Sullivan--Cool Salesman

The spiral staircase leading to the ambassador's office on the second floor of the American mission in Tehran is lined with photographs of the Shah posing with every U.S. President from F.D.R. to Jimmy Carter. In the ambassador's own living quarters, there hangs a lacquered painting of a peaceful Vietnamese peasant scene with a simple inscription: "To my friend Bill Sullivan." The signature is that of South Viet Nam's ex-President Nguyen Van Thieu.

William H. Sullivan, 56, who played a major role in shaping U.S. policy in Southeast Asia, has been Washington's man in Iran since 1977. Last week, as he was held hostage in his own embassy, the irony of those mementos was apparent. "They shot up my home, my office and the chancery -an interesting Valentine's Day," said the ambassador. "You win some, you lose some."

Sullivan's sang-froid was characteristic; he is known in diplomatic circles as a self-assured salesman of policy, cool under stress and adroit at coping with diplomatic delicacies. "I think he's got water for blood," says Eugene Lawson, a former State Department colleague who is now a director at Georgetown University's foreign service school. "He's a collected, shrewd guy who always seems to land on his feet."

A career diplomat for 32 years, Sullivan graduated from Tufts' Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and joined the State Department in 1947 after a three-year stint in the Navy. His first overseas assignment, to Thailand, was followed by posts in Calcutta, Tokyo, Rome and The Hague. In 1962 he was tapped as deputy of the American delegation to the Laos neutrality conference in Geneva by then Assistant Secretary of State W. Averell Harriman,who admired ability "to see the other fellow's point of view."

Sullivan was regarded as a Harrirnan protege and as an expert on Southeast Asia. During his five-year assignment (1964-69) as Ambassador to Laos, he caught the eye of Henry Kissinger. As Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs from 1969 to 1973, Sullivan played a major role in the Viet Nam peace negotiations. But he also earned the enmity of antiwar activists, for he had directed the secret U.S. bombing of Pathet Lao targets in Laos. He later admitted withholding the truth about the raids from visiting members of Congress.

In 1973 Sullivan was named U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines, where he skillfully handled delicate negotiations over the extension of U.S. leases on its military bases there. His nomination as Ambassador to Iran was among the first made by the new Carter Administration. Had he been proposed later, there is some question as to whether Sullivan would have been approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Liberals on the committee had reservations about his role in Viet Nam and his reputation for favoring authoritarian regimes.

In Tehran Sullivan initially reinforced the policy of his predecessor, former CIA Director Richard Helms, that embassy staffers should avoid contact with the Shah's opposition. Sullivan later reversed that position when the dimensions of the protest became apparent. American businessmen in Iran have found the silver-thatched envoy approachable and friendly, but many complain that he kept them in the dark about U.S. plans and perceptions. One of Sullivan's own insights was oddly prescient. After taking over the embassy in June 1977, he was asked about parallels between Tehran and Vientiane. His reply: "We ran Laos, but in Iran, which is tremendously important to us, there's not much we or anyone else can do.

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