No longer a client, not yet a partner: the US–Iranian alliance in the Johnson years

Abstract

This article explores the evolution of US–Iranian relations during the administration of Lyndon Johnson. Starting from the assumption that the passage from JFK to LBJ left many aspects unchanged, as several relevant transformations had already occurred prior to November 1963, it argues that that the major turning point during the Johnson years was in the mid-1960s when the consolidation of the Shah's leadership, his assertiveness in foreign policy, and the growing erosion of US leverage started to alter the terms of the partnership. This compelled the Johnson administration to initiate a reassessment of the alliance that would turn into an acknowledgement of Iranian pre-eminence in the region during the Nixon administration.

Notes

¹ See Douglas Little, ‘Choosing Sides: Lyndon Johnson and the Middle East’, in The Johnson Years, Volume Three: LBJ at Home and Abroad, ed. Robert A. Divine (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1994), 150–197; Id., ‘A Fool's Errand: America and the Middle East, 1961–1969’, in The Diplomacy of the Crucial Decade: American Foreign Policy During the 1960s, ed. Diane Kunz (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), 239–319. See also Warren I. Cohen, ‘Balancing American Interests in the Middle East: Lyndon Baines Johnson vs. Gamal Abdul Nasser’, in Lyndon Johnson Confronts the World: American Foreign Policy 1963–1968, eds. Warren I. Cohen and Nancy Tucker Bernkopf (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 279–310; Hal W. Brands, The Wages of Globalism: Lyndon Johnson and the Limits of American Power (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).

² Robert Sherrill, The Accidental President (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1968).

³ The revisionist analysis of Johnson's foreign policy started with: Hal W. Brands, ed., The Foreign Policies of Lyndon Johnson: Beyond Vietnam (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1999) and Thomas A. Schwartz, Johnson and Europe: In the Shadow of Vietnam (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003). Over the last decade a number of contributions have followed the path beaten by Brands and Schwartz. See, among others, Kristin L. Ahlberg, Transplanting the Great Society: Lyndon Johnson and Food for Peace (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2008); Jonathan Colman, The Foreign Policy of Lyndon B. Johnson: The United States and the World, 1963–69 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010); Francis J. Gavin and Mark A. Lawrence, eds. Beyond the Cold War: Lyndon Johnson and the New Global Challenges of the 1960s (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).

⁴ The only works that deal with US–Iranian policy during the Johnson years are: Andrew L. Johns, ‘The Johnson Administration, the Shah of Iran, and the Changing Pattern of US–Iranian Relations, 1965–1967: “Tired of Being Treated like a Schoolboy”’, Journal of Cold War Studies 9, no. 2 (Spring 2007): 64–94; Stephen McGlinchey, ‘Lyndon B. Johnson and Arms Credit Sales to Iran, 1964–1968’, Middle East Journal 67, no. 2 (Spring 2013): 229–247.

⁵ For a very good overview of the literature on Iran in the Cold War, see Roham Alvandi, ‘Guest Editor's Introduction: Iran and the Cold War’, Iranian Studies 47, no. 3 (2014): 373–378.

⁶ ‘US policy toward Iran’, NSC 6010, 6 July 1960, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Volume XII, Near East Region; Iraq; Iran; Arabian Peninsula (Washington: GPO, 1993), 683 (hereafter FRUS, with appropriate year, volume, and page numbers).

⁷ Roham Alvandi, ‘Nixon, Kissinger, and the Shah: The Origins of Iranian Primacy in the Persian Gulf’, Diplomatic History 36, no. 2 (2012): 337–372.

⁸ In doing so the article distances itself from analyses of the Kennedy period provided by leading scholars and follows more recent interpretations that emphasise the turning point of July 1962. Among the traditional analyses see Barry M. Rubin, Paved with Good Intentions: The American Experience in Iran (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980); James A. Bill, The Eagle and the Lion: The Tragedy of American–Iranian Relations (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988). Among the recent interpretations see Roland Popp, ‘Benign Intervention? The Kennedy Administration's Push for Reform in Iran’, in John F. Kennedy and the ‘Thousand Days’: New Perspectives on the Foreign and Domestic Policies of the Kennedy Administration eds. Manfred Berg and Andreas Etges (Heidelberg: Universitatsverlag Winter, 2007), 197–219; Id., ‘An Application of Modernization Theory During the Cold War? The Case of Pahlavi Iran’, The International History Review 30, no. 1 (2008): 76–98; Victor V. Nemchenok, ‘In Search of Stability Amid Chaos: US Policy Toward Iran 1961–63’, Cold War History 10, no. 3 (2010): 341–369.

⁹ Airgram 289 from Tehran to State, 23 November 1966, Record Group 59 (hereafter RG), Box 2333, POL 15–1 ‘Iran–1966’, National Archives and Record Administration, College Park, MD (hereafter NARA); Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Mission for my Country (London: Hutchinson, 1961), 125.

¹⁰ Robert B. Rakove, Kennedy, Johnson, and the Nonaligned World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), xxvi.

¹¹ On the Qarani coup see Mark J. Gasiorowski, ‘The Qarani Affair and Iranian Politics’, International Journal of Middle East Studies 25, no. 4 (1993): 625–644. On Soviet–Iranian negotiations see Roham Alvandi, ‘Flirting with Neutrality: The Shah, Khrushchev, and the Failed 1959 Soviet–Iranian Negotiations’, Iranian Studies 47, no. 3 (2014): 419–440.

¹² On US–Iranian relations during the Kennedy administration see, among others, James A. Goode, ‘Reforming Iran during the Kennedy Years’, Diplomatic History 15, no. 1 (1991): 13–29; April. R. Summit, ‘For a White Revolution: John F. Kennedy and the Shah of Iran’, Middle East Journal 58, no. 4 (2004): 560–575; Popp, ‘Benign Intervention?’; Nemchenok, ‘In Search of Stability’.

¹³ On the Democratic administration's dynamism towards the Third World see, among others, Michael E. Latham, Modernisation as Ideology: American Social Science and ‘Nation Building’ in the Kennedy Era (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000).

¹⁴ Goode, ‘Reforming Iran’, 16–19.

¹⁵ See Iraj Amini, Bar Bal-e Bohran: Zendegi-ye siyasi-ye Ali Amini [On the Wings of Crisis: The Political Life of Ali Amini] (Tehran: Nashr-e Mahi, 2009), 227–230 as quoted in Roham Alvandi, Nixon, Kissinger, and the Shah. The United States and Iran in the Cold War (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 22.

¹⁶ Special National Intelligence Estimate (hereafter SNIE) 34–2–61, 23 May 1961, FRUS, 1961–1963, XVII, 124.

¹⁷ Memorandum from Komer to Kennedy, 18 May 1961, FRUS, 1961–1963, XVII, 118.

¹⁸ Ibid.

¹⁹ Gholam Reza Afkhami, The Life and Times of the Shah (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009), 219. See also Roby C. Barrett, The Greater Middle East and the Cold War: US Foreign Policy Under Eisenhower and Kennedy (London: I.B. Tauris, 2007), 233.

²⁰ SNIE 34–62, 7 September 1962, FRUS, 1961–1963, XVIII, 84–88.

²¹ On the origins of the White Revolution see Ali M. Ansari, ‘The Myth of the White Revolution: Mohammad Reza Shah, “Modernization” and the consolidation of power’, Middle Eastern Studies 37, no. 3 (2001): 1–24.

²² Goode, ‘Reforming Iran’, 25. The most critical voices about full endorsement of the Shah's policies were those of NSC staffer Robert Komer and assistant director of the Bureau of the Budget, Kenneth Hansen.

²³ NSC Memorandum for the President, 20 April 1963, National Security Archives (hereafter NSA) Digital Collection: IR00474.

²⁴ On the riots of 1963 see Baqer Moin, Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah (London: I.B. Tauris, 1999), 92. On the impact of the episode on the Shah see Abbas Milani, The Shah (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 297.

²⁵ ‘The Iranian Riots and Their Aftermath’, paper prepared by Bureau of Intelligence and Research (hereafter INR), 26 June 1963, NSA Digital Collection: IR00483. See also Stuart Rockwell in an interview with Habib Ladjevardi, Cambridge, MA, 20 May 1987, tape 1, Foundation for Iranian Studies Oral History Collection (hereafter FISOHC).

²⁶ Philips Talbot in an interview with William Burr, New York, 21 November 1985, tape 3, FISOHC.

²⁷ Memorandum of Conversation between Kennedy and the Shah, 26 April 1962, National Security Files (hereafter NSF), Vice Presidential Security Files, Box 2, Folder 10 ‘VP Johnson's trip to Middle East August–September 1962’, Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, Austin, TX (hereafter LBJL). On LBJ's visit see also Mitchell B. Lerner, ‘“A Big Tree of Justice”: The Vice Presidential Travels of Lyndon Johnson’, Diplomatic History 34, no. 2 (2010): 357–393.

²⁸ Nemchenok, ‘In Search of Stability’, 20.

²⁹ Airgram 361 from Tehran to State, 31 December 1963, RG 59, Box 3942, POL 17 ‘Diplomatic and Consular Representations’, NARA.

³⁰ Homa Katouzian, Iranian History and Politics: The Dialectic of State and Society (New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004), x. See also Mark J. Gasiorowski, US Foreign Policy and the Shah: Building a Client State in Iran (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991), 187.

³¹ Telegram from Tehran to Foreign Office (hereafter FO), 21 September 1963, FO 371/170378, EP 1015/110, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey (hereafter TNA).

³² Airgram 261 from Tehran to State, 31 October 1963, RG 59, Box 3941, POL 13 ‘Non-party Blocs’, NARA.

³³ Telegram from Tehran to FO, 3 February 1964, FO 371/175712, EP 1015/3, TNA.

³⁴ On Iranian economic growth in the 1960s see Vali Nasr, ‘Politics Within the Late-Pahlavi State: The Ministry of Economy and Industrial Policy, 1963–69’, International Journal of Middle East Studies 32, no. 1 (2000): 97–122.

³⁵ Hoveyda succeeded Mansur, who was assassinated by a member of the opposition group Fada'yan-e Islam, in January 1965.

³⁶ On Khomeini's role during the protests see Ruhollah Khomeini, Islam and Revolution: Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini, trans. and ed. by Hamid Algar (Berkeley: Mizan Press, 1981), 181–188.

³⁷ Airgram 303 from Tehran to State, 10 December 1964, Papers of Martin F. Herz, Georgetown University, Washington DC (hereafter MHP), Box 1, Folder 22.

³⁸ ‘AID. Economic Assistance to Iran’, June 1966, Unites States Agency for International Development Archives, USAID Headquarters, Washington DC.

³⁹ Memorandum from Talbot to Harriman, 6 June 1964, FRUS, 1964–1968, XXII, 80–81.

⁴⁰ Telegram from State to Tehran, 9 June 1964, FRUS, 1964–1968, XXII, 82.

⁴¹ ‘US policy toward Iran’, NSC 6010.

⁴² Memorandum from Komer to Bundy, 27 June 1964, FRUS, 1964–1968, XXII, 92.

⁴³ Telegram from Tehran to State, 1 May 1965, NSF, Country Files, Box 136, Folder 3, ‘Iran, vol. I, Cables 1/64–12/65’, LBJL.

⁴⁴ Rusk praised the Shah's help in Vietnam in these terms: ‘We value very highly this contribution to free-world efforts in the country’. Memorandum from Rusk to Johnson, 3 December 1965, NSF, Special Head of State Correspondence, Box 24, ‘Iran, Shah Correspondence’, LBJL.

⁴⁵ On the Shah's role within the Afro-Asian bloc see Eric Gettig, ‘“Trouble Ahead in Afro-Asia”: The United States, the Second Bandung Conference, and the Struggle for the Third World, 1964–1965’, Diplomatic History 39, no. 1 (2015): 126–156.

⁴⁶ McGlinchey, ‘Lyndon B. Johnson and Arms Credit Sales to Iran’, 233.

⁴⁷ Memorandum from Rostow to Johnson, 12 May 1966, FRUS, 1964–1968, XXII, 508.

⁴⁸ ‘Studies in Political Dynamics – Iran’, paper prepared by INR, December 1966, NSA Digital Collection: IR00603.

⁴⁹ Armin H. Meyer, Quiet Diplomacy: From Cairo to Tokyo in the Twilight of Imperialism (Lincoln: iUniverse, 2003), 143.

⁵⁰ Dean Rusk in an interview with William Burr, Athens, Georgia, 23 May 1986, tape 1, FISOHC.

⁵¹ Memorandum from Rostow to Johnson, 29 April 1968, FRUS, 1964–1968, XXII, 508.

⁵² Airgram 529 from Teheran to State, 15 April 1968, RG 59, Box 2219, POL ‘Political Affairs & Relations Iran–US’, NARA.

⁵³ Memorandum from Read to Kissinger, 30 January 1969, RG 59, Box 2220, POL ‘Political Aff. & Rel. Iran–US 1–1–1967’, NARA.

⁵⁴ On the military dimension of US–Iranian relations during the Nixon years see Stephen McGlinchey ‘Richard Nixon's Road to Tehran: The Making of the US–Iran Arms Agreement of May 1972’, Diplomatic History 37, no. 4 (2013): 841–860.

⁵⁵ See Roham Alvandi, ‘The Shah's Détente with Khrushchev: Iran's 1962 Missile Base Pledge to the Soviet Union’, Cold War History 14, no. 3 (2014): 423–444.

⁵⁶ Johns, ‘The Johnson Administration, the Shah of Iran’, 77.

⁵⁷ ‘Soviet–Iranian Steel Mill and Pipeline Agreement’, INR report to Rusk, 23 March 1966, NSF, Files of Robert Komer, Box 28, Folder 1, ‘Iran, 1965–March 1966’, LBJL.

⁵⁸ Memorandum from Hughes to Rusk, 16 November 1965, NSF, Files of Robert Komer, Box 42, Folder 1, ‘MAP – Korea/Iran (December 1963–March 1966)’, LBJL.

⁵⁹ Telegram from Teheran to State, 7 July 1966, FRUS, 1964–1968, XXII, 270–274.

⁶⁰ Letter from Johnson to the Shah, 20 July 1966, FRUS, 1964–1968, XXII, 287–289.

⁶¹ Ibid.

⁶² Airgram 89 from Tehran to State, 16 August 1966, MHP, Box 1, Folder 22.

⁶³ Ibid.

⁶⁴ See the classic: Rouhollah K. Ramazani, ‘Iran's Changing Foreign Policy: A Preliminary Discussion’, Middle East Journal 24, no. 4 (1970): 421–437. See also ‘The Shah of Iran as a Nationalist’, INR Report to Rusk, 27 March 1968, RG 59, Box 2217, POL 15–1 ‘Iran – 1968’, NARA.

⁶⁵ Pahlavi, Mission for my Country, 125.

⁶⁶ For Congress's reaction to the Soviet sale see: US Senate, 90th Congress, Hearings before the Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs of the Committee on Foreign Relations, ‘Arms Sales to Near East and South Asian Countries’, 14 March 1967, 1–24. On the US internal debate see also Johns, ‘The Johnson Administration, the Shah of Iran’, 91–92.

⁶⁷ Airgram 89 from Tehran to State, MHP.

⁶⁸ Telegram from Tehran to State, 2 March 1966, FRUS, 1964–1968, XXII, 216–217.

⁶⁹ Letter from Meyer to Hare, 19 March 1966, NSA Digital Collection: IR00570.

⁷⁰ Airgram 460 from Tehran to State, 28 February 1967, RG 59, Box 3942, POL 15 ‘Government’, NARA.

⁷¹ Letter from Meyer to Eliot, 25 January 1967, RG 59, Box 1555, DEF ‘Iran–1–1–1967’, NARA.

⁷² ‘Near East, North Africa, and the Horn of Africa: A Recommended American Strategy’, Report prepared by the Special State–Defense Study Group, undated ca. 17 July 1967, FRUS, 1964–1968, XXII, 55.

⁷³ ‘Comments on Holmes Study’, report by Harold Saunders, 1 September 1967, NSF, Agency Files, Box 56, Folder ‘SIG 9/14/67’, LBJL.

⁷⁴ ‘The US and USSR in the Middle East’, Memorandum prepared by Saunders, 5 September 1967, NSF, Agency Files, Box 56, Folder ‘SIG 9/14/67’, LBJL.

⁷⁵ On British withdrawal from the Gulf see William T. Fain III, American Ascendancy and British Retreat in the Persian Gulf Region (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).

⁷⁶ Asadollah Alam, The Shah and I: The Confidential Diary of Iran's Royal Court, 1969–1977, trans. ed. Alinaghi Alikhani (London: I.B. Tauris, 1991), 66.

⁷⁷ Airgram 532 from Teheran to State, 15 April 1968, RG 59, Box 2217, POL 15–1 ‘Iran–1968’, NARA.

⁷⁸ Bill, The Eagle and the Lion, 319.

⁷⁹ William H. Lehfeldt in an interview with William Burr, Washington DC, 29 April 1987, tape 1, FISOHC.

⁸⁰ Memorandum from Rostow to Humphrey, 13 February 1967, NSF, Files of Walt W. Rostow, Box 7, Folder 9, LBJL.

⁸¹ Armin Meyer in an interview with William Burr, Washington DC, 29 March 1985, tape 1, FISOHC.

⁸² Talbot in an interview with Burr, tape 3, FISOHC.

⁸³ CIA Special Memorandum, 9–68, 7 May 1968, NSA Digital Collection: IR00663.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation [Grant number 09-0602].