Nation: Who Helped the Shah How Much?

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Although U.S. embassy officials in Tehran and State Department officials warned Vance that admitting the Shah could inflame passions in Iran and endanger the embassy, the Secretary urged Carter to let the Shah enter the U.S. for medical treatment. Carter, somewhat reluctantly, according to some aides, agreed.

Admitting that he had been unfair, George Ball apologized for declaring that Kissinger's pressure on the White House was "obnoxious." Ball said that his remarks had reflected "what I had heard around Washington" and read in the press. Noted he: "I'm a little sorry for what I've said. I had my facts screwed up."

In his press conference last week, President Carter said that "in previous weeks and months since the Shah was deposed, Kissinger and many others have let it be known that they thought we should provide a haven for the Shah." But in the days when the White House was deciding whether or not to admit the Shah for medical treatment, said the President, "Kissinger played no role in my decision." Carter added he had acted "personally and without pressure from anyone."

As the Kissinger-White House firefight cooled last week, a related controversy developed over just how sick the Shah was in the first place. When he arrived at New York Hospital on Oct. 22, he did look seriously ill, particularly since his blocked bile duct had caused jaundice and given his skin a yellow tinge. But as treatment continued, some of the doctors at the hospital became increasingly concerned that the seriousness of his condition had been vastly exaggerated.

After tests on the Shah, Dr. Hibbard Williams described the Shah's cancer as a "widely disseminated histiocytic lym-phoma." But other doctors at the hospital insisted that, as one stated, "it's a very localized lymphoma," which was largely confined to the Shah's neck. Indeed, the radiation treatment given the Shah is only useful for such a restricted condition. As for the Shah's enlarged spleen, this was found to be a long-term condition that may be unrelated to his cancer problem. The Shah did have a gallstone that untreated would have been extremely serious. But the New York doctors say this treatment was readily available in Mexico. Maintains one angry official at New York Hospital: "We've been had, and it's our own damned fault. We should have had this out with the State Department before the Shah even got here."

At his press conference, President Carter made it clear that he thought he had done the right thing, medically as well as morally, by admitting the Shah. Said he: "I have no regrets about it, no apologies to make, because it did help to save a man's life." The debate over the seriousness of the Shah's illness, like discussions of the role of Henry Kissinger in the affair, is likely to linger.