The Cast of Analysts

James E. Akins, 52, is a career Foreign Service officer, now retired, who was long a leading State Department Arabist and oil-policy expert. He served as U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1973 until late 1975, but was dismissed following policy disputes with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Akins felt Saudi Arabia, not Iran, should have been the prime focus of U.S. interests in the region.

James A. Bill, 40, is associate director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas and a top U.S. scholar on Iran, which he visits frequently. Bill forecast the Shah's downfall long before the fact, and has been mentioned as a possible U.S. Ambassador to Iran.

Richard M. Helms, 65, headed the CIA from 1966 to 1973, then became Ambassador to Iran until late 1976. He now heads an international consulting firm.

Walter Levy, 67, is the dean of petroleum consultants, a self-taught economist, tax expert and political scientist who advises oil companies and governments.

Dimitri K. Simes, 31, made the unusual jump from Moscow Americanologist to Washington Kremlinologist. A Jew, he was able to emigrate in 1973 and is now director of Soviet studies at Georgetown University's Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Joseph J. Sisco, 59, is a career diplomat who undertook many peace-keeping missions to the Middle East, eventually becoming No. 3 in the State Department during the Nixon and Ford Administrations. He is now president of American University.

Dale R. Tahtinen, 33, is assistant director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-oriented think tank in Washington. Though basically a conservative himself, he long opposed massive U.S. support for the Shah of Iran.

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