Correspondents' Correspondence

...On the contrary, Washington's obvious hesitations confused the Shah and his military leaders and, in several critical instances, its indecisiveness directly undercut the Shah's authority For example, when in response to a reporter's question President Carter said he did not know whether the Shah could prevail, although at that very moment the Iranian ruler seemed to be making some small headway toward creating a democratic government, he seriously undermined both efforts and the Shah's self-confidence...

...Indeed, it is in the latter connection that Israel and the other remaining pro-Western countries of the region perceive the most alarming implications of the Iranian developments The performance of the Carter Administration during the entire crisis is considered dismal After having been caught by surprise when the turmoil began (despite Israeli warnings), at no stage did it show any inclination to help Teheran control the situation...

...Whatever the specific faults of the Shah, and of the Chinese Nationalist regime in Taipei, within one month the Carter Administration undiplomatically jilted two of America's oldest and most faithful allies Inevitably, this has raised some very serious questions among America's friends in the Middle East...

...The alarms have been heightened by the belief that Washington acted as it did not because of callous implementation of a wrong policy, but because it misread the situations and lacked any carefully thought out policy Paying the unnecessary price of abrogating the U S defense pact with Taiwan for diplomatic relations with Peking, and embracing French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing while he provided the base for Khomeini and his cohorts to incite and plot against the Shah, in short has not strengthened confidence in the wisdom and reliability of the Carter Administration -Ellahu SalMemories Washington-Having spent 10 years in the capital reporting for CBS News-almost five years covering the Pentagon and the last four at the White House-I am moving on to a new assignment and will be working out of CBS' home offices in New York It's funny the things that stick in your memory...

...Pentagon memories include not merely the night we were roused out of bed and told that President Richard Nixon had put U S nuclear forces on world-wide alert, but also the time that the late Chappy James, serving as Pentagon spokesman, tried to explain to some economy-minded reporters about the doors being installed at the Pentagon "There's no tax money being wasted here," said James, who was never at a loss for words "They are not even new doors, they are just rotating the existing doors, the way you rotate the tires on your car They take the doors from the heavily traveled entrances and exchange them with doors from the entrances that are seldom used Makes them last longer " Since James was about the size of a grown grizzly bear, we took him at his word...

...Beyond the lost oil supply, Israel laments that its once flourishing trade with Iran is unlikely to be renewed, that El Al will probably be obliged to discontinue its flights there, that its important diplomatic relations with Teheran-although never elevated to de jure status-will undoubtedly be curtailed to close to zero And all this, of course, to woo the Arabs, to demonstrate the new Persia's "Moslemness " Of even greater significance, therefore, is the fact that Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini-the 78-year-old Shute Moslem leader whose subversion against the Shah was largely financed by Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi and carried out with the active assistance of Palestine Liberation Organization operatives-has already declared his full support of the Palestinian's fight against Israel For there is no excluding the possibility that should the Ayatollah and his backers get their hands on Iran's military arsenal, some of the Amencan supplied sophisticated weapons might find their w a\ not only to Moscow but to the Palestinian teirorlsts The Israelis are also won led about the late of several tens of thousands of...

...At subsequent stages, the repeated Amencan warnings against a military takeover (the only thing both Khomeini and the opposition parties still feared) clearly played into the hands of the Shah's opponents, instead of helping him bring about a compromise Later, while officially backing the Bakhtiar government, Washington officials were already reported to be bus\ explaining that one could probably h\e with a "good" regime headed b\ Khomeini...

...For instance, I attended thousands of government briefings in my stint here The one I remember most was years ago, and I have long since forgotten its purpose But I do recall it was the only time I ever saw Henry Kissinger stumped for an answer Kissinger was in something of a hurry that day, and told us, "I don't know if I can explain such a complex subject in so little time " To which UPI's Helen Thomas responded, "That's all right, just start at the end " The master of the quick comeback, realizing he had been topped, got right to the subject at hand...

...Finally, an item that for some reason I never got around to telling anyone No doubt you will remember all the stories we journalists filed about President Ford bumping his head on things What I forgot to mention to anybody was that just minutes after doing one of these reports, I was running to catch a plane back to New York, leaped aboard, and as I rushed to my seat, someone called my name Looking around to see who it was, I ran smack into the overhead luggage rack, and promptly knocked myself out I picked up a couple of other knocks on the noggin along the way, but otherwise it sure was fun -Bob Schieffer...

...Iranian Jews who stayed put, hoping to the last minute for some dramatic reversal of the events As the mood of intolerance among the crowds in Iran grows more extreme, the lives of these Jews, especially in the provincial towns, could be in danger On the larger strategic level, Jerusalem is distressed by the imminent threat resulting from having one of the two non-Arab countries in the Middle East (the other being Turkey) suddenly move over to the active anti-Israel camp But the shift m Iran's position is not only a severe blow to the regional balance of power, it affects the overall East-West balance as well...

...I traveled literally millions of miles with Presidents and other government officials during those 10 years The trips ranged from the Great Wall of China to Billy Carter's backyard One of them was particularly memorable It was night at Fort McHenry, Maryland, and the crowds were pressing around then President Gerald Ford The Chief Executive did not always excite the crowds, but that night the people loved him They held up their small children for a better view There was a man, however, who was holding up his little dog "Look, Sparky," he said, "there goes Mr Ford " One hopes that somewhere, old Sparky is telling his grandpuppies about it right now...

...Correspondents' Correspondence BRIEF TAKEOUTS OF MORE THAN PERSONAL INTEREST FROM LETTERS AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS Watching Iran Tel Avtv-With the departure of Shah Mohammed Riza Pahlevi from Teheran in mid-January, fear began growing m the Middle East that the way had been opened for the establishment of a Soviet-oriented "People's Republic" of Iran Now the question being debated is whether it will emerge straight out of the current chaos or via a fundamentalist "Islamic Republic ". In more immediate terms, Israelis have few illusions about the dismal effects of the changes in Iran on relations between the two countries Prime Minister Shahpur Bakhtiar, a moderate whose rule in the name of the Regency Council was expected from the beginning here to be shortlived, announced upon taking office that Iran would cease selling oil to Israel Thus Israel is at present trying to secure alternative sources on its own, even if this means adding to the country's "fuel bill " Jerusalem would prefer not to activate the American guarantee given in 1974, as part of the second Sinai "Separation Agreement" that included the return of the Abu Rodeis oil fields to Egypt...