The Shah

by Abbas Milani

57. Sir Alexander Cadogan, The Diaries:1938–1945, edited by David Dilks. 8 vols. (London, 1971); quoted in Cyrus Ghani, Iran and the West (London, 1987), p. 65.

  58. Ghasem Ghani, and his circle of friends were amongst these liberals. I was told of his dismay by his son, Cyrus. Interview with author, Los Angeles, September 3, 1999.

  59. FRUS, 1941, vol. III, p. 447.

  60. PRO, “Intelligence Summary,” July 15, 1939, FO 371/23262.

  61. Suleiman Behboudi, Reza Shah: Khaterat-e Suleiman Behboudi [Reza Shah: Memoirs of Suleiman Behboudi], edited by Gholam Hussein Mirza Saleh (Tehran, 1372/1983), pp. 370–399.

  62. General Fereydoon Jam, interview with author, London, May 21, 2001. He has repeated much the same idea in his interview with Harvard University’s Oral History Project on Iran.

  63. One of my uncles was an officer in the military, and my father was a conscript. Both were among those who tried to wash away any hint of military entanglements in their homes.

  64. General Fereydoon Jam, interview with author, London, May 21, 2001.

  65. Ibid.

  66. PRO, FO to Tehran Embassy, May 20, 1941, FO 371/27149.

  67. Bullard, Letters from Tehran, p. 70.

  68. FRUS, 1941, vol. III, p. 455.

  69. Ibid.

  70. Bullard, Letters from Tehran, p. 77.

  71. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, September 15, 1941, FO 371/27216.

  72. PRO, “Public Opinion in Iran,” January 24, 1941, FO 371/27183.

  73. Bullard, Letters from Tehran, p. 125.

  74. PRO, Letter by AC Samuel, July 18, 1955, FO 371/11481.

  75. Bullard, Letters from Tehran, pp. 79–81.

  76. Amin Banani’s family was among this group. He told me of his experience in an interview in Palo Alto, November 29, 2007.

  77. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, September 18, 1941, FO 248/1406.

  78. Bagher Ageli, Zoka-al Molk Foroughi va Shahrivar Bist [Foroughi and the 29th of Shahrivar (Tehran, 1358/1979). These are, according to the author, the memories of Foroughi, as recounted to his son.

  79. PRO, April 18, 1934, Larry Baggaltin to CFA Werner, FO 248/1392.

  80. Memoirs of Prince Hamid Kadjar, edited by Habib Ladjevardi (Boston, 1996), p.108. The memoir is part of the Harvard Oral History Project.

  81. Bullard, Letters from Tehran, p. 82.

  82. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, September 17, 1941, CAB 12 T/654.

  83. Behboudi, Khaterat-e Suleiman Behboudi, p. 399.

  84. PRO, War Cabinet to Embassy in Tehran, September 15, 1941, FO 371/27216.

  85. R. K. Karanjia, The Mind of a Monarch (London 1977), p. 56.

  86. For example, see Alam, Daily Journals, vol. 6, pp. 62–64.

  87. PRO, Cairo to Tehran, 628/12/41, FO 248/1406.

  88. Ibid.

  89. Karanjia, The Mind of a Monarch, p. 98

  90. The Shah’s sentence is a paraphrase of Shakespeare’s famous line, “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown” (Henry IV, Part 2, 3.1.31).

  7 Hurley’s Dreams

  1. Life, September 21, 1942, p. 97,

  2. Shah, Collected Works, vol. 1, Mission for My Country, pp. 431–43.

  3. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, September 20, 1941, FO 248/1406.

  4. The same report by Bullard indicates that “it is hoped that Ala may become Minister of Court.” See PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, September 20, 1941, FO 248/1406.

  5. Ann Lambton, interview with author, Berwick-Upon-Tweed (England), August 10, 2003.

  6. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, January 10, 1944, FO 371/40209.

  7. PRO, Bullard Letter to Baxter, January 10, 1944, FO 371/40209.

  8. Diplomats and Iranians who witnessed the ceremony or heard it on the radio have written about this nervous disposition.

  9. PRO, Foreign Office to Tehran Legation, September 17, 1941, FO 371/27248.

  10. PRO, Sir Bullard to Foreign Office, October 9, 1941, FO 248/1406.

  11. Fereydoon Hoveyda, for years Iran’s ambassador to the UN and himself a film connoisseur with many connections amongst the Hollywood glitterati, and Ardeshir Zahedi, also known for his connections to the jet set, particularly the beautiful women of the set, have told me about this passion of Princess Ashraf.

  12. Shah, Answer to History, p. 69.

  13. Shah, Collected Works, September 17, 1941/26 Shahrivar 1320 (Tehran, 1355/1976).

  14. Fereydoon Jam, interview with author, London, August 3, 2009.

  15. Fereydoon Jam, Harvard Oral History Project, tape 2.

  16. Several sources have written about aspects of this sad episode. For a brief account of the entire issue, see Fakhradin Azimi, The Crisis of Democracy (London, 1989).

  17. PRO, Bullard to Foreign Office, September 1, 1941, FO 371/27261.

  18. Mohammad Gholi Majd, Great Britain and Reza Shah: The Plunder of Iran, 1921–1941 (Gainesville, Fla., 2001), pp. 371–376.

  19. Fereydoon Jam, interview with author, London, August 3, 2003.

  20. Ibid.

  21. Both quoted in Majd, Great Britain and Reza Shah, p. 323.

  22. Ibid.

  23. The translation was made by the British Embassy at the time; see Tehran to Foreign Office, November 20, 1945, FO 371/52731.

  24. Fardust, Memoirs, vol. 1, p. 109.

  25. Ettel’at, no. 3659, Mehre 2, 1320/September 27, 1941.

  26. Ibid.

  27. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, December 17, 1941, FO 371/35071.

  28. A copy of the telegram is reproduced in Majd’s Great Britain and Reza Shah, p. 325.

  29. Majd, Great Britain and Reza Shah, p. 324.

  30. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, June 11, 1947, FO 248 1478.

  31. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, December 17, 1943, FO 371/35077.

  32. Fardust, Memoirs, vol.1, pp. 122–123.

  33. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, April 11, 1944, FO 371/40186.

  34. Shah, Collected Works, 6 Khordad 1328/1949.

  35. Parviz Nikkhah was his name; he studied the number of seminarians for his master’s thesis. Jamshid Garachedaghi, interview with author, Berkeley, June 30, 1999.

  36. PRO, Audience of the Shah, January 29, 1944, FO 371/30178.

  37. Marja’yat dar Arseye Ejtema va Siyasat [Ayatollahs in the Realm of Society and Politics], edited by Seyeed Mohammad Hussein Manszur-alajdad (Tehran, 1379/2000), p. 267.

  38. Ahmad Kasravi, Shiigari [Shiism] (Tehran, 1322/1942).

  39. Marja’yat dar Arseye Ejtema va Siyasat, p. 272.

  40. Hamid Shokat, Dar Tir-rase Hadese [On the Path of the Whirlwind] (Tehran, 1385/2006), pp.157–159.

  41. Shah, Collected Works, Aban 2, 1320/October 24, 1941.

  42. Ibid., Shahrivar 26, 1320/1941.

  43. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, October 16, 1941, FO 248/1406.

  44. Ibid.

  45. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, October 9, 1941, FO 248/1406.

  46. PRO, Tehran, “Military Attaché Intelligent Summary,” No. 7, February 14–20, 1944, FO 406/82.

  47. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, December 16, 1942, FO 371/31378.

  48. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, December 9, 1942, FO 371/31378.

  49. Ibid.

  50. Ibid.

  51. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, December 10, 1942, FO 371/31378.

  52. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, December 9, 1942, FO 371/31378.

  53. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, December 10, 1942, FO 371/31378.

  54. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, December 15, 1942, FO 371/31378.

  55. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, November 11, 1942, FO 371/31387.

  56. The Hurley Report as well as the rest of his papers are housed in the University of Oklahoma Library. I have written about the report and its fate in “Hurley’s Dream,” Hoover Digest, No. 3, July 30, 2003.

  57. PRO, Sir Reader Bullard to Kerman Consulate, September 22, 1941 FO 371/27247.

  58. PRO, External Affair India to S/S India, October 5, 1941, FO 371/27247.


  59. Ibid.

  60. PRO, Sec. of State for Colonies to Governor of Mauritius, October 8, 1941, FO/371/17247.

  61. PRO, Bullard to Foreign Office, October 24, 1941. FO 371/27248.

  62. Ibid.

  63. Ibid.

  64. Ibid.

  65. Gholam Hussein Mirza-Saleh, Khaterat-e Suleiman Behboodi, Shams Pahlavi, Ali Izadi [Memoirs of Behbudi, Shams and Isadi] (Tehran, 1372/1992), p. 434.

  66. Reza Shah, “Nasayeh va Payam-e Tarikhi Ahlahazrat Reza Shah Pahlavi be Farzande Tajdar-e Khod,” [The Advice and the Historic Message of His Majesty Reza Shah to his Crowned Son]. Tehran Mosavar.

  67. Ibid., p. 1.

  68. PRO, Foreign Office to Tehran, May 20, 1947, FO 248/1478.

  69. PRO, Foreign Office to Tehran, March 12, 1947, FO 248/1478.

  70. Ibid.

  71. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, March 12, 1947, FO 248/1478.

  72. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, April 29, 1947, FO 248/1478.

  8 Dawn of the Cold War

  1. R. K. Karanjia, The Mind of a Monarch (London, 1977), p. 70.

  2. Ibid., p. 72.

  3. Shah, Answer to History, p. 72.

  4. Karanjia, The Mind of a Monarch, p. 168.

  5. Ibid., p. 72.

  6. PRO, Bullard to Eden, January 27, 1944, FO 371/40181.

  7. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, January 27, 1944, FO 371/31378.

  8. Ibid.

  9. In many essays, Milan Kundera has made just such a charge. Central Europe was part of “Middle Europe,” he says, and should have remained in the West; see for example, Milan Kundera, “The Tragedy of Central Europe,” New York Review of Books, April 26, 1984, pp. 33–38.

  10. Shah, Answer to History, p. 73.

  11. PRO, Le Rougetel to Bevin, September 3, 1946, FO 321/52731.

  12. PRO, Audience given by the Shah, September 4, 1946, FO 371/52731.

  13. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, February 14, 1944, CAB 12T/654.

  14. Ibid.

  15. Fardust, Memoirs, vol. 1. p. 127.

  16. Jamil Hasanli, At the Dawn of the Cold War: The Soviet-American Crisis Over Iranian Azerbaijan, 1941–1946 (Lanham, Md., 2006), p. 26.

  17. Simon Sebag Montefiore, Young Stalin (New York, 2007), p. 16.

  18. Ibid., p. 196

  19. Natalia I. Yegorova, “ ‘The Iran Crisis’ of 1945–46: A View from the Russian Archives” (working paper 15, Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars).

  20. Tadeusz Swietochowski, Russia and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition (New York, 1995), p. 139.

  21. For a discussion of these bylaws, see Fernando Claudín, The Communist Movement: From Comintern to Cominform, vol. 1, The Crisis of the Communist International (New York, 1975).

  22. Decree of the CC CPSU Politburo to Mir Bagirov CC Secretary of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, on “Measures to Organize a Separatist Movement in Southern Azerbaijan and Other Provinces of Northern Iran,” July 6, 1945. Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

  23. Mossadeq’s speech in the parliament, quoted in Mostafa Elm, Oil, Power, and Principle: Iran’s Nationalization and Its Aftermath (Syracuse, N.Y., 1992), p. 45.

  24. Hasanli, At the Dawn of the Cold War, p. 266.

  25. Elm, Oil, Power, and Principle, p. 45.

  26. Ironically, even some on the American Left concluded that “Soviet interests necessitated influence in Northern Iran,” and this influence, they wagered “could provide Azerbaijan with necessary reforms.” Ibid., p. 129.

  27. FRUS, 1944, vol. 5, p. 48.

  28. Dr. Mohammad Mossadeq, Khaterat o Ta’alomat [Memoirs and Contemplations] (Tehran, 1357/1979), p. 359. Mossadeq first quotes the entire passage from the Shah’s memoirs that is critical of Mossadeq and then offers his response.

  29. PRO, Bullard to Foreign Office, January 20, 1944, FO 371/40186.

  30. PRO, British Embassy in Tehran to Foreign Office, January 20, 1944, FO 371/40186.

  31. Swietochowski, Russia and Azerbaijan, p. 137.

  32. PRO, Bullard to Foreign Office, June 4, 1945, FO 248/1452.

  33. PRO, British Embassy in Tehran to Foreign Office, March 8, 1944, FO 371/40186.

  34. PRO, British Embassy to Foreign Office, January 28, 1945, FO 371/45449.

  35. Elm, Oil, Power, and Principle, p. 47.

  36. Karanjia, The Mind of a Monarch, p. 78.

  37. Elm, Oil, Power, and Principle, p. 47.

  38. FRUS, 1947, vol. 5, p. 892.

  39. Swietochowski, Russia and Azerbaijan, p. 260.

  40. PRO, British Embassy in Tehran to Foreign Office, September 3, 1946, FO 371/52731.

  41. FRUS, 1945, vol. 8, p. 49.

  42. Hasanli, At the Dawn of the Cold War, p. 51.

  43. Louise L’Estrange Fawcett, Iran and the Cold War: The Azerbaijan Crisis of 1946 (Cambridge, U.K., 1922), p. 56.

  44. Ibid., p. 374

  45. Ibid,. p. 374.

  46. FRUS, 1947, vol. 5, p. 922.

  47. Ibid.

  48. Quoted in Gary R. Hess, “The Iranian Crisis of 1945–46 and the Cold War,” Political Science Quarterly 89, no. 1 (March 1974): 135.

  49. Ibid., p. 136.

  50. FRUS, 1946, vol. 7, p. 362.

  51. Quoted in Hess, “The Iranian Crisis,” p. 134.

  52. PRO, British Embassy in Tehran to Foreign Office, June 26, 1946, FO 371/2731.

  53. Fardust, Memoirs, vol. 1, pp. 140–141.

  54. Hasanli, At the Dawn of the Cold War, p. 152.

  55. I was told the identity of the man. Though he is dead, his children are alive, and some live in Iran.

  56. General Alavi-Kia, interview with author, San Diego, September 3, 2004.

  57. PRO, British Embassy in Tehran to Foreign Office, April 16, 1946, FO 371/52731.

  58. PRO, British Embassy in Tehran to Foreign Office, September 3, 1946, FO 371/52731.

  59. FRUS, 1946, vol. 5, p. 356.

  60. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, April 16, 1946, FO 371/52731.

  61. PRO, Audience given by the Shah to Air Commodore W. L. Runcimen, 1946, FO 371/52731.

  62. Fawcett, Iran and the Cold War, p. 57.

  63. Ebrahim Golestan, interview with author, March 29, 2009, Nice, France.

  64. Robert Rossow Jr., “The Battle of Azerbaijan, 1946” Middle East Journal 10, no. 1 (1956): 26.

  65. Ibid., p. 25.

  66. Hasanli, At the Dawn of the Cold War, p. 299.

  67. Swietochowski, Russia and Azerbaijan, p. 156.

  68. In his rendition, the Shah claims that the agreement called for the promotion of every rebel officer by two grades. See Answer to History, p. 76.

  69. Rossow, “The Battle of Azerbaijan,” p. 19.

  70. Shah, Answer to History, p. 77.

  71. Rossow, “The Battle of Azerbaijan,” p. 31.

  72. Rasul Ja’farian, ed. Bohran Azerbaijan: Khaterat-e Mirza Abdullah Mojtahedi [The Azerbaijan Crisis, Memoirs of Mirza Abdullah Mojtahedi] (Tehran, 1381/2002) p. 354.

  73. The episode is reported in the memoirs of Ebtehaj. For an account of the episode, see Hamid Shokat, Dar Tir Rase Havadeth: Zendegiye Siyasiye Qavam-al-Saltaneh [A Political Life of Qavam] (Tehran, 1385/2006).

  74. Karanjia, The Mind of a Monarch, p. 90

  75. Ibid.

  76. FRUS, 1946, vol. 7, p. 348.

  77. For a discussion of these factors, see Shokat, Dar Tir Rase Havadeth.

  78. For a detailed account of these episodes, written from the point of view of affording to Qavam his due historical respect, see Shokat, Dar Tir Rase Havadeth.

  79. Shah, Answer to History, p. 79.

  80. Swietochowski, Russia and Azerbaijan, p. 154.

  81. Hess, “The Iranian Crisis,” p. 135.

  82. In 1945, for example, the French government claimed that Qavam had received a bribe to reappoint a diplomat to the post of ambassador in Paris. See my Persian Sphinx: Amir Abbas Hoveyda and the Riddle of the I
ranian Revolution (Washington, DC, 2000).

  83. FRUS, 1947, vol. 5. p. 923.

  84. FRUS, 1946, vol. 7, p. 531.

  85. FRUS, 1947, vol. 7, p. 979.

  86. Ibid., p. 538.

  87. Fawcett, Iran and the Cold War, p. 74.

  88. FRUS, 1946, vol. 7, p. 538.

  89. PRO, “Embassy Minute,” December 6, 1947, FO 248/1462.

  90. Many memoirs of the time reveal the extent of Princess Ashraf’s intervention. For example, see Amir Teymour Kalali, Khaterat-e Amir Teymour Kalali, ed. Habib Ladjevardi (Bethesda, MD. IOHP, 1997). A copy of the memoirs was provided to me courtesy of his family, particularly his daughter and son-in-law, Laleh and Mohsen Moazzami. Palo Alto, December 5, 2005.

  91. Karanjia, The Mind of a Monarch, p. 115.

  92. Mahmoud Torbati Sanjabi, Panj Golouleh Baraye Shah [Five Bullets for the Shah] (Tehran, 1381/2002), p. 92.

  93. Ardeshir Zahedi, interview with author, Montreux, March 26, 2009.

  94. Shah, Collected Works, vol. I, Mission for My Country (Tehran, 1975), pp. 102–4.

  95. For a brief account of his career, see my Eminent Persians (Syracuse, N.Y., 2008), vol. 1, pp. 483–490.

  96. Shah, Collected Works, vol. 1, Mission for My Country (Tehran, 1975), p. 103.

  97. Sanjabi, Panj Golouleh Baraye Shah, p. 92.

  98. Salnameye Donya, Fifth year, p. 38.

  99. Shah, Collected Works, “The Shah’s Message to the People, 17 Bahman 1327,” in vol. 1320–1340 (1941–1961), n.p.

  100. Sanjabi, Panj Golouleh Baraye Shah, p. 93.

  101. Tehran Mossavar published the novel by Sadreddin Elahi. He kindly provided me a copy of the text. He described the responses he received to the novel, including a visit from Parvin.

  102. Salnameye Donya, Fourth year, 164.

  103. Sanjabi, Panj Golouleh Baraye Shah, p. 85.

  104. PRO, British Embassy in Tehran to Foreign Office, September 3, 1946, FO 371/2731.

  105. “Talk of the Town, Willkiana,” The New Yorker, December 26, 1942.

  106. Ardeshir Zahedi, interview with author, Montreux, March 27, 2009.

  107. “Talk of the Town, Progressive,” The New Yorker, October 25, 1947, p. 25.

  108. Ibid.

  109. Ibid.

  110. Karanjia, The Mind of a Monarch, p. 199.

  111. Ibid.

  112. PRO, British Embassy in Tehran to Foreign Office, June 26, 1946, FO 371/45496.

  113. FRUS, 1947, vol. 5, p. 990.

  114. FRUS, 1948, vol. 5, p. 92.

  115. FRUS, 1948, vol. 5, p. 94.