Lt. Colonel Lewis Lee Hawkins (August 8, 1930 – June 2, 1973) was a United States military aide to Iran who was assassinated. Vahid Afrakhteh, a member of the Mojahedin M.L. (Marxist–Leninist) and later a founding member of Peykar, was captured and confessed to the assassination. Some sources attribute the assassination to the People's Mujahedin of Iran.
Early life
Hawkins was born to Herman and Mary Hawkins in Chicago on August 8, 1930. He graduated from Plymouth High School and enlisted in South Carolina Presbyterian College on a basketball scholarship. He graduated in 1952 and joined the United States Army as a second Lieutenant. Hawkins later obtained a master's degree in Business Administration from Syracuse University.
In the 1970s Hawkins became the Director of the Department of Finance at U.S. Army Finance School at Indiana. In 1972 Hawkins was assigned to be the deputy chief in the U.S. Military Assistance Advisory Group to the Imperial Iranian Armed Forces in Iran. He lived with his wife and children in the Abbasabad district.
Assassination
On June 2, 1973, Hawkins was walking to the street corner to be picked up by his driver when two terrorists riding on a motorcycle shot him at point blank range, killing him instantly. Hawkins' wife rushed outside to see his body in a pool of blood. The terrorists immediately fled the scene and were not captured.
According to an American military advisor, Hawkins was killed "by an Iranian terrorist". The assassination seemed to have been motivated by political considerations. Although there were two witnesses, the assassins were wearing motorcycle helmets and could not be identified. Some GOI officials believed the group responsible to be left-wing and Iraq-supported, while others suspected Mujahedin-e-Khalq.
On May 11, 1976, The Washington Post reported that in January of that year, "nine terrorists convicted of murdering the three American colonels… were executed." The leader of the group, Vahid Afrakhteh, one of the founders of Peykar (a Marxist group that broke off from Mujahedin-e-Khalq), stated that he personally killed Col. Lewis Lee Hawkins in Tehran in 1973. The 2006 U.S. State Department report blamed "a Marxist element of the MEK" for killing American security advisers in Iran in the 1970s; however, the 2007 report blamed these killings on the MEK itself. The State Department reports in 2010 and 2011 reported that the MEK assassinated Hawkins.
Nevertheless, some sources have said the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) was responsible.
See also
References
- Bloomfield, Lincoln P. Jr. (2013). Mujahedin-E Khalq (MEK) Shackled by a Twisted History. University of Baltimore College of Public Affairs. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-615-78384-0.
- Cordesman, Anthony H.; Khazai, Sam (2014). Iraq in Crisis. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 213. ISBN 978-1-4422-2856-6.
- Appeasing the Ayatollahs and Suppressing Democracy: U.S. Policy and the Iranian Opposition : a White Paper, Iran Policy Committee, page 57
- Iran Almanac and Book of Facts. Vol. 15. 1976 – via Google Books.
Ten terrorists were sentenced to death... The condemned terrorists were Vahid Afrakhteh... The terroirsts were charged with the murders of Brigadier-general Reza Zandipur, United States Colonels Hawkins, Paul Shaffer and ack Turner, the U.S. Embassy's translator Hassan Hossnan
- Camp Ashraf: Iraqi Obligations and State Department Accountability: Joint Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and the Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, One Hundred Twelfth Congress, First Session, December 7, 2011. 2011. ISBN 978-0-16-090501-8 – via Google Books.
Referred to in the Iranian press as the "Iranian People's Strugglers", and later known as Peykar, this group led by Tagui Shahram, Vahid Arakhteh and Bahram Aram was one o several underground groups waging a covert war against the Shah's secret police, SAVAK. Afrakhteh, who later confessed to the killings o Americans, was executed
- Shirali, Mahnaz (28 July 2017). The Mystery of Contemporary Iran. ISBN 978-1-351-47913-4 – via Google Books.
The most notable actions of the Marxist Mojahedin were assassinations of Savak general, of two American military advisers, and a failed attempt against an American diplomat, all in 1975
- ^ Global Terrorism Database [Data file], National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), 1973-06-02, 197306020001
- ^ Abrahamian, Ervand (1989). The Iranian Mojahedin. Yale University Press. p. 141.
- ^ Goulka, Jeremiah; Hansell, Lydia; Wilke, Elizabeth; Larson, Judith (2009). The Mujahedin-e Khalq in Iraq: a policy conundrum (PDF). RAND Corporation. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-8330-4701-4.
- ^ "Country Reports on Terrorism 2011, Chapter 6 -- Terrorist Organizations". www.state.gov.
- ^ Horton, Scott (April 9, 2012). "For Official Washington, Terrorism Is a Laughing Matter". Harper's.
- ^ "Trump Cabinet pick paid by controversial Iranian exile group". Associated Press. 24 April 2021.
- ^ Pluchinsky, Dennis. Anti-american Terrorism: From Eisenhower To Trump - A Chronicle Of The Threat And Response. Vol. I: The Eisenhower Through Carter Administrations. World Scientific. pp. 54–55.
- "Lt. Col. Lewis Lee HAWKINS". iagenweb.org.
- "American Killings | PDF | National Security | Government".
- "Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume XXVII, Iran; Iraq, 1973–1976 - Office of the Historian".
- Bloomfield, Lincoln P. Jr. (2013). Mujahedin-E Khalq (MEK) Shackled by a Twisted History. University of Baltimore College of Public Affairs. pp. 17 (p.A9). ISBN 978-0-615-78384-0.
- Reisinezhad, Arash (2018). The Shah of Iran, the Iraqi Kurds, and the Lebanese Shia. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 8. ASIN B07FBB6L8Y.
- "Chapter 8 -- Foreign Terrorist Organizations". U.S. Department of State.
- "Chapter 6 -- Terrorist Organizations". U.S. Department of State.
- "Chapter 6. Foreign Terrorist Organizations". U.S. Department of State.