7 #3 SECURITY INFORMATION PECIAI HANDLING 4 DEPARTMENT OF STATE 14 1541 541v Memorandum of Conversation DATE December 3 1952 nU SUBJECT British Proposal to Organize a Coup d'etat in Iran Fi PARTICIPANTS British Embassy - Sir Christopher Steel Mr Bernard Burrows A -Hr Matthews - Hr Nitze NEA - nr Jernegan COPIES TO ORIGINAL ONLY Sir Christopher Steel referred to the previous informal discussions on weys of D combating Communism in Iran and said that the British Government had not yet come tocD any'definite conclusions However he thought both the British and American parti- cipants in the recent talks had pretty well decided that there are only three possib lines which events in Iran might take 1 losadeq would remain in power and would I take steps to check the Tudeh 2 Mosadeq would fall or be helped out by the Britislbq and Americans and replaced by someone disposed to take definite steps against the Communists or 3 there would be no change in the governmental attitude and the q Conummists would gradually take control The British view was that Mosadeq was very unlikely to do anything effective against the Comunists They felt he was by nature too vacillating to take a strongz stand Mr Burrows commented that there was disagreement on this point between the 3 British and Americans Mr Jernegan confirmed that the Department and Ambassador h Henderson believed Mbsadeq was sincerely anti-communist and that if he were able toy effect an oil settlement or otherwise strengthen the financial position of his Government he would take a firmer position against the Tudeh I said I understood the British Government was now suggesting that our two Governments should promote some sort of coup d'etat to replace Dr Mosadeq Sir Christopher replied that his Government was by no means decided on this point but 3K3 did think it should be seriously considered and would like us to be thinking about it I asked some questions regarding the assurances of success of such an attempt but received only general answers Sir Christopher and Burrows admitted that the scheme had elements of uncertainty and danger They insisted however that it 9 might be less dangerous than continued reliance upon the Hosadeq Government as a barrier against Communism - - DECLASSIFIED In w N1 1 13526 Sec 3 1N NW -- Woman By UJ j 2 - SECURITY INFOEIATION SPECI LING Ir Nitze asked whether it would not be possible to test out the organi zation with which the British are in contact in Iran by undertaking a campaign against Kashani and the Tudeh without trying to displace Dr Mosadeq If such a campaign were successful it would give good evidence of the possibility of staging a coup d'etat to put in a new government Ir Burrows did not think this would be feasible because he doubted if the Iranian organization would be interested in an operation which did not involve the removal of Mosadeq Sir Christopher Steel added that it was difficult if not iapossible for anyone to do anything effective against the Tudeh unless he controlled the machinery of the Government Mr Jernegan concurred in this viewn I said we would not want to dismiss the idea of a coup but we did feel that at least one more effort should be made to arrive at an oil settlement with lbsadeq I reminded them that we were presently working on a new line of ap- proach and that Mr Nitae would be going to London soon for further discussion I also observed that the present Administration is not in a good position to take serious decisions of this kind since it will be going out of office so soon Sir Christopher said he fully understood this and did not expect any inmediate firm answer from us although it would probably be necessary to take a decision by the end of January since the best time for the coup would be in the Spring and a certain amount of preparation would be necessary It was agreed that no action would be taken at the present time but that we would keep the suggestion in mind It was also agreed that there should be no further discussion between CIA and the British intelligence representatives on the subject until further notice Burrows said that the two British intel- ligence officers now in lashington were returning to London almost immediately and that in any case it was thought preferable that further technical discus- sions be held in the Middle East mum hh 12 3 52 see saw SECURITY INFORMATION Copy from the National Archives Record Group 59 General Records of the Department of State 1950 54 Central Decimal File File                     National Security Archive    Suite 701  Gelman Library  The George Washington University    2130 H Street  NW  Washington  D C  20037    Phone  202 994‐7000  Fax  202 994‐7005  nsarchiv@gwu edu