All the Shah's Men
Kinzer hails Mohammad Mossadegh as a saint, not without warts, but a genuine hero principally concerned with the welfare of his fellow Iranians. Mossadegh's nationalizing of the British oil company granted him immense popularity with his country's citizens, but drew the ire of the British government officials, who were unmitigatedly uncompromising in their standoff with Mossadegh. The British turned to the Americans and Truman for assistance in dealing with Mossadegh, Time man of the year in 1951, but Truman was adamant that it was an affair for Iranians to resolve, that it was a new era where the old tenets of colonialism no longer applied and Britian should take heed. However, the newly elected Eisenhower administration's views on the matter were attuned to the British. The Dulles brothers, John Foster who served as secretary of state under Eisenhower and CIA head Allen, executing staunch anti-Communism script, believed Iran's nationalization of the British oil company posed a worldwide threat to western civilization.
Another interesting part of the story is the role of Kermit Roosevelt, the grandson of President Teddy Roosevelt, who according to Kinzer's account, singlehandedly directed the coup, even after failing once and receiving orders to pull back. Roosevelt spread a million dollars to rouse protests, bombed the house of a prominent Muslim, disseminated propaganda, planted news stories and incited unrest. Even Norman Schwarzkopf, the father of the Persian Gulf war commander, was even brought in to convince a reluctant Shah, whom he befriended a decade earlier, to assume power.
The book's focus is predominately on the 1953 coup and Iran history that led up the post World War II state in Iran. So there isn't much detail on the brutal and barbarous reign of the Shah, other than the tyranny of his rule led directly to the Islamic Revolution and kidnapping of Americans in 1979.
Comments
No comments yet
Add Comment