Or: “Headaches of a U.S. President” (1952)
Arash Norouzi The Mossadegh Project | July 14, 2020 |
Following stints in India and Greece, Henry F. Grady’s
resignation as U.S.
Ambassador to Iran in Sept. 1951 also marked his retirement from government.
Then came “Headaches of an Ambassador”, a mini-memoir in the November 15, 1952 issue of The Saturday Evening Post, his second piece for the magazine that year.
Ruffled by the article, President Harry S. Truman responded with a sarcastic, defensive letter to Grady, a career diplomat whom Truman had thrice appointed as U.S. Ambassador. Grady replied Nov. 22, leading to another handwritten
note from Truman on the 27th.
Despite clear disagreement, the two statesmen maintained a cordial relationship until Grady’s death in 1957.
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
My dear Henry,
Or should I say Dr. Grady? [He had a PhD from Columbia University] I’ve just read your Saturday Evening Post piece about the trial of an Ambassador. To me it is a very interesting article — from the
appointee’s view point.
I wonder if you’d be at all interested in the view point of the one who makes the appointment? Well here goes, whether you are or not.
You were a most able and efficient representative of the President in India. In fact you were so good that it was decided to send you to a real trouble spot — Greece. Another remarkable record was chalked up and then came Iran. That
Soviet crack about blood and Mrs. Grady by the Soviets got you. [DNC official and former actress Lucretia del Valle Grady accompanied her husband in Iran, promoting women’s suffrage. Upon their transfer to
Tehran from Athens, wrote Grady, Soviet radio dubbed her “Henry Grady’s blood-drinking woman”] Henry I wonder if you have any idea of that same propaganda machine’s attacks on the President of the United States? I wonder if
you realize what Winchell, Pegler, Pearson, Fulton Lewis, Trohan, Roy Howard and the unspeakable Hearst have said and done to the character and private life of one Harry S. Truman?
[Syndicated columnists Walter Winchell, Westbrook Pegler, Drew Pearson, and Fulton Lewis, Jr., Chicago Tribune reporter Walter J. Trohan, plus two publishing giants: Scripps Howard News Service chairman Roy
Howard and William Randolph Hearst Jr. of Hearst Newspapers.]
Sitting at the President’s desk, surveying world situations[,] when a man stands out, he’s used on hard, thankless assignments. He becomes fed up, frustrated and then comes — a Saturday Evening Post
article — a justification, maybe a sop to his ego.
When George Marshall was Secretary of State I asked him to give Stanton Griffis a diplomatic post. He didn’t want to do it — finally sent him to Poland.
About six months after that the great general came in to see me and said we were in trouble in Egypt and he needed a tiptop man there. He asked if I’d send Griffis — and then said “now laugh if you like”. When that job was cleaned up
I sent Griffis to the Argentine and then to Spain. Then he went sour — and I didn’t blame him anymore than I blame you. “The life of a trouble shooter is not a happy one”.
I have appointed more career diplomats to top places than all the Presidents together — and fewer “fat cats” than any other President.
I’m sorry you found it necessary to take a crack at Chester Bowles and Dean Acheson. Chester is one of our best and has improved our Indian relations 100%. [U.S. Ambassador to India] Dean will be
rated by history as our greatest Secretary of State. But a man has to have a kick in the form of a personal attack if he sells an article to any of the dirty,
slick, postal
subsidized magazines and I understand.
I’m still grateful for India, Greece and Iran — but I wish you could have understood better the President’s problems. Sincerely, H.S.T.
• Source: Harry S. Truman Library [Annotations by Arash Norouzi]
• Truman and Grady photo from a dinner in Truman’s honor, Oct. 4, 1952. Source: The San Francisco Call Bulletin via The California Digital Library:
[link].
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
Dear Henry:
I’ll never call you Doctor again. Your reply to my spasm of a few days ago took all the fire out of me. I am very glad because in my book you are a great man.
Let me tell you something about the Iranian situation from this end: We held Cabinet meetings on it — we held Security Council meetings on it; and Dean, Bob Lovett, Charlie Sawyer, Harriman and all the senior staff of
Central Intelligence discussed that awful situation with
me time and again. [Sec. of State Dean Acheson, Sec. of Defense Robert Lovett, Sec. of Commerce Charles W. Sawyer, Special Assistant W. Averell Harriman]
The decisions were made by me, not by Dean. So, I’m to blame if things went hay wire. We tried two years before the final event to get the block headed British to have their oil company make a fair deal with Iran. No. They could not
do that. They knew all about how to handle it — we didn’t according to them.
We had Israel, Egypt, near east defense, Sudan, South Africa, Tunisia, the NATO treaties all on the fire. Britain and the Commonwealth Nations were and are absolutely essential if these things are successful. Then on top of it all we
have Korea and Indo China. [fighting in Korea and Vietnam] Iran was only one incident.
Of course the man on the ground in each one of these places can only see his own problem. The President must see the whole picture and make his decisions accordingly. Maybe I made some wrong ones — but I made them and I shall never
run out on the men who carried them out.
Some day, when I leave this Great White Jail, I want to sit with you and discuss history from 1920 to 1953. We can have a great time!
Harry S. Truman
• [Annotations by Arash Norouzi]
• Source: Strictly Personal and Confidential: The Letters Harry Truman Never Mailed (1999). Truman did send a slightly different version of this letter.
Related links:
Time For Truman Action | Sarasota Herald Tribune, Dec. 12, 1951
Amb. Henry Grady Meets Premier Mossadegh For First Time: May 2, 1951
Truman’s Hatred of Press Seems Almost Psychopathic (Oct. 9, 1951)
MOSSADEGH t-shirts — “If I sit silently, I have sinned”




