Word: shahs
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Helms: Yeah, but what were you going to do about them? Were you going to take them up to the [Shah's] Niavaran Palace and say "Here's a fellow that's objecting to you, Boss, now do something about...
Saudi Arabia itself. Akins and others agreed that the U.S. could not let the Saudis and their oil fall into hostile hands. The country has some forbidding problems that could worsen in the years ahead. Though it does not engage in the kind of police terror that made the Shah so detested, the country is riddled with the same kind of corruption, which could eventually stir social resentment. Akins and others thought that the U.S. was asking too much of Saudi Arabia, which is not strong enough to be the bulwark of U.S. interests in the Middle East. The Saudis...
Bill listed steps that the U.S. should immediately take to improve relations with the Khomeini regime in Iran: Publicly recognize the abdication of the Shah ("We have said we will work with the new government, but we have not said an awful lot about the guy sitting out there in Morocco"). Offer the new government technical, agricultural, industrial and educational aid. Disavow convincingly any thought of sponsoring a countercoup, still a subject of great worry to the Iranian revolutionaries. Replace U.S. Ambassador William H. Sullivan, who is thought to have been too close to the Shah. Train some...
Pointing out the limitations of force, Akins went on: "We could have protected the Shah against a foreign attack as we can protect the Saudis against a foreign attack, but we are no more capable of protecting the Saudis against internal subversion than we were of protecting the Shah against revolt." If such an internal revolt came, added Akins, "it would not be leftist, it would be Muslim puritan, and we are not going to do anything with those gunboats...
James A. Bill, 40, is associate director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas and a top U.S. scholar on Iran, which he visits frequently. Bill forecast the Shah's downfall long before the fact, and has been mentioned as a possible U.S. Ambassador to Iran...