over half a million specimens. In addition to public education via exhibits, the National Museum of Natural History (and all other large museums) maintains its collections in perpetuity to support scholarly research. -Craig Ludwig, Scientific Data Manager, Division of Birds and Mammals, Smithsonian Institution, In a letter to the author, 2008
[6] *Among the animals that carry the famous Roosevelt name today are the Hippotragus niger roosevelti, a rare form of Sable Antelope; the Muntiacus rooseveltorum Roosevelt’s Muntjac or Roosevelt’s barking deer and the Roosevelt Elk also known as Olympic Elk. This form is the largest animal within the Elk family.
[7] * The mountains in this remote region formed the basis for Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Lost World.”
[8] *The rapids are known as Isl do Diablo or “rapids of the Devil”
[9] * The Willard family retained ownership of the upscale hostelry until 1946.
[10] *Present day Iraq, named so by the British, based upon the June 1919 mandate under the League of Nations
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