August 20, 1953

Moscow Says U. S. Aided Shah's Coup

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

OSCOW, Thursday, Aug. 20 -- Premier Mohammed Mossadegh's overthrow came at a moment when Soviet policy was strongly oriented toward rapprochement with Teheran and coincided with Soviet charges that United States intrigues and finances had lain behind the earlier stages of the Shah's coup.

There was little doubt, in view of Pravda's open charges that the United States was implicated in the first stages of the coup, that it would be linked by the Russians with the later stages.

Yesterday Pravda, in a lengthy commentary on Iran, asserted that orders for the Shah's coup were brought to Iran by Brig. Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, former New Jersey police official and one-time trainer of the Iranian Gendarmerie.

The charges against the United States have had wide dissemination in connection with a series of private and public diplomatic moves designed to demonstrate the Soviet's desire to make relations between Moscow and Teheran the model of "good neighborliness."

A Soviet-Iranian mixed commission, which was set up in Teheran to negotiate the settlement of outstanding territorial and financial questions as well as other matters affecting relations between the two nations, already has met twice in the Iranian capital.

Talks Widely Publicized

The Soviet press and radio have publicized meetings of the mixed commission, which is termed the model of correct relations between states. Simultaneously, through all propaganda media, the United States has been pictured as actively intervening in Iranian affairs and as the inspirer of the attempted coup by the Shah.

Pravda, in a special editorial today, signed "Observer," which was given the dominant position on the foreign news page, charged that the plot was financed out of funds that Congress had appropriated for what was called subversive work in other countries.

"This time the weapon of subversive activity was directed against Iran, which did not wish to become the submissive slave of American monopolies, said Pravda.

Pravda charged also that the United States had applied economic pressure to Iran and cited President Eisenhower's letter of June 29 refusing economic aid unless, according to the newspaper, Iran "agreed to accept proposals of foreign monopolies on the oil question."

[In his letter to Premier Mossadegh, President Eisenhower said: "The failure of Iran and the United Kingdom to reach an agreement with regard to compensation has handicapped the Government of the United States in its efforts to help Iran."]

When Iran refused, said Pravda, "American agents who operated within Iran hatched new diversionary plans directed toward the overthrow of the Government."

Foreign diplomats in Moscow, evaluating the current evolution of Soviet-Iranian relations, believe Moscow's moves have not been without result. They noted that the Soviet effort appeared to be timed at the moment when Iranian relations with the United States definitely were on the down grade and when the Iranians themselves were making charges of the United States' connections with the Shah's plot.

Visit Stirred Interest in U. S.

ASHINGTON, Aug. 19 -- There has been considerable speculation here over General Schwarzkopf's recent visit to Iran. He returned to the United States last week after a trip to Lebanon, Syria, Pakistan and Iran.

State Department officials said the department had arranged for General Schwarzkopf's visits to Lebanon, Syria and Pakistan, but that he had made the Iranian visit on his own initiative "to meet old friends" there.

Schwarzkopf Declines Comment

RENTON, Aug. 19 -- General Schwarzkopf, reached by telephone at his home in Maplewood, N. J., tonight, declined to comment on Moscow reports linking him with the present turmoil in Iran.

His visit to Iran was purely a personal one, he explained, adding:

"I went there to call on some friends whom I had struck up an acquaintance with during the years I was in Iran reorganizing the National Gendarmerie. I was not there this time in an official capacity and I conducted no business there."

Asked to comment on the present Iranian political situation, he explained that he preferred not to since he had been out of touch "for too long a period." He reorganized the Gendarmerie between 1942 and 1948 at the direction of the United States War Department.