II. Activist, Strategist

It would give me great pleasure to claim truthfully that it was I who brought Jim Burnham to Washington in early 1953 to assist with AJAX, Kim Roosevelt’s operation to save the Shah of Iran from Dr. Mossadegh and his Tudeh (Communist) supporters, but, alas, the credit belongs entirely to Kim. I did, however, lend critical support to Kim’s argument by suggesting that, while Jim was at it, he could also give us a bit of advice on how to handle my own charge, President Nasser of Egypt.

As I remember the sequence of events, someone in “OPC,” the Agency’s operations department, found the Roosevelt plan “too direct,” as it involved nothing more complicated than getting a mob of some ten thousand Iranians who were chanting, “Death to the Shah! Long live Mossadegh!” to change their tune to “Death to Mossadegh! Long live the Shah!” Frank Wisner, our boss, decided that it needed “a touch of Machiavelli” to ensure that what emerged in Iran after the coup would make some kind of sense. The Machiavellians being fresh in his mind, Kim Roosevelt immediately thought of Jim Burnham, who, he said, would “lend credibility” to the operation.

MC

About the Author

Miles Copeland

It would give me great pleasure to claim truthfully that it was I who brought Jim Burnham to Washington in early 1953 to assist with AJAX, Kim Roosevelt’s operation to save the Shah of Iran from Dr. Mossadegh and his Tudeh (Communist) supporters, but, alas, the credit belongs entirely to Kim. I did, however, lend critical support to Kim’s argument by suggesting that, while Jim was at it, he could also give us a bit of advice on how to handle my own charge, President Nasser of Egypt.

As I remember the sequence of events, someone in “OPC,” the Agency’s operations department, found the Roosevelt plan “too direct,” as it involved nothing more complicated than getting a mob of some ten thousand Iranians who were chanting, “Death to the Shah! Long live Mossadegh!” to change their tune to “Death to Mossadegh! Long live the Shah!” Frank Wisner, our boss, decided that it needed “a touch of Machiavelli” to ensure that what emerged in Iran after the coup would make some kind of sense. The Machiavellians being fresh in his mind, Kim Roosevelt immediately thought of Jim Burnham, who, he said, would “lend credibility” to the operation.