Original Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Handling Restrictions -- N/A or Blank -- Executive Order: -- N/A or Blank -- TAGS: ANDERSON, JACK - Jack Anderson |CIA - Central Intelligence Agency | IR - Iran | PAHLAVI, MOHAMMAD REZA - Mohammad Reza Pahlavi | SOPN - Social Affairs--Public Opinion and Information | WHITTEN, LES Enclosure: -- N/A or Blank -- Office Origin: ORIGIN PA - Bureau of Public Affairs Office Action: -- N/A or Blank -- From: Department of State To: Secretary of State | US Delegation Secretary Canonical ID: 1975STATE163771_b Current Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Character Count: 5863 Locator: TEXT ON MICROFILM,TEXT ONLINE Concepts: BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION | PRESS SUMMARIES | QUEEN |RESEARCH | SHAH | TOSEC Type: TE - Telegram (cable) Archive Status: Electronic Telegrams Markings: Margaret P. Grafeld Declassified/Released US Department of State EO Systematic Review 06 JUL 2006 https://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1975STATE163771_b.html 1. Herewith full text jack anderson and les whitten story, friday, july 22, Washpost headlined "CIA study finds shah insecure." 2. The central intelligence agency has compiled a disturbing psychological profile of the shah of Iran, Whom the United States is building up to be the guardian of its interests in the Persian Gulf. 3. This secret study portrays the Shah as a brilliant but dangerous megalomaniac, who is likely to pursue his own aims in disregard of U.S. interests. 4. Already, he has pushed harder than any other oil potentate for stratospheric oil prices. Yet secretary of state HENRY A. KISSINGER has overlooked the economic damage this has caused and has courted him obsequiously. 5. With huge arms shipments and technical aid, the UNITED STATES is helping the Shah transform Iran into a world power. The purpose is to assure that the fabulous oil fields of the persian gulf remain under friendly domination. 6. yet the psychological study suggests that the shah is an uncertain ally. his dreams of glory, apparently, exceed his ability to finance them. When his oil revenues run out in an estimated two decades, he might use his new military power to seize some neighboring fields. 7. All of this is strongly implied in the CIA profile, which traces the shah's psychological problems to three sources--(1) An overbearing father, (2) The humiliation of serving at first as a puppet ruler, and (3) His inability for years to produce a male heir to the peacock throne. 8. The Shah's father began his career as an illiterate soldier and battered his way to the throne. Possessed of an explosive cossack temperament, he was known to slay dogs that dared bark in his presence, to hurl offending subordinates bodily through windows and to string up enemies by their heels and kick in their teeth. 9. He had little patience with his son, a sickly lad given to day-dreaming. One time, the old man came upon the boy standing beside a palace pool. The father asked the boy what he was doing. "thinking," replied the crown prince, whereupon his father uttered a roaring curse and booted his heir into the pool. 10. By contrast, a twin sister, princess ashraf, is a forceful, aggressive, vivacious woman quick to slap the face of anyone who displeases her. "It's too bad she was not the boy," the old Shah used to muse. 11. During World War II, the elder Shah demonstrated an unfortunate preference for the NAZIs. This encouraged the british and russians to occupy iran in 1941. They deposed him and deposited his 21-year old son on the throne. 12. For the next 12 years, the young Shah was no more than a figurehead. His ministers, fearing permanent occupation by the british and russians, invited the americans in. U.S. officials temporarily ran the country while the Shah spent his days riding horses, flying planes, speeding around in fast cars and chasing women. 13. But on the throne, he was a weak, retiring personality. When his appendix was removed in the early 1950's, Westerners in Tehran joked that "now the shah has no guts at all."