Night in Tehran

CHAPTER ONE PARIS

A foggy morning in the Place de la Concorde.

Poking above the rooftops of the left-bank of the Seine, a blinking red light was all that could be seen of the Eiffel Tower. David Weiseman shook the drizzle from his overcoat, and then dodged through the cars streaming into the great square. He hustled past the Hotel de Crillon and across to Avenue Gabriel. Get on with it, he told himself.

He strode past the US embassy, casting only a quick glance at the tough-looking French flics twirling police batons, staring down nosy American tourists. A clap of thunder hastened his step.

Ten minutes later he crossed the ornate Pont Alexander III, homage to the Russian Tsar who concluded the Franco-Russian alliance that endured for some twenty years, until the guns of the First World War shattered a century of post-Napoleonic peace in Europe.

Diplomacy rarely if ever succeeded like that.

Across the Seine, he took in the Quai d Orsay, said to be the home of the French mandarins who considered themselves masters of the stylized international ballet known as diplomacy. This fine art meant staying on one s toes, sustaining the process, never letting it break down. But it did break down, Weiseman knew, remembering Berlin the Gruenewald every twenty years or so in Europe, leading to the two world wars of the twentieth century.

And so he saw things differently, reminding himself diplomacy wasn t just about process, or compromise. It was about persuading the other country that it was in their interest to do what you wanted them to do. Trevor said Gramont, the man Weiseman was on his way to meet, could be trusted. Well, he didn t quite say that. Trevor Weisman s boss, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency didn t trust anyone. He said Laurent Gramont was important, the door into the French elites.

At the Foreign Ministry, a young woman in outsized amber glasses led him to the secretary general s office. Gramont was with an aide,

Ambassador Philip Kaplan had a 27-year career as a diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service, including being U.S. minister, deputy chief of mission and Charge d'Affaires, to the U.S. Embassy in Manila, Philippines during the tumultuous overthrow of Ferdinand Marcos. Now retired from the State Department, Kaplan is currently a partner in Berliner, Corcoran & Rowe LLP's Washington, D.C law office, where his practice is focused on public and private international law. He lives in Washington, DC.

This taut and fast-paced novel has a particularly compelling feature: Philip Kaplan, after a career in the State Department, brings to his book a sharp political and international sophistication--rare in thrillers, abundant in "Night in Tehran."  Alan Furst
 
Throw away the CIA analysis of Iran and instead pick up Ambassador Phil Kaplan's brilliant novel, which illuminates the intricacies of diplomacy, espionage, and high-stakes politics in the most dangerous country in the world with clarity and drive.  This book should be required reading for senior Pentagon and State Department leaders trying to understand the complexities of our relations in the turbulent Middle East."  Admiral James Stavridis, 16th Supreme Allied Commander at NATO

"Kaplan dramatically shows how competing interests, foreign manipulation, and domestic brutality led to the violent overthrow of the last Persian monarch and one of the longest hostage crises on record. Not just a snapshot in time, this insightful novel is a powerful reminder of how Cold War strategies continue to reverberate through the modern global landscape." Publishers Weekly