The Shah

by Abbas Milani

  116. FRUS, 1948, vol. 5, p. 189.

  117. FRUS, 1948, vol. 5, p. 191.

  118. FRUS, 1949, vol. 6, p. 480.

  119. Iraj Pezekshzad, interview with author, Stanford, CA, May 10, 2009.

  120. Shah, Collected Works, “Speech before the Opening Session of the Constituent Assembly,” vol. 1320–1340 (1941–1961).

  121. Roberto Mangabeira Unger, “The Future of Religion and the Religion of the Future,” Tanner Lecture, Stanford University, April 16, 2009.

  122. For a text of Qavam’s letter and the Shah’s response, see Mohammad Ali Safari, Galam va Siyasat [The Pen and Politics] (Tehran, 1371/2002), pp. 911–923.

  123. PRO, British Embassy in Tehran to Foreign Office, June 19, 1946, FO 371/2731.

  124. Ibid.

  125. PRO, British Embassy in Cairo to Foreign Office, July 5, 1946, FO 371/2731.

  126. Her memoir, published under the direct auspices of the Islamic Republic of Iran, has all the characteristics of a semi-pornographic romance novel. See Parvin Ghafari, Ta Siyahi: Dar Dam-e Shah [Into Darkness: In the Shah’s Clutches] (Tehran, 1376/1997).

  127. PRO, British Embassy in Cairo to Foreign Office, July 5, 1946, FO 371/2731.

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

  129. PRO, British Embassy in Cairo to Foreign Office, September 5, 1945, FO 371/45496.

  130. Salnameye Donya, Fourth year, p. 65.

  131. Shah, Collected Works, vol.1, Mission for My Country, p. 443.

  132. PRO, British Embassy in Tehran to Foreign Office, May 19, 1948, FO 371/68726.

  9 Palace of Solitude

  1. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 8.

  2. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 284.

  3. C. M. Woodhouse, Something Ventured (London, 1992), p. 121.

  4. For a brief account of these tensions, see life of Maleki in Eminent Persians (Syracuse, N.Y., 2008), and Khaterat Siyasi Khalil Maleki [Political Memoirs of Maleki], edited and with an introduction by Homayoon Katouzian (Tehran, 1368/1999). Baghai, too, has offered his version of events. See his Harvard Oral History interview with Habiv Lajevardi, later published in a book edited by Mahmoud Toloui.

  5. Abdullah Shahbazi, personal correspondence.

  6. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 280.

  7. See my chapter on Golshai’yan in Eminent Persians.

  8. PRO, “Persian Political Situation,” November 12, 1949, FO 371/75468.

  9. PRO, British Embassy, Tehran, to Foreign Ministry, November 18, 1949, FO 371/75468.

  10. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, 1951, p. 39.

  11. PRO, Churchill to Truman, August 16, 1952, FO 371/98691. For a lengthy discussion about “Churchill’s Games With Truman,” see Mostafa Elm, Oil, Power, and Principle: Iran’s Oil Nationalization and Its Aftermath (Syracuse, N.Y., 1992), pp. 248–266.

  12. PRO, Seyyed Zia, December 10, 1950, FO248/1513.

  13. PRO, British Embassy, Tehran to Foreign Ministry, 20, December 20, 1950, FO 248/1513.

  14. PRO, Foreign Office to Chancery, April 11, 1951, FO 248/1513.

  15. PRO, Amery to Selwyn Lloyd, March 25, 1952, FO 371/98683. In an interview with Mustafa Elm, Drummond/Qajar confirmed the meeting.

  16. PRO, British Embassy, Tehran to Foreign Office, September 25, 1951, FO 248/1513.

  17. PRO, British Embassy, Tehran to Foreign Office, December 14, 1951, FO 248/1514.

  18. Ibid.

  19. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, April 3, 1950, FO 248/1493.

  20. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, March 18, 1950, FO 248/1493.

  21. PRO, British Embassy, Tehran to Foreign Office, September 21, 1952, FO 248/1541.

  22. Ibid.

  23. PRO, British Embassy, Tehran to Foreign Office, December 14, 1951, FO 248/1514.

  24. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, February 1, 1950, FO 371/82310.

  25. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, May 11, 1949, FO 371/35077.

  26. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, June 25, 1950, FO 248/1493.

  27. PRO, FO to Washington, June 7, 1950, FO 371/8231.

  28. PRO, Plans for the Reform of the Persian Government, June 23, 1950, FO 371/8231.

  29. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, August 25, 1950, FO 248/1493.

  30. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, June 5, 1950, FO 248/1493.

  31. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, August 17, 1950, FO 248/1493.

  32. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, October 3, 1950, FO248/1493.

  33. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, September 28, 1950, FO 248/1493.

  34. M. Reza Ghods, “The Rise and Fall of General Razmara,” Middle Eastern Studies 1, no. 1 (1993).

  35. Kambiz Razmara and Kaveh Bayat, Khaterat Va Asnad-e Sepahbod Hajd-Ali Razmara [Papers and Memoirs of General Razmara] (Tehran, 1382/2003), pp. 465–473.

  36. Elm, Oil, Power, and Principle, p. 82.

  37. PRO, British Embassy, Tehran to Foreign Office, March 19, 1951, FO 371/91524.

  38. PRO, British Embassy, Tehran to Foreign Office, February 8, 1951, FO 248/1514.

  39. PRO, British Embassy, Tehran to Foreign Office, March 15, 1951, FO 248/1514.

  40. PRO, Counselor Conversation with the Shah, August 15, 1951, FO 371/82212.

  41. PRO, British Embassy, Tehran to Foreign Office, February 8, 1951, FO 248/1514.

  42. PRO, British Embassy, Tehran to Foreign Office, April 21, 1952, FO 248/1514.

  43. PRO, British Embassy, Tehran to Foreign Office, May 21, 1950, FO248/1493.

  44. Ervand Abrahamian, “The 1953 Coup in Iran,” Science and Society 65, no. 2 (Summer 2001): 182–215.

  45. Woodhouse, Something Ventured, pp. 114–125.

  46. These are the words of the foreign minister, quoted from a PRO document in Elm, Oil, Power, and Principle, p. 91.

  47. FRUS, 1952–54, vol. X, pp. 67.

  48. Shah, Answer to History, p. 85.

  49. PRO, British Embassy, Tehran to Foreign Ministry, July 2, 1951, FO 248/1514.

  50. William Roger Louis, “Musaddiq and the Dilemmas of British Imperialism,” in James A. Bill and William Roger Louis, eds., Musaddiq, Iranian Nationalism, and Oil (London, 1988), pp. 228–261.

  51. Elm, Oil, Power, and Principle, 163.

  52. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 51.

  53. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 328.

  54. Ibid.

  55. FRUS, 1952–54, vol. X, p. 153.

  56. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, July 21, 1952, FO 248/1541.

  57. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, July 28, 1952, FO 248/1541.

  58. PRO, The Shah and Kashani, January 8, 1952, FO 248/1541.

  59. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol.X, p. 405.

  60. Seyyed Mohammad Hossein Manzar-al-Azdad, Marjaeeyat dar Arseye Ejtema’ va Siyasat [Ayatollahs in the Realm of Society and Politics] (Tehran, 1374/1995), p. 476.

  61. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, March 4. 1952, FO 248/1541.

  62. PRO, British Consulate, October 13, 1950, FO 371/82401.

  63. Princess Soraya Esfandiary Bakhtiary, Palace of Solitude, translated by Hubert Gibbs (London, 1992), p. 18. The first English translation of her memoirs, called The Autobiography of Her Imperial Highness Princess Soraya (translated by Constantine Fitzegibbon), is even more marred by cultural indiscretions and historic errors. There she calls her wedding an “Arabic ceremony” and misnames the Shah’s brothers and sisters. For a critical overview of that edition see, Cyrus Ghani, Iran and the West: A Critical Bibliography (London, 1987), 121–122.

  64. PRO, British Consulate in Isfahan, Foreign Office, October 13, 1950, FO 371/82401.

  65. Princess Soraya, Palace of Solitude, p. 9 (italics mine).

  66. Princess Soraya, Palace of Solitude, p. 78.

  67. Ibid., p. 29.

  68. Ibid., p. 24.

  69. Ibid., p. 22.

  70. Ibid., p. 21.

  71. Ibid., p. 28.

  72. PRO, British Consulate in Isfahan, Foreign Office, October 13, 1950, FO 371/82401.

  73. Princess Soraya, Pa
lace of Solitude, p. 41.

  74. Ibid., p. 50.

  75. PRO, British Embassy, Tehran to Foreign Office, February 19, 1951, FO 371/91672.

  76. PRO, Foreign Ministry to Air Ministry, February 12, 1951, FO 371/91672.

  77. PRO, British Embassy to Foreign Ministry, April 4, 1951, FO 371/91672.

  78. Ibid.

  79. PRO, British Embassy to Foreign Ministry, June 27, 1951, and British Embassy to Foreign Embassy, July 5, 1951, FO 371/91672.

  80. PRO, British Embassy, Tehran to Foreign Office, March 31, 1951, FO 371/91672.

  81. For this car, a number of telegrams were exchanged between the British Embassy and the Foreign Office. All of them can be found in FO 371/91672.

  82. PRO, Board of Trade to Tehran, December 5, 1950, FO 371/82401.

  83. Princess Soraya, Palace of Solitude, p. 86.

  84. Ibid., p. 114.

  85. Ibid., p. 45.

  86. Ibid., p. 84.

  87. Ibid.

  88. One of the regular poker players in those days was Manouchehr Riyahi, whose wife was a sister to the wife of one of the Shah’s half-brothers and who made a fortune by running a cabaret in Tehran that used Polish women as dancers and hosts. For an account of his days at the Court, see Manouchehr Riyahi, Sarab Zendegi (Tehran, 1371/2001), pp. 530–581.

  89. Princess Soraya, Palace of Solitude, p. 92.

  90. Ibid., p. 93.

  91. PRO, “Persia,” February 27, 1953, FO 371/104562.

  92. Princess Soraya, Palace of Solitude, p. 90.

  93. Ibid., p. 91.

  94. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 187.

  95. Ibid.

  96. PRO, L. F. Pyman to Foreign Office, January 15, 1952, FO 248/1541.

  97. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 187.

  98. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 406.

  99. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 427.

  100. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, September 16, 1950, FO 248/1493.

  101. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, 1953, p. 730.

  102. Ibid.

  103. Kermit Roosevelt, Countercoup: The Struggle for the Control of Iran (New York: 1979), p. 156.

  104. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 674.

  105. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, April 8, 1950, FO 248/1493.

  106. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 675.

  107. Ibid., p. 676.

  108. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 385.

  109. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 679.

  110. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, June 1, 1952, FO 248/1535.

  111. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 680.

  112. Ibid., p. 681.

  113. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 682.

  114. Ahmad Ali Shaygan, Zendegi-namehy-e Siyasi, Neveshteha va Sokhanraniha [Political Life, Writings and Speeches], ed. By Ahmad Shaygan, vol. 1 (Tehran, Agah Press 1384/2005), p. 515.

  115. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 683.

  116. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 681.

  117. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 682.

  118. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 685.

  119. Ibid.

  120. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 685.

  121. PRO, British Embassy, Washington DC, to Foreign Office, February 27, 1953, FO 371/104526.

  122. FRUS,1952–1954, vol. X, p. 686.

  123. Ibid.

  124. Ardeshir Zahedi, interview with author, Montreux, March 20, 2006.

  125. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 688.

  126. Ibid., p. 689.

  127. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 689.

  128. PRO, Foreign Office to Secretary of State, March 3, 1953, FO 371/104526.

  129. PRO, “Iran Report,” March 4, 1953, FO 371/104563.

  130. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 687.

  131. PRO, “Persia,” March 4, 1953, FO 371/104563.

  132. Ibid.

  133. Shaygan, Zendegi-namehy-e Siyasi, Neveshteha va Sokhanraniha, p. 517.

  134. PRO, Iran Report, March 4, 1953, FO 371/104563.

  135. PRO, American Embassy, London, March 1, 1953, FO 371/104563.

  136. PRO, Iran Report, February 24, 1953, FO 371/104563.

  137. Ibid.

  138. PRO, American Embassy, London, March 1, 1953, FO 371/104563.

  139. Roosevelt, in Countercoup (p. 126) refers to the CIA’s role in this campaign. There have been other fuller accounts of the campaign.

  140. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 742.

  141. PRO, “Persia,” March 12, 1953, FO 371/104563.

  142. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, pp. 722–723.

  143. Shaygan, Zendegi-namehy-e Siyasi, Neveshteha va Sokhanraniha, p. 539.

  144. Karim Sanjabi, a professor of law and a close advisor of Mossadeq, declares in his Harvard Oral History interview that, in his view, the Shah did have the right to dismiss the prime minister when there was no parliament.

  145. Jalal Matini, Negahi be Karnamey-e Siyasi Dr Mossadeq [A Glance at the Political Career of Dr. Mohammad Mossadeq] (Los Angeles, 2006), p. 363. Of those receiving such recess appointments, only one, and then only after he was dismissed, questioned the King’s right to make such appointments.

  146. Shaygan, Zendegi-namehy-e Siyasi, Neveshteha va Sokhanraniha, pp. 152–154. The full text of the letter can be found on page 154.

  10 Ajax or Boot

  1. In his Legacy of Ashes, Tim Weiner does point to the strangeness of this choice for a CIA operation. See Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes: A History of the CIA (New York, 2007), p. 83.

  2. Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, 1.2.22–30.

  3. Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, p. 8.

  4. Ibid., p. 18.

  5. Sir Denis Wright, “The Memoirs of Sir Denis Wright (1911–1976)” (unpublished memoirs), vol. 1, p. 212. He kindly gave me access to not only the full text of his memoirs but to most of his private papers.

  6. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 755. The editors say there is an indication on the note that Eisenhower saw it on 8/21/1953.

  7. Ardeshir Zahedi had, in the aftermath of August 1953, offered his version of events in a series of articles called “Five Days of Crisis.” Life magazine had offered him a large sum for the right to publish the memoirs, but General Zahedi had forbidden his son from going through with the deal. The version was published in Iran. Much the same version is retold in the first volume of his recently published memoirs. See Zahedi, Memoirs [Persian], vol. 1. A French translation of the volume has already appeared and an English version is apparently on the way.

  8. Cyrus Ghani, Iran and the West: A Critical Bibliography (London, 2002).

  9. George C. McGhee, “Recollections of Dr. Mohammad Mussadiq,” in Musaddiq, Iranian Nationalism, and Oil, James A. Bill and Wm Roger Louis, eds. (London, 1988), p. 300.

  10. The Shah made the claim in many speeches, and in his two memoirs. For example, see Answer to History, pp. 79–84.

  11. Princess Soraya, Palace of Solitude, p. 108. The book calls her Her Imperial Highness, Princess Soraya. Not long after her departure from Iran after her divorce, she tried to use this title for a book of memoirs and the Iranian court fought to stop her from using the title.

  12. http://www.fas.org/news/iran/2000/000317.htm.

  13. For the CIA’s account, see Donald Wilbur, “Clandestine Service History: Overthrow of Premier Mossadeq of Iran, November 1952–August 1953.” The actual text was written by Wilbur, a Princeton professor and a CIA operative and leaked to the New York Times in 2000. “Secrets of History: The CIA in Iran, Special Report.: How a Plot Convulsed Iran in ’53 and in ’79,” By James Risen, New York Times, April 16, 2000, p. 1. The other two most important memoirs, discussed further in the chapter, were Kermit Roosevelt’s Countercoup: The Struggle for the Control of Iran (New York, 1979), and Christopher Woodhouse’s Something Ventured (London, 1992).

  14. See for example, Darioush Bayandor, Iran and the CIA: The Fall of Mossadeq Revisited (New York, 2010).

  15. “A Diplomat’s View from Tehran,” U.S. Embassy in Tehran, reprinted by Georg
etown University, Series on History of Diplomacy, Washington, DC, 1980.

  16. For some of these controversies, See Jalal Matini, Negahi Be Karnamey-e Siasi Dr Mohammad Mossadeq [A Glance at the Political Career of Dr. Mohammad Mossadeq] (Los Angeles, 2006).

  17. For a detailed account of the effort and of McGee’s tensions with the British, see the well-researched history by Mostafa Elm, Oil, Power, and Principle: Iran’s Oil Nationalization and Its Aftermath (Syracuse, N.Y., 1992), pp. 85–89. Some in Britain even accused him of instigating the movement and encouraging Mossadeq to have American oil companies replace the AIOC.

  18. McGhee, “Recollections of Dr. Mohammad Mussadiq,” pp. 298–302.

  19. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 417.

  20. Kennett Love, “The American Role in the Pahlavi Restoration on August 19, 1953,” Allen Dulles Papers, Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University, p. 28.

  21. Ibid.

  22. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 514.

  23. Love, “The American Role,” p. 25.

  24. In a detailed article about Reporter’s role in the 1953 events, Abdollah Shahbazi refers to this remarkable letter and promises to divulge its contents later. He has yet to publish the full text, but in personal correspondence, he described to me some of the main points in the first page of the four-page document.

  25. Roosevelt, Countercoup, p. 110.

  26. Ibid., p. 163.

  27. Ibid., p. 109.

  28. I was told about this aspect of Roosevelt’s life by several people, including Fereydoon Mahdavi, onetime minister of trade during the Shah’s reign. He was in charge of foreign purchases, and realized that for wheat he had to go through Roosevelt. Interview with author, Paris, September 4, 1999.

  29. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 725.

  30. Ibid., p. 723.

  31. Ibid.

  32. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 781. The author or British source of this fascinating eight-page document is unknown, according to the editors of the FRUS, 1952–1954 volume.

  33. Wilbur, “Clandestine Service History,” Appendix B, pp. 6–7. In his Iran and the CIA, Bayandor also covers these pressures and their impact on the Shah, pp. 87–98.

  34. Zahedi, Memoirs [Persian], vol. 1, pp. 143–154.

  35. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 781.

  36. Zahedi, Memoirs [Persian], vol. 1, p. 144.

  37. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 746.

  38. Roosevelt, Countercoup, p. 160.