43. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in Iran0
310. For the Ambassador. In initial presentation multi-year MAP to Shah you authorized state that despite severe funding limitations US prepared go ahead with frigates as well as radar requirements. President does not want be put in position of overruling Defense because of Shah’s personal intervention, but is willing for you to say that frigate and radar add-ons are result of his personal decision.
At same time President desires you make crystal clear to Shah and others that this all the give we’ve got. We regard modified five-year package as maximum support we able provide over period, given our desire to assist Iran’s economic development as equally pressing need. President hopes Shah will not regard concession on frigates as precedent for further personal pleas, but will now accept level of US military aid and concurrent streamlining of Iranian forces as settled, permitting Shah to turn to urgent business of domestic reform and development. We depend on you to get these points across, both in these discussions and by continuous efforts to guide Shah’s interest away from overly sophisticated military playthings and toward real social-economic needs of Iran.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 788.5/9-1062. Secret; Niact. Drafted in the White House, cleared by Johnson and Rusk, and approved by Little. Repeated to USCINCEUR. The original draft of this telegram, much different than that printed here, was forwarded to Bundy on September 17 under cover of a memorandum from Brubeck. A copy of the text of the telegram showing Bundy’s handwritten changes and additions is in Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Countries Series, Iran, 9/24/62–9/30/62. Brubeck’s memorandum also transmitted a proposal from Rusk and McNamara that Ambassador Holmes, while presenting the multi-year MAP package, inform the Shah that President Kennedy had personally ordered the restoration of two naval frigates to Iran, which had earlier been deleted from the program due to budgetary stringencies. (Department of State, Central Files, 788.5/9-1762) This recommendation was made in response to an urgent plea from Holmes that the frigates be restored, because the Shah had personally asked President Kennedy to restore them. (Telegram 404 from Tehran, September 14; ibid., 788.5/9-1462)↩