October 28, 1952
MEMORANDUM OF CONVERSATION
Participants: Mr. Selwyn Lloyd Mr. Acheson
Mr. Selwyn Lloyd called at my request for a general talk. We discussed first the recent conversations in London held by Mr. Nitze on the subject of Iran. I gave him a pretty full report of Mr. Nitze's conversations and of the work which the British were conducting prior to a resumption of the conversations. I told him of Mr. Nitze's statement, which we had authorized him to make, that in the event some solutions could be worked out along the lines set forth in Mr. Nitze's talk, and a difficulty remained in the furnishing of immediate funds to Mosadeq, we would be willing to advance a sum (I mentioned a figure which Mr. Nitze mentioned) as an advance to be paid off out of the proceeds of future oil sales. I said that we felt that progress had been made in these talks, if for no other reason than that we had, I thought, for the first time recognized the problems and faced them squarely and had a real exchange of ideas.
Mr. Lloyd said that he thought the talks had made progress. He thought that our willingness to help in a financial way most useful and that it introduced a new element inasmuch as the Company had not been able to do so. He felt certain that progress had been made, in that we had both understood the problems after these many months of discussion, and commented on our difficulties in having a real exchange of ideas. I recognized this difficulty but thought we could only work away at it.
Dean Acheson
DAcheson:mlm