Original subtitles

(stately brass music)

(peaceful classical music)

(birds chirping)

(animal calling)

(car zooming)

(melancholy instrumental music)

(brake squeaking)

(car rumbling)

(debris exploding)

(birds chirping)

(cup rattling)

(clearing throat)

- Is this true?

- Is that relevant?

- Do you mean, does it matter?

- Does a barrister inquire if his client is innocent

before taking him on?

- My section is not concerned

with the fastidious indifference of lawyers, Mr. Forbes.

We work mostly in the dark,

and it helps if we can have a little light to see by.

- Light might show worse things.

- Like the face of the real enemy?

- Don't think I quite follow you.

- Oh, I think you do, Mr. Forbes.

- [Man In Green Coat] Go back, ring the police.

Do as I say!

- Where is Palfrey?

I have quite a full day.

- Patience, Mr. Forbes.

He'll be here directly.

It would be correct to suppose Downing Street

is in the picture on this, would it?

- Why do you ask?

- That's a very evasive trick, you know,

answering one question with another.

- Natural posture of a civil servant.

- Could I invite you to stand up straight, then?

Very well, then.

I'll answer your question first.

This is dynamite.

That's quite clear, Mr. Forbes.

- Precisely why I brought it to you.

- [Coordinator] High explosive must be handled with care.

- In case it should go off at the wrong time.

- And in the wrong face.

- As an answer to your question,

the prime minister is head

of the intelligence services in this country.

- And David Henry Fitzroy Somerset

is the Chief Cashier of the Bank of England.

- I don't quite follow.

- Does he know every pocket

one of the notes he signed goes into?

- Yes, you may take it that Number 10 does know about that.

- Thank you, Mr. Forbes.

- Not that that will be any help

if things should go wrong.

- Well, we must see to it that things don't,

mustn't we, Mr. Forbes?

(car rattling)

(people murmuring)

- Try him with jugged hare.

- Yes, he might like that.

- If he's as red-blooded as you say he is,

there might be a certain affinity.

And don't forget the black currant jelly.

- Hm, I suppose I could.

- There'll be no stopping him then.

- What do you mean by that?

You're being coarse.

- Good morning, good morning.

Who's being coarse?

- Blair's being coarse.

- All men are coarse in a woman's world.

- Don't bother. - What?

- We're going out now. - Why?

- I'll explain later.

- [Caroline] Who says it's a woman's world?

- Of course it's a woman's world,

ever since that business there with the apple.

- Jugged hare.

It'll work wonders.

(cars rushing)

- [Palfrey] This is not the way I like to start the day.

What's it about?

- I'm only the chauffeur.

- What did she say?

- Well, there was some tutting

that you weren't at your desk at nine.

- I'm not some clock-watching clerk.

- And she said, "I want him here now.

"The matter is most pressing."

- A passable imitation.

- I'm to drop you off,

go to the London Library,

come back and pick you up.

- She wants another Dornford Yates, does she?

Countercoup: The Struggle for the Control of Iran

by K. Roosevelt,

Memoirs of Dean Acherson,

U.S. Secretary of State,

Power Play by Leonard Mosley.

- Also, Keesing's Contemporary Archives

from 1952 to '53 and the annual register for the same years.

- Jumping Jehoshaphat,

is she reading all this?

- You are.

- What?

- Bedtime reading for you.

Who was he, anyway?

- Who?

- Jehoshaphat.

- Oh, goodness knows.

I only know he went around jumping.

Why am I supposed to read all this?

(car rumbling)

(car creaking)

(machinery clinking)

(men murmuring)

(men shouting)

(stretcher rattling)

(knocking)

- [Coordinator] Oh, Mr. Palfrey.

How kind of you to drop so promptly.

- Madam.

- This is Mr. Forbes from the Cabinet Office.

- [Palfrey] Mr. Forbes.

- Good morning, Palfrey.

- Mr. Palfrey, do please come and sit down.

May I summarize?

Mr. Forbes has brought to me the galley proofs

of a forthcoming publication,

A History of British Foreign Policy in the Middle East

After 1950 by Adrian Vyner.

Do you know about him?

- A historian of a certain political persuasion.

- Quite so.

A Marxist, I believe, Mr. Forbes?

- That's correct.

Sir Adrian Vyner is a Marxist, yes,

which is not to disparage him as an historian,

but to invite caution as to his conclusions.

- And what does he conclude, Mr. Forbes,

that especially concerns us today?

- Oh, he says in general that we in,

we the British government, that is,

interfered in the domestic affairs of Iran

at the height of the oil crisis in the early '50s.

- Rather in the past, isn't it?

- [Forbes] The past is the present, Palfrey.

- Did we interfere?

- Marginally.

We brought pressure to bear on their prime minister,

Dr. Mosaddegh.

He also infers in particular that we the British government

arranged a political assassination.

- Did we?

- No.

- Well, who were we supposed to kill?

- A certain General Afshartous.

- [Palfrey] Why him?

- He was Mosaddegh's chief of police,

and rabidly anti-American.

- Why would we want to do that?

Wouldn't it more likely be the CIA?

- Oh, Vyner claims here that we undertook

to get rid of General Afshartous

in return for America's continued help

to bring down Mosaddegh's government.

- But if it didn't happen, where's the rub?

- It did.

- [Palfrey] But you said we didn't--

- It wasn't us.

- What happened?

- Well, reports vary.

Some say that he was shot,

others that he was strangled.

- But I don't understand.

If it wasn't us,

how can it be of concern?

- This history is to be published in one week's time.

The foreword in particular, Mr. Palfrey.

- You wish me to read this, madam?

- Of course.

I've also given a book list to Blair.

You must immerse yourself, Mr. Palfrey,

immerse yourself.

- It's an important business, Palfrey.

Consequences could be far-reaching.

- Vyner is giving the Gibbon Lecture

at the History Society this evening.

It'll be very interesting for you.

A chance to form an impression unobserved.

- But madam--

- Mr. Palfrey, do please be brief.

I have another appointment directly.

- What do you wish me to do?

- Well, can't you see?

You must spike his guns.

Please proceed at your best speed, Mr. Palfrey.

Don't they say that in the Royal Navy?

- Call me.

Out the Cabinet Office, Mr. Palfrey.

- We didn't kill him.

- I already said.

- Madam. - Mr. Palfrey.

- Would it matter?

- Would what matter, Mr. Forbes?

- Well, if we had killed the general,

would it make any difference to him?

- I think it would make a difference to us all, Mr. Forbes.

- [Man On Phone] Take it back from the beginning, all right?

(man mumbling over phone)

23, 1.

(computer buzzing)

(computer beeping)

- Funny one, eh?

Hello, love,

can you get me a special brunch?

- I didn't ask how they got hold of this, damn it.

- Is that important?

- I think it is.

If this were sent to us in the ordinary way,

by the publisher, say,

or even by Vyner himself, that's one thing.

But if our people acquired it by stealth.

- Broke in and stole it?

- See what it means?

Our people had a fair idea what it was going to say,

and if they knew that,

well, see where it leads, can't you?

- Then we did kill this man.

- Quite.

- But your man denied it, didn't he?

- He might very well do if he wants our help.

(man mumbling over the phone)

- Sarge.

- John McNair, Special Branch.

- Yeah, right, sir.

If you come this way.

(motor rumbling)

(wheels squeaking)

(motor revving)

(doorbell ringing)

- [Lester] Mr. Vyner?

- Yes.

- My name is Dearborn, Lester Dearborn.

Mide Syndicated News.

- [Adrian] What's it about, Mr. Dearborn?

- Could we have a talk?

- I'm very busy just at the moment.

- I'd say it was pretty important, Mr. Vyner.

- Important for you or for me, Mr. Dearborn?

- Oh, for you, I'd say,

if being on someone's hit list is important.

(hammer pounding)

(drill whirring)

- See that, sir?

That's been cut.

Every time he put his foot on the brake,

he pumped out the fluid.

- Could it have been a stone thrown up?

- No, sir.

That's a cut.

(grunting)

- I see.

- You're not prepared to indicate your sources.

- Look, you know how it is for a journalist.

- But there's no doubt in your mind.

- None at all.

You've probed too deep.

You've uncovered too much.

- How will they try?

- Who knows.

It'll be out in the open, though.

Innocuous, if you understand me.

(laughing)

- Innocuous.

- Think about it, Mr. Vyner.

- Death in suspicious circumstances tending to confirm--

- That's right, Mr. Vyner.

You've got it.

- So, an accident of some kind?

Innocuous.

- Yeah, seems likely.

- And if I go to the police?

What do I say to them?

What's your interest in all this, Mr. Dearborn?

- I worry sometimes about where my country's being led

by those unaccountable to the people.

- Well, that's very principled of you, Mr. Dearborn,

not very specific.

- If there had been public accountability, Mr. Vyner,

the Bay of Pigs would not have happened.

- Nor a lot of other things the public don't know about.

- That's very true.

I think you're someone who might be amused

to know the inscription at the entrance hall

of CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

It's from the apostle St. John.

"Ye shall know the truth,

"and the truth shall make you free."

Now, I don't think irony was actually intended.

- Baghdad.

That's a long way from Langley, Virginia, Mr. Dearborn.

- Well, the CIA is where the action is, Mr. Vyner,

and right now where the action is is the Mid East,

and when your book is published,

there's gonna be a lot more of it.

If your book is published.

- This is Richmond, Surrey.

- Have it your way.

(sighing)

- All right.

What do you suggest?

- Okay.

Now if I'm right,

and I'm pretty sure I am,

your only chance is to make it known

should anything happen to you,

it sure as hell isn't any accident.

- You mean, it's got to do with the book.

- That's it exactly.

It's your insurance policy.

Look at it.

You publish the book, okay,

so it hits the fan,

but it's still only a book.

No comment, say Whitehall,

nothing to say on that fellow, says Washington,

but you get knocked off before publication,

and boy, that is some comment.

- Yes, I see all that,

but basically, it's still only conjecture.

- Absolutely no way I can deny that.

(glasses rattling)

- I don't need this today.

- [Lester] Why, what's the matter?

- Headache, tension.

I've got a lecture to give this evening.

It'll pass.

- Well, have you got anything for it?

- [Adrian] Yes, I'll probably take some aspirin.

- I've got something somewhere.

Here.

(pills rattling)

- No, no thanks.

I'll be all right.

- No, go on, take 'em.

I've got plenty.

Say, there's something else I'd like to leave with you,

even though I haven't convinced you,

but just in case I'm right.

(locks snapping)

- This foreword is pretty damning.

- By Lord Lesley?

- Yes.

"It seems to me that in a civilized society,

"each of us must be bound by his own conscience.

"Recent history is full of examples

"where the interests of state have taken, in secret,

"precedence over the individual conscience,

"to the lasting injury of collective morality

"on the general good.

"The guilty events portrayed in this account

"of the British government's conduct in the Middle East

"at a time when I was at the center of these affairs

"are a matter of immense personal regret."

- Ringing sentiments.

- [Blair] Sounds a bit cynical.

- The newly awakened conscience

often smacks of spiritual pride.

- But you don't disbelieve him.

- If I believe that,

then our Mr. Forbes at the Cabinet Office

has to be telling porkies.

- What?

- Pies, lies.

- Who've you been associating with?

- There's a certain attractive vigor in demotic speech.

- Demotic, that's a corker.

- No, the point is,

Lord Lesley of Kimelfort,

one-time Sir Clifford Lesley,

Deputy Undersecretary of State of the Foreign Office,

is making a liar of our Mr. Forbes.

- Then you do believe him?

- The galley proofs were sent

to the Cabinet Office anonymously.

They arrived with a Central London postmark,

and that's all, they said.

- Well, they would, wouldn't they?

- Now who's being cynical?

Right, Caroline, we want three tickets

for the History Society's lecture tonight,

and the address of Lord Lesley of Kimelfort, pronto.

- Now you're cooking with gas.

- What?

(birds chirping)

(dog barking)

(doorbell ringing)

- [John] Mr. Vyner?

- Yes?

- McNair, Metropolitan Police liaison.

I'm afraid I've got some bad news for you, sir,

about your car.

- What happened?

- It's been involved in an accident.

- And the driver, Alec?

- [John] I'm afraid the driver's dead, sir.

- You'd better come in.

It's down there on the right.

What happened?

- [John] As I understand it, the brakes failed.

The car went out of control, hit a tree.

- When was this?

- [John] Early this morning.

The driver was killed instantly, it's thought.

- Oh God.

- You said Alec?

- Yes, Alec Thompson.

He lives upstairs.

- By himself?

Any family?

- Nope.

- He was driving your car with your permission?

- Yeah, he's an old friend.

He was going to my cottage at Shere.

- Ah yes, it happened on the hill through White Down.

(sighing)

Mr. Vyner, do you regularly go to your cottage?

- Often, though not regularly.

- [John] Were you planning to go this morning?

- I was thinking about it,

but I've got a lecture to give in town this evening,

so I thought it probably wouldn't be worthwhile.

- Was that a late change of plan?

- [Adrian] Reasonably, yesterday morning, I think.

- Who knew of that, Mr. Vyner?

(sighing)

- I'm sorry?

Knew that I planned to go or that I changed it?

- [John] That you were going.

- One or two people,

my publisher, I,

what are you implying?

- Oh, just clarifying the matter, that's all.

- What matter?

You said the brakes failed.

What's the reason for all these other questions?

- Don't be alarmed, Mr. Vyner.

One always has questions.

Your friend, Mr. Thompson,

has he any relatives locally, do you know, sir?

- He's from Scotland.

None that I know of.

- Only that the local police will need identification,

if you could help.

- Local.

- Dorking.

- And you're from the?

- The Met, sir.

But Dorking police station will be in touch.

If anything odd should occur,

just give me a call.

- What do you mean, odd?

- Only you could know that, sir.

Thank you for your help,

and I'm sorry about your friend.

Oh, just one other thing.

You haven't had any strange visitors,

phone calls, that sort of thing?

- No.

No, none that I can think of.

- Right.

Just let me know if you do.

Your friend Thompson,

fast driver, was he?

- [Adrian] On the contrary,

he drove rather carefully.

- [John] Well, thank you for your time.

I may be in touch again.

Goodbye.

(door shutting)

(wood sliding)

- Well, well, Mr. Dearborn.

It seems that you were right.

(audience murmuring)

- Did you bring the sweets?

- What sweets?

- You are supposed to bring sweets

when taken out by a nice old gentlemen.

- Who said anything about being nice?

- I won't buy you a beef burger afterwards.

- Yuck.

- What's he doing here?

- The plot thickens.

(audience murmuring)

- Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

It is with great pleasure,

and in the sure knowledge that some sacred cows

will be led to the sacrificial altar,

if not actually killed,

(audience laughing)

that I introduce the guest speaker

of the History Society's 1985 Gibbon Lecture.

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Adrian Vyner.

(audience clapping)

- Good evening.

- [Audience] Good evening.

- I am most honored.

The title of my lecture

is taken from that sister discipline,

if I might used the expression, economics.

I've called it The Theory of Alternative Value

as Applied to History.

Now value in economic terms mean value in exchange,

either for something else we want

or measured against some common factor such as money.

The cost of anything is therefore

the value of some alternative thing

that we might've had if we didn't have the first thing.

Now I should like to apply this judgment

to political history,

and in particular,

to the history of assassination.

In this model, power is substituted for money,

though I shall show,

even in substitution,

power may actually be money,

in a real, not merely an abstract, sense.

(mysterious woodwind music)

- Nice hands.

They say a lot about a man.

- What do they say about me?

- Ooh.

Sensitive, gentle.

They show that you care about other people.

- Go away.

Go.

I shall dine in my suite.

Tell them to send a waiter with the menu.

- Yes, sir.

I'll do that immediately,

if you don't mind, sir.

(telephone chiming)

(speaking in a foreign language)

- You bring news of our prophet?

- Our prophet is well, Excellency.

- Good, good.

You will dine with me tonight.

- It'll be an honor, Excellency.

- The head waiter will be coming

to your suite directly, sir.

- Good.

You are most attentive.

I shall tell the manager so.

- Oh, well, we aim to please, sir.

Would you like some dressing, sir?

- No, it's finished.

For you.

For the girl, nothing.

So tell me how things are.

- You get anything off that pig?

- No.

- The problem is,

the correct evaluation of events

immediately following a successful political assassination.

Now I should like here to quote from a recent article

by John Keegan in New Society.

It's entitled Assassination in Politics,

and it concluded with these remarks

concerning the plot against Hitler of July 20th, 1944.

He says, "It is by no means certain

"that a perfect conspiracy

"would've replaced Hitler with Goerdeler.

"There were too many forces opposed to the conspirators

"to be easily overcome by smooth mechanics.

"But it is certain in the case

"that Hitler's death in itself

"would not have yielded a changed Germany

"any more than Lincoln's did a changed United States,

"or Sadat's a changed Egypt.

"The propaganda of the deed

"works chiefly on the minds of those who arrange it,

"where fantasy and wishful thinking

"invest it with force it rarely releases in practice.

"Assassination is not serious politics."

Now one might well replace Mr. Keegan's phrase

"propaganda of the deed"

by propaganda of the dead.

In an attempt to show to what extent

the fantasy and wishful thinking Mr. Keegan refers to

is actually out of proportion

to the likely outcome of a successful assassination,

I should like to propose an hypothesis.

34 years ago,

one of this country's greatest commercial undertakings,

the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company,

was effectively dispossessed of its entire source of wealth

by one man,

Premier Mohammed Mosaddegh of Iran.

Not only did this one man

take on the might of Anglo-Iranian

and the British government behind it,

but he created an international power vacuum

into which Russia and the United States

were both bound to be drawn.

Now, the Middle East is what the Balkan States once were,

only more so, in fact,

because whereas the Balkans were the cockpit of Europe,

the Middle East is the flash point of the world.

Now, this is not intended as a free plug,

but next week, we'll see the publication of my new book,

A History of British Foreign Policy in the Middle East.

Rather than preempt certain statements in the book,

I'd simply like to say this.

Today, an attempt was made to kill me.

(audience murmuring)

(footsteps growing louder)

Now, I spoke earlier of the value of assassination

as a feature of political history,

and this implies a judgement

in the sense that historians may be auditors,

and I am about to present to the world a new audit.

- Better than jugged hare.

- Cobblers.

- A political assassination is, by its very nature,

an attempt to alter the course of history,

to nudge it out of its orbit.

And as such,

it offers a very proper opportunity for review.

United States before and after Lincoln,

Europe before and after Archduke Ferdinand,

Iran before and after Zarathustra,

except that in my terms,

Zarathustra was not a Persian prophet

from the seventh century BC.

I said power is sometimes money,

and Zarathustra was money.

Gold, British and American gold.

It bought a revolution.

Exit left, the prime minister.

Enter right,

the shah.

An attempt to alter the course of history,

and en route, an assassinated general.

Well,

history itself will show whether that investment was,

to paraphrase Mr. Keegan,

merely the propaganda of the dead,

or whether it actually did achieve the results intended

by those culpable.

I should like to leave you with one thought.

If something is not known about,

can it be called history?

My book will give the facts,

name the names,

and if I am not around to sign copies, well,

(laughing)

that too will be something to be taken into account

when somebody comes to add it all up.

Thank you.

(audience clapping)

- Well, I did warn the occasion might be provocative.

A most intriguing hypothesis.

However, I do hope a degree of exaggeration

attended your remarks.

If an attempt is to be made on our life

every time we go into print,

then I can see that the shelves in our history section

will very soon become remarkably bare.

(audience laughing)

Thank you, sir, for a most enjoyable and original lecture.

(audience clapping)

- Interesting stuff, Palfrey?

- I didn't know you were an historian, McNair.

- I'm here professionally,

as you are, no doubt.

Strange bird.

- You know him?

- I interviewed him this morning.

- Then I'd rather not be seen with you.

Can we talk?

- Where? - My office, half an hour.

- Right.

- Come along, children,

the night is young.

Whoa.

(drink fizzing)

- Thank you.

Good health.

- Cheers, Caroline?

- Got to dash, thanks.

Rollie is coming to dinner.

- Who? - Randy Rolland.

The honorable Rolland.

- Oh.

- Jugged hare.

- Oh yes, well, of course.

- Bye.

- Pretty girl.

- So glad you noticed.

- She's our normality meter.

- Infallible, never misses.

- [Blair] Like litmus paper.

- Very good for positive vetting.

They either turn red or blue,

you see, the young men.

- What color are they supposed to turn?

- Depends if they're acid or alkaline.

- Yes, but which is right?

- Now have they ever told us?

Not that it matters.

- Well, surely it does.

- After a course of Caroline,

they all come out very satisfactorily.

- Satisfactorily what?

- [Palfrey] Neutral, naturally.

- Ah.

- Now, what about Vyner?

- What about him?

- No, no, we've stopped playing that game.

- There's a file on him.

- Since when?

- Very recent.

- Who opened it, what department?

- [John] Top line.

- I see, d'you know who?

- [John] A man called Forbes.

- Yeah.

Dep. Sec. Cabinet Office.

Round the clock watch?

- Notify incident job.

- And do I take it there has been one?

- His car was involved in an accident.

The driver, friend of Vyner's, was killed.

- How?

- [John] Brakes failed on a steep hill.

- Accident?

- Brake line sawn through.

- So that's what Vyner meant.

This was early this morning?

- [John] Yes.

(sighing)

- We're not being led up the garden, are we?

- By whom, Palfrey?

- Oh come on, you heard the lecture,

what he said about us and the Americans.

- Very general remarks.

In rather poor taste, I thought.

- Well, he's not very general here.

He's very precise.

Who killed Mosaddegh's chief of police?

My book will give the facts,

name the names, he said,

and by golly, it does.

- What's your brief?

- Prevent publication, brutally put.

- Well, were we involved,

or didn't you ask?

- Oh, I asked.

It wasn't us, the man said.

What man, do I hear you say?

Why, our Mr. Forbes, who else?

That's why I wonder if we're being led up the garden.

- Does it actually make that much difference?

- Oh no, McNair, it doesn't.

Our country right or wrong.

We leave small matters such as crises of conscience,

fastidiousness over the truth to traitors, don't we?

Now if I knew what was what,

I might be able to play it better, that's all.

What are you doing about Vyner, meantime?

- [John] Nothing special.

Follow up the car crash with the local police,

see where it leads.

- If you mean to kill a man by tampering with his car,

how do you ensure he gets killed and no one else?

- Perhaps you don't.

Perhaps you don't care about anyone else.

But I'll tell you this,

he was driving like the hounds of hell were behind him.

- How do you know?

- Impact damage says so.

- Where's Vyner's car now?

- [John] Dorking police gargage.

- Will you take Blair to look at it first thing tomorrow?

- No problem,

but what's he looking for?

- I don't know.

Probably won't till he finds it,

but let's not tell Mr. Forbes, eh?

- [Blair] No question about that, is there?

- I reckon he must've been doing all of 60, messing it.

- [Blair] Blew out?

- No, tires are okay,

and the steering, just the brakes.

That fast on that road, just bloody ridiculous.

Everything's out on the bench, sir.

- Was it drink?

- Not according to the blood test.

- Trace of diazepam, I gather?

- Diazepam?

- Tranquilizer.

Though not likely to have affected his driving, I'm told.

(cassette sliding)

(hammers pounding)

Any of this what you're looking for,

or don't you know still?

- Do any of us ever know?

Life's a search, isn't it?

(melancholy instrumental music)

- Lovely stuff.

- Know it?

- Rather, it's Delius.

A Mass of Life.

Bit out of fashion nowaday.

- Are we any the wiser?

- I think we are.

It's based on a great prose poem of Nietzsche's,

Also sprach Zarathustra.

Music of a dead prophet.

(car zooming)

(birds chirping)

How was Rollie?

- Blair was right. - Oh?

- He is Randy Rolland.

- Must've been the jugged hare, then.

Nice to get out of town.

Blair's arrangements all okay?

- He'll be there now.

(car idling)

- Cedar Tree To S One.

- [McNair] S One, over.

- He's clocked you, out.

(audio clattering)

(telephone ringing)

- [Adrian] Yeah?

- [Lester] Vyner.

That man who was here yesterday, McNair,

he's outside.

- [Adrian] Okay.

- [Lester] Now don't worry.

I'll set things up.

(computer beeping)

- [Woman] Control?

Subscriber's in West London, Fulham area.

- Cedar Tree, put a tap on.

- [Woman] Wilco, out.

- Oh, this must be it.

- Hope we're not being led into a trap.

- A trap?

- No, I didn't mean it like that.

- That's a relief.

(car rumbling)

- So, then let the prophet speak.

- Ah, good morning.

My name is--

- Yes, come in, please.

Lord Lesley is expecting you.

- Thank you.

- In there, please.

- My secretary may remain here?

- Of course. - Thank you.

(birds chirping)

- [Palfrey] Lord Lesley?

I'm Mr. Palfrey.

- Then you will forgive me not writing to greet you,

but as you see.

- [Palfrey] It's kind of you to receive me

at such short notice, sir.

- Do sit down.

- [Palfrey] Thank you.

- How can I help you?

- [Palfrey] Adrian Vyner's book about the Middle East.

- Ah, yes.

A contentious subject.

- At the critical time,

you were, Sir Clifford Lesley,

a Deputy Undersecretary directly concerned

with Anglo-Iranian affairs?

- I was.

- This book, by an American who was there,

describes in detail the part the CIA

and British intelligence played

in toppling the Persian prime minister.

The U.S. government and our government

hatched a plot code-named Operation Ajax.

That correct, sir?

- That is quite correct.

- In which the shah's authority was to be reasserted

by the manipulation of public opinion?

- In essence.

- But nowhere does he suggest

assassination was part of the plan.

- No.

- But Adrian Vyner's new book does.

As you know, he states categorically

that we, the Americans and us,

plotted to and did kill one of Prime Minister Mosaddegh's

principal supporters, General Afshartous.

- That was part of a very secret plot

known to very few.

Operation Zarathustra, it was called.

- It's a most damaging claim to make, sir,

especially at the present time,

with the Middle East in ferment.

- A correct assessment.

- And for which, if I may say,

you share a particular responsibility

by lending it the weight of your own authority.

- Ye shall know the truth,

and the truth shall make you free.

- And was Operation Zarathustra the truth?

- It is the truth.

It is the truth.

Ms. Picard?

Ms. Picard.

- You must leave now.

'Tis time for his pills.

(melancholy instrumental music)

- Zarathustra is the truth?

- It is the truth.

It is the truth.

- But to Zoroaster,

was there any such operation?

- Zoroaster?

No.

None such.

- Thank you, Lord Lesley.

(pills rattling)

(car rumbling)

Zoroaster is merely the Greek form

of the Persian Zarathustra.

They're synonymous.

If there was no such thing as Operation Zoroaster,

well, you can see.

- I can.

- Not so much a Manchurian candidate,

more a Persian prophet.

Ooh, pull up.

Don't go away.

(telephone beeping)

- Cedar Tree.

- [Palfrey] Blair?

- Yes, boss?

- [Palfrey] I'm miles away, near Midhurst.

I've seen our retired civil servant,

and I think I know how, if not why.

- Care to drop a hint?

- [Palfrey] Good old fashioned mind control.

I'll explain later.

What's happening your end?

- Well, something.

Our man's been on to a press agency.

He's going to make a statement, he says.

- [Palfrey] Where, there?

- Yes.

- [Palfrey] When, what time?

- In five minutes.

Someone's just arrived.

(melancholy instrumental music)

(gun firing)

McNair's trying to get in.

- [Palfrey] Stop him.

- It'll be too late.

(glass crashing)

- Come on, damn you.

(telephone ringing)

- Aren't you going to answer it?

- Adrian Vyner.

- [Palfrey] Well, what put me on the scent, of course,

was the strange coincidence

of Delius' music being present in each case.

The man in the car, Lord Lesley,

and Vyner himself.

- Why that particular piece of music?

- It was perfect.

They invented a British intelligence operation

that never was,

gave it the code name Zarathustra,

and used that same name as a trigger for hypnosis

so that anyone inquiring about Operation Zarathustra

got the same conditioned response.

The music reinforced that conditioning

because of its association with Nietzsche's poem

Also sprach Zarathustra.

The trigger was the name Zarathustra,

but it didn't include Zoroaster,

who is the same person,

which is why Lord Lesley couldn't respond

when I asked him if there was any

secret operation of that name.

- Can one induce hypnosis that readily?

- Well, experienced operators can,

like Ms. Picard.

It's nothing new, Mr. Forbes.

The CIA and KGB have used the technique for years.

It helps if the subject can be prepared,

unbeknownst to himself,

for the first session, anyway.

- How do you mean, prepared?

- Well, made more amenable to suggestion.

They used the tranquilizer diazepam.

- It's a neat trap,

setting us up to prove their case.

- First Thompson being killed in a car accident,

which we apparently set up for Vyner,

and then Vyner's public announcement

that his life had been threatened,

and finally, trapping McNair into shooting Vyner

in front of journalists,

all to show that what was in Vyner's book

was true and we were out to suppress it, come what may.

- Reinforced by a recording

of McNair's interview with Vyner.

- Frightening. - Hm.

- And this sheikh and the man Dearborn,

what did they hope to gain, precisely?

- Political advantage and commercial profit.

They're strange bedfellows.

If Vyner's account of our actions in Iran

had been published and accepted as truth,

it would, as you know,

lead to intense anti-West feeling.

Dearborn, of course, isn't an American.

He's a Libyan.

The sheikh was an arms dealer.

One muddies the water,

the other fishes in it.

(laughing)

- Clever, Mr. Palfrey.

- Somewhat ironic choice, Zarathustra.

- Ironic?

How do you mean?

- Zarathustra was a Persian prophet

who propounded the system of ethical dualism

in which God is seen as truth and the devil as falsehood.

- Truth and falsehood, you see.

- [Coordinator] As Mr. Palfrey said, deeply ironic.

- We are, of course,

on the side of the angels, Mr. Forbes?

- Of course.

On the side of the angels, Mr. Palfrey.

(cup rattling)

(peaceful classical music)