Monday, Apr. 04, 1949
Safety in Persia
The United Nations' first--and only clear-cut--contribution to checking Russian aggression resulted in the withdrawal of the Red army from Persia in the spring of 1946. After the Azerbaijan crisis, the Russians turned off the heat; last week, they turned it on again,
Moscow propaganda trumpeted the customary accusations: the U.S. was transforming Persia into a military base against the Soviet Union; as a pretext for the outlawing of Persia's Communist Party, the U.S. had engineered last month's attempt on the life of Shah Riza Pahlevi,* who was glumly recovering from his injuries (see cut). In Washington, Secretary of State Dean Acheson called these Russian accusations "false and demonstrably untrue."
Acheson told what the U.S. was doing in Persia. A military mission with about 50 officers and enlisted men advises the Persians on problems of military administration. The mission's presence has been requested by Persia and is covered by an agreement registered with the U.N. Also on hand is a U.S. police mission, composed of twelve officers and men, who went to Persia in 1942 under Colonel Norman Schwarzkopf, former director of the New
Jersey state police. They help train Persia's gendarmerie. That, said Acheson,is all. Acheson did not say so but it is a fact that scores of Communist agents have swarmed into northern Persia in the last few months. Teheran last week reported an "incident" near Gurgan, on the Persian-Russian border, where 50 Russian soldiers clashed with Persian forces; one Persian was killed, two abducted.
* The Shah's exwife, beautiful Princess Fawzia, whom he divorced last fall because she had borne him no sons, last week remarried in Cairo. Her new spouse: Ismail Shirene Bey, a minor official in the Egyptian premier's office. Both Fawzia (sister of Egypt's King Farouk) and her new husband are descended from Mohammed AH Pasha (1769-1849), the Albanian adventurer who founded the present Egyptian dynasty.
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