How Nixon and the Shah Shaped U.S.-Iran Relations

Added: 2026-05-04

[00:00:10]Shah Reza Pahlavi's long reign spanned eight American presidential administrations.

[00:00:20]But it was his special relationship and personal friendship with President Nixon that made history and changed history.

[00:00:35]The Vice President and the Second Lady met the Shah for the first time [music] in Tehran in December 1953.

[00:00:44]In notes he made at the time, Nixon described [music] the Shah's quiet dignity.

[00:00:49]He was impressed by his probing astute questions.

[00:00:53]He sensed an inner [music] strength.

[00:00:55]He felt that he would become a strong leader.

[00:00:59]That 1953 meeting was the start of a uniquely personal relationship based on [music] mutual respect that lasted almost four decades.

[00:01:09]One year later they met again when the Shah came to Washington for three days of talks about military assistance and aid.

[00:01:17]Vice [music] President and Mrs. Nixon welcomed him and Queen Soraya at National Airport.

[00:01:23]They met again in Washington in 1958.

[00:01:27]Nixon made notes of the conversations he had with the Shah in Tehran in 1967 during one of several [music] international fact-finding trips he made as a private citizen. Talking about Farah Diba, the Shah said, "The Queen has a great personality in her own right and she will be the first woman regent in Iran history after their coronation a few months later."

[00:01:51]The Shah told RN, "No possibility to cool down the Arab-Israel conflict."

[00:01:59]The Shah believes US gave him bad political advice and said, [music] "I will decide what system works for my people."

[00:02:08]Nixon's seminal article, Asia After Vietnam, was published in Foreign Affairs in October and his discussions with the Shah played an important [music] role in developing what became the Nixon Doctrine.

[00:02:24]Two years later, two days after his inauguration in January 1969, [music] the new president received a letter from his old friend.

[00:02:33]"I am fully convinced that with your intimate knowledge of this part of the world >> [music] >> and with due regard to the long-standing friendship and cordiality that exist between us, we will not [music] fail to take every necessary measure for the further strengthening of the relations between our two countries on the basis of mutual respect [music] and trust."

[00:02:58]In May 1969, [music] the Shah came to Washington for President Eisenhower's funeral.

[00:03:07]In October, he [music] returned on a state visit that marked a turning point in the relations between the two countries.

[00:03:19]The new president introduced a new grand strategy shifting the focus of Middle East policy to Iran as the cornerstone of regional stability and America's partner countering Soviet [music] expansion.

[00:03:33]In 1972, the Shah and Shahbanu welcomed the President and First Lady to Iran.

[00:03:44]The friendship between Mrs. Nixon and the Empress deepened.

[00:03:49]This memorable visit has been described [music] as the capstone event in the shift of US Persian Gulf policy emphasizing Iranian primacy.

[00:04:00]At the White House in 1973, >> [music] >> the warmth of the welcomes reflected the depth of the friendship.

[00:04:28]In 1979, the former president traveled to Mexico to Cuernavaca to confer and console with the exiled and ailing Shah.

[00:04:41]He made notes for his meeting with reporters.

[00:04:44]"I look forward to paying my respects to the Shah, a personal friend [music] for over 25 years and a friend of US for over 30 years.

[00:04:53]As we see the agony of Iran, we realize importance >> [music] >> of standing by our friends.

[00:05:00]If we don't, we will end up with no friends."

[00:05:04]The next day he made notes of his conversation with the Shah.

[00:05:09]"The Shah does not refer to President Carter.

[00:05:13]Does >> [music] >> refer to fact he was not well served by human rights activists in his administration who by insisting on [music] instant democracy in Iran mortally weakened the Shah.

[00:05:26]He is depressed [music] by what is happening to Iranian people. He is still knowledgeable, interested in [music] world affairs."

[00:05:34]I saw the Shah the last time in Mexico at Cuernavaca, Mexico.

[00:05:38]Uh he was then in the last phases of terminal cancer, although uh he would never admit it or talk about his own problems at all. But he was quite thin and quite pale. Uh but his head still as active and sharp as it always been. He's a very intelligent, introspective man.

[00:05:53]What happened to the Shah uh I think could only be interpreted in that part of the world and other parts of the world as well is that it is dangerous to be a friend of the United States and it may pay to be an enemy.

[00:06:09]Uh I think what we have to understand is that the Shah was the best friend of the United States in that area and the whole Persian Gulf area and it was Israel's only friend.

[00:06:21]Uh the Shah we must remember in the 1973 war uh furnished oil for our Mediterranean fleet when the other countries in the area cut it off. Uh and the Shah tied down uh the Iraqi forces by supporting the Kurds against the Iraqis so that they never got involved in the '73 war.

[00:06:39]A year later, >> [music] >> he made a sad and lonely pilgrimage to Cairo to attend the Shah's funeral.

[00:06:45]At the airport, [music] he gave reporters a personal and historical perspective.

[00:06:50]There's no question that the the Shah leaving Iran is a tragedy, a personal tragedy for him, a tragedy for the people of Iran who now are suffering repression much greater than they had before, who have 4 million at least unemployed and runaway inflation under a government that is not really a government, it's really a mob. Uh all these things have happened, but also it was, in addition to being a personal tragedy for the Shah, a tragedy for the people of Iran, it was certainly a tragedy for what we call the West because what was leadership and stability in that part of the world is now replaced by instability.

[00:07:32]The next day, he marched alongside the Shahbanu and the Crown Prince [music] in the Shah's funeral procession through the streets of Cairo.

[00:07:41]The former president, [music] now a private citizen, was the only American dignitary there.

[00:07:49]Several years later, he recalled that day and spoke about his friend.

[00:07:55]When I was there, uh I was the only dignitary of any rank who came to the Shah's funeral because here the Shah who before everybody was bowing and scraping before him, the heads of state and government and so forth because he was rich and powerful and so forth, and now they all avoided him because he was out of power.

[00:08:14]Uh and I never forgot that as I was standing there uh in the big tent where all the VIPs, usually ambassadorial level, not head of state level, were standing, uh Sadat came walking in, resplendent in his uh uh uniform, general's uniform.

[00:08:33]He saw me, his eyes lit up, and he walked over, held both hands out, and he said, "How good of you to come. How good of you to come."

[00:08:40]And I said, "Mr. President, it was very courageous of you to receive the Shah after virtually every other country did not grant him sanctuary."

[00:08:52]And he said, "Courageous, sir?

[00:08:55]It isn't courageous to stand up for a friend."

[00:09:00]Today, as events are unfolding in Iran and the Middle East, the long friendship and unique partnership between two remarkable men, Richard Nixon and Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, can provide an example of how true leadership can work to make a better and safer world.

[00:09:19]But more than instruction, they can be a source of vision and inspiration.