Kermit Roosevelt Junior

Kim Roosevelt

Kermit "Kim" Roosevelt junior (born February 16, 1916 in Buenos Aires , Argentina , † August 8, 2000 ) was a CIA employee , son of Kermit Roosevelt and grandson of US President Theodore Roosevelt .

Together with British agent Christopher Montague Woodhouse , he led Operation TPAJAX in 1953 , which led to the overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh . During the presidency of Harry S. Truman , it was not possible to carry out this action as Truman refused to undertake such an undertaking. It was only under his successor, Dwight D. Eisenhower , that the two agents succeeded in obtaining approval for this operation.

Career

In 1937, a year before his year, he graduated from Harvard University , married Mary Lowe Gaddis, and taught history at the California Institute of Technology . In 1941 he was hired by the Office of Strategic Services . On June 4, 1943, when Kim was 27 years old, his father, Kermit Sr., committed suicide in Fort Richardson, Alaska, where he was serving in the US Army . After Japan's surrender, Roosevelt Jr. stayed with the OSS and wrote the War Report of the OSS (Office of Strategy Services) in its service , which he published in New York in 1976.

From 1944 to 1950 he was a member of the advisory board of The Institute of Arab American Affairs (IAAA), a New York City-based organization. He became executive director of the Committee for Justice and Peace in the Holy Land, founded on March 2, 1948 . In 1951 he became executive director of the American Friends of the Middle East , which gave the activities of the presidential service a legal person .

In 1950 Roosevelt was appointed head of the Office of Policy Coordination by Frank Wisner and head of mission in Cairo . Roosevelt expressed benevolence to Gamal Abdel Nasser for the forced resignation of Muhammad Nagib on February 24, 1954.

In 1954 there were negotiations about a rock embankment dam and a power plant with eight turbines for the Aswan Dam . However, there was no funding. In December 1955 the United States and Great Britain announced a contribution of US $ 70 million. The USA withdrew their willingness seven months later because the Egyptian government officially recognized the People's Republic of China in 1956 and its neutrality policy aroused the indignation of the USA. Financing by the World Bank was therefore no longer up for discussion. Nasser then nationalized the Suez Canal , among other things in order to be able to finance the construction of the dam, survived the Suez crisis and received the support of the Soviet Union .

Roosevelt reported on "Operation Boot", the British plot of conspiracy against Mohammad Mossadegh , to have learned during a stay in London. Roosevelt later became a key player in Operation Ajax .

He claimed that he had been offered the helm of Operation PBSUCCESS , stated that this was not undercover work and that he therefore refused. In 1958 he was retired .

Fonts

• Arabs, oil, and history - the story of the Middle East . New York 1969
• War Report of the OSS (Office of Strategy Services) (as ed.), New York 1976
• Countercoup, the Struggle for the Control of Iran , 1979

President Theodore Roosevelt with his grandsons Richard Derby Roosevelt (1881–1963) (right) and Kim Roosevelt (on his lap).

Web links

Commons : Kermit Roosevelt, Jr.  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

• Jürgen Martschukat: “This is how we get rid of the madman!” How the American secret service CIA overthrew Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh 50 years ago and installed the Shah's regime. In: The time. August 14, 2003 (Kermit Roosevelt junior's role in overthrowing the Mossadegh government in Iran in 1953)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hugh Wilford, America's Great Game: The CIA's Secret Arabists and the Shaping of the modern Middle East, [1]
2. ↑ William Shawcross, The Shah's Last Ride, [2]
3. ↑ On Aug. 3rd, 1953 the secret history says, Roosevelt had a long and inconclusive session with the shah, who stated that he was not an adventurer, and hence, could not take the chances of one. s. Kermit Roosevelt, Leader of the CIA Coup in Iran, Dies at 84, The New York Times , June 11, 2000, [3]

Category: Person (Office of Strategic Services)