President Theodore Roosevelt would no doubt of been proud of his grandson, Kermit. He carried on the family tradition of 'speaking softly and carrying a big stick'. As head of the CIA's Middle East Division in 1953, 'Kim' was to mastermind the overthrow of Iran's nationalist leader, Mohammed Mossadeqh. After Mossadegh was released from a three-year jail sentence, Roosevelt is reported to have persuaded the Shah to grant the deposed ex-Prime Minister a generous pension, which he received till he died in 1967.
After Harvard, he joined the OSS in World War Two. Staying in intelligence after 1945, he had become a senior CIA officer by 1950. He acted as a frequent intermediary with the Egyptian Army Officers who overthrew King Farouk. He tried to persuade both John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles not to pursue such a violently anti-Communist policy in the Middle East. The disregard of such advice led directly to President Nasser's infuriated nationalization of the Suez Canal and of course to the disastrous response of Britain and France in 1956.
After Roosevelt retired from the CIA he was commissioned to write a history of the OSS and also turned down an offer from the CIA to repeat his Iranian operation, but this time in Guatemala.
The other 'Kim', Philby, wrote of Roosevelt "I first met Kim Roosevelt in Washington where he was in charge of (Frank) Wisner's Middle East department. Oddly enough I dubbed him the 'Quiet American' five years before Graham Greene wrote his book. He was a courteous, soft-spoken Easterner with impeccable social connections, well educated rather than intellectual, pleasant and unassuming as host and guest. In fact the last person you would expect to be up to his neck in dirty tricks" A fitting epitaph for a master of the 'Shadow War'
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