William H. Sullivan

William Healy Sullivan (born October 12, 1922) is a career United States Foreign Service officer, and served as United States Ambassador to Laos in 1964, the Philippines in 1973, and Iran from 1977 to 1979.

Sullivan was born in Rhode Island. He served as the U.S. ambassador to Iran from 1977 until 1979. During this time, he played an important role in communicating U.S. wishes to Mohammad Reza Shah, the second and last Pahlavi king.In the 70's, the U.S. had unusually high military and economic links with Iran. Economically, billions of private U.S. dollars were invested in the country. Militarily, the U.S. had spent ten years redeeming its petrochemical dollars spent during the 70's oil price boom by allowing the Shah's regime to purchase the most advanced non-nuclear weapons systems available to the U.S. military (to put this in perspective, outside a handful of NATO countries, only New Zealand and Iran were allowed to purchase this level of military hardware). The U.S. therefore had very strong interests in the survival of the shah's dictatorial, autocratic regime.

However, growing unrest due to inflation and other economic hardships and fueled by the growning tide of fundamentalist Islam led to demonstrations against the Shah beginning in January, 1978. On February 1, 1979, the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Tehran and by April 1, 1979 Iran had officially become an Islamic state. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Revolution]

Throughout this revolution in Iran, Sullivan served as the chief diplomat in Iran and served as the primary messenger between the administration of US President Jimmy Carter and the Shah. Sullivan felt strongly from very early in the process that the US should abandon it's support of the Shah and move to form an alliance with Khomeini. But this view was not shared nor accepted in Washington. As revolution gained momentum, Sullivan became increasingly opposed to policy coming from Washington, to the point of being insolent and carrying out the directives of the president only half-heartedly (if at all). [Carter, Jimmy, "Keepig Faith", Bantam Books, New York, 1982, pp. 446-449.] Carter later said in an interview that Sullivan was "specifically insubordinate" and that he should have fired him earlier but was disuaded to do so by Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance. [ http://webstorage3.mcpa.virginia.edu/poh/transcripts/ohp_1982_1129_carter.pdf ] Sullivan was replaced in the Spring of 1979 by Charge' d'Affaires Bruce Laingen (who later became one of 52 Americans held hostage by militant Iranian students). [Carter, Jimmy, "Keepig Faith", Bantam Books, New York, 1982, p. 453.]

Sullivan later published "Mission to Iran"(1981, ISBN 0-393-01516-5), a memoir of his time as Ambassador.

External links

* [http://www.foreignaffairs.org/19840901fabook11961/william-h-sullivan/obbligato-notes-on-a-foreign-service-career.html Brief summary of "Mission to Iran"]