Operation Miracle

Four men stood near a runway at Teheran's Mehrabad airport one day this week, waiting for the arrival of an American who was coming to try to work a miracle. At 11 o'clock, a U.S. Air Force Constellation landed. Out stepped W. Averell Harriman (see box) and his wife. The four men, antagonists in the great oil dispute which threatens Western Europe's oil and the world's peace, pressed forward to greet him: Iran's Foreign Minister Bagher Kazemi, representing a government hellbent on nationalizing oil; U.S. Ambassador Henry Grady, who had tried his hardest to mediate, failed, and was quitting (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS); Norman Richard Seddon, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company's harassed chief representative in Iran; and British Ambassador Sir Francis Shepherd, who first said Harriman's mission had "not much point," later reversed himself on receiving tart word from London.

Blinking in the harsh sun, Harriman said: "I am not a mediator. I came here to see whether amicable discussions can attain the objectives both Iran and Great Britain desire. I shall stay as long as I can be useful."

Harriman and his wife drove 15 miles into the cool Elburz foothills to the sumptuous summer palace, pressed on him by the Iranian government for his stay. While two pools gurgled in the hilly garden outside, the party took lunch. Upstairs, servants freshened the Harriman bedrooms, bore in jerry cans filled with embassy well water (to ward off "Teheran tummy").

That evening, the Communist-led Tudeh party struck in Teheran. The success of the Harriman mission would arrest Iran's march to chaos and kill the Reds' chance of taking power in a bankrupt country. Ten thousand demonstrators, shouting about "Harriman, warmonger" and "Rapacious American imperialists," rushed toward Majlis Square.

Premier Mossadeq's right-wing National Frontists heckled the Reds and fists began to fly. When the police moved in to protect the Frontists, the Tudeh retaliated with bricks. Four light army tanks rumbled forward; police on trucks and horseback rushed in, flailed the rioters with sabers; there were shots. The Tudeh raised their dead to their shoulders to show them off as martyrs, and fell back. In half an hour, hundreds were wounded, several were killed, and Majlis Square was clear.

Next morning, police and steel-helmeted soldiers bearing fixed bayonets raided Tudeh headquarters, closed down two pro-Communist newspapers, and the government clamped martial law on Teheran. Tudeh leaders vanished. Harriman called on Premier Mohamed Mossadeq, talked for 70 minutes, made plans for a second meeting. For the moment, the Tudeh had been held. Teheran, tensely quiet, waited for the Harriman miracle.

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