An ambassadors wife in Iran

232 Pages·1981·31.962 MB·English

by  Cynthia Helms

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Late in 1972 Richard Helms, thenhead of
the CIA, met with President Nixon at
Camp David. Nixoninformed himthathe
was being reUeved of his duties and of-
fered him an ambassadorial post. Helms
suggested Iran, and Nixon agreed. For
Cynthia Helms, her husband's change of
jobs meant a sudden switch from com-
fortable Washington to uneasy Tehran,
the capital ofa country in ferment as the
Shah struggledtobringhis oil-richnation
into the modern world while keeping at
bay the powerful mullahs, including the
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
For nearly four years Mrs. Helms was
the official United States government
hostess in Iran, residing in an embassy
compound that later was besieged by the
militants who seized more than fifty
American hostages. Duringthat time she
entertained or was entertained by some
ofthe world'smostpowerfulpeople, from
the Shah and his beautiful Empress to
Henry and Nancy Kissinger. But Mrs.
Helms did not restrict herselfto the em-
bassy compound's twenty-five acres. She
traveled extensively throughout the
country, moving from the northern fron-
tier bordering the Soviet Union to the
desolate lands of the nomads near the
Persian Gulf. Her object was to compre-
hend the Iranian people and their great
Persian culture.
With Iran now in bitter conflict with
the United States aswellaswithitsneigh-
bor, Iraq. Mrs. Helms has sought in this
book to make the country and its people
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An
Ambassador's
Wife
in Iran

An
Ambassador
s
Wife
in Iran
CYNTHIA HELMS
DODD, MEAD & COMPANY
NEW YORK
Copyright © 1981 by Cynthia Helms
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form
without permission in writing from the publisher
Printed in the United States of America
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10
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Helms, Cynthia.
An ambassador's wife in Iran.
Includes—index.
1. Iran Description and travel. 2. Helms, Cynthia.
I. Title.
DS259.H44 955'-05 So-i^ogo
ISBN 0-396-07881-8
For the future pleasure of
six very special short people:
Jack Katie, Meg, Cynthia (Cz), Emily, and Rory.
Digitized by the Internet Archive
2010
in
http://www.archive.org/details/ambassadorswifeiOOhelm