All the Shah's Men (Stephen Kinzer, 2003)Most people, even most young Iranians, can not fully appreciate the current situation in Iran, because they have little understand of its recent past. I routinely defend Iran’s government against my family and friends. Not because I think Iran’s current government is a great one, but only because it is a better one than the situation Iran was in before the revolution. I believe in self-sufficiency, and current Iran is not if not self-sufficient.
Iran’s past has not been a happy one. At the beginning of the century, Britain and Russia both took an interest in Iran, due to its geographic position. Through the next few decades, other foreign powers made concessions with the Iranian dynasty. Iran’s situation would constantly get worse, and while blame should be put on the foreign powers, I do not want to ignore the incompetence of the Qajar dynasty. Then the dynasty is overthrown by Reza Shah, whom the British back. World War 2 starts, and Reza Shah proclaims neutrality. This does not please the British, and they force him into exile, and replace him with his son.
All the while Britain is benefiting for a completely unfair oil deal with Iran. Britain’s company, Anglo-Iranian Oil Company took all the oil, gives Iran a paltry 16% of the profits (even less than this, given that the company’s books were closed to Iran), treated the Iranian laborers unfairly, had no training programs for Iranians to ever be promoted to administration jobs, and frankly, was a piece of shit.
Iran citizens get more and more angry at the absolute refusal of the company to make significant changes to the contract. Eventually, something big changes. The Shah leaves the country, leaving the government at the hands of the recently elected and super popular Dr Mossadeq. Iran was on its way to secular democracy under the head of a nationalistic leader. The book “All the Shah’s Men” talks about my brief in more interesting detail, and then talks about Operation Ajax, a CIA-conceived plan to overthrow Mossadeq and bring back the Shah. Mossaeq wanted self-sufficiency and oil nationalization, both big no-nos to the west. Democracy is only desired on home soil, everywhere else, a puppet monarch is good enough.
The background to the events that lead to Mossadeq’s election of leadership and the CIA operated downfall is intriguing, thrilling, and to me at least, devastatingly sad.
This is a story that is seen again and again in many countries, with the west pulling the strings behind the curtains to ensure it meets with their self-interest, consequences be damned. How many other operations like Ajax have changed the government of a country without any of us knowing? Or, even sadder, how many we know but have forgotten or don’t care about? To many, this event is just a footnote on Iran’s history, but it forever changed the history of Iran. What would Iran be if the secular nationalism was allowed to flourish, rather than stiffened and killed, only to have a more ruthless, angry, religious movement to emerge a few decades later. Mossadeq could have probably stayed in power if he defended his power in an aggressive manner, by kicking out the foreigners, jailing and executing dissent, and controlling the media. But he didn’t, and the price of his liberalism was the dissolution of a democratic movement. In such events, the next group will not make the same mistake of trying to be ethical.
It is a tragic occurrence in politics all over. You look at certain ruthless governments, and you wonder, what can the alternative be, if the alternative is destructive? If the Islamic revolution was less harsh to the foreign powers and its opponents, would Iran still have a free government (free in terms of foreign control, not free in the length of a girl’s skirt)? If the reward for tolerance is danger to the country, then what are the incentives of tolerance?
The world around is propaganda. Not from one source or one area, but we are engulfed in a sea of propaganda from all sides, and the truth we think we know, is the truth manufactured for us to know. I find it difficult to be able to see through the haze that is created, but I do know that we have to constantly be on guard. Am I sure of the things I think I am sure of? Reading about Mossadeq today, he appears to have been a gift to Iran. Maybe not the best that a man could be, but it only takes a bit of research to read the western media attacks and mockery of him. In 1951, he was Time’s Man of the Year, and here are some quotes & phrases from the Time’s article:
“Behind his grotesque antics…”
“His weapon was the threat of his own political suicide, as a willful little boy might say, "If you don't give me what I want I'll hold my breath until I'm blue in the face. Then you'll be sorry."”
“In this way, too, he increased the danger of a general war among nations, impoverished his country and brought it and some neighboring lands to the very brink of disaster.”
“…oiled the wheels of chaos.”
“His acid tears dissolved one of the remaining pillars of a once great empire. In his plaintive, singsong voice he gabbled a defiant challenge that sprang out of a hatred and envy almost incomprehensible to the West.”
“whose fanatical state of mind he had helped to create.”
“They would rather see their own nations fall apart than continue their present relations with the West.”
“…weeping, fainting leader…”
“Mossadegh, by Western standards an appalling caricature of a statesman,”
“…probably born in 1879 (he fibs about his age)”
“In a few weeks a wave of anti-foreign feeling, assisted by organized terrorism, swept him into the premiership”
“…whose mind runs in a deep single track, was committed to nationalization”
“The suicidal quality of this fanaticism…”
“…terrorist organization…”
“Neither Makki, Kashani nor Mossadegh has ever shown any interest in rational plans for the economic reform and development of their country.”
“The fact that Iranians accept Mossadegh's suicidal policy is a measure of the hatred of the West…”
4/5
