The Shah
Page 70
39. Zahedi, Memoirs [Persian], vol. 1, p. 153.
40. Princess Soraya, Palace of Solitude, p. 100.
41. Shah, Collected Works, vol. 1, Mission for My Country, p. 197.
42. Princess Soraya, Palace of Solitude, p. 101.
43. Ibid., p. 104.
44. Dr. Hossein Fatemi, “Khaeni Ke Mikhast Vatan ra Be Khako Khoun Bekeshad Farar Kard,” [The Traitor Who Wanted to Shed the Nation’s Blood] Bakhtat-e Emrooz, 26 Mordad 1332/August 17, 1953.
45. Ibid.
46. Dr Hossein Fatemi, “Melat Bot-Shekan,” [Iconoclast Nation] Bakhtar Emrooz, 27 Khordard 1332/August 18, 1953.
47. Gholam Reza Afkhami, The Life and Times of the Shah (Berkeley, Calif., 2009), p. 170.
48. Ibid.
49. Zahedi, Memoirs [Persian], vol. 1, pp. 143–169.
50. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 748.
51. Love, “The American Role,” p. 33.
52. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 748.
53. For example, see Francis J. Gavin, “Politics, Power, and U.S. Policy in Iran, 1950–1953,” Journal of Cold War Studies 1, no. 1 (Winter 1999).
54. FRUS, 1951–1954, vol. X, p. 749.
55. Ibid., p. 749.
56. Gholam Hussein Sadighi, “Dar Bareye Enhelal Majli” [On Dissolving the Majlis], courtesy of the Sadighi family.
57. Ibid., p. 751.
58. Ibid., p. 752.
59. Dr. Mohammad Mossadeq, Khaterat va Taalomat, p. 270.
60. Love, “The American Role,” p. 34.
61. Ibid.
62. Ibid., p. 41.
63. Ebrahim Golestan, phone interview with author, July 30, 2010.
64. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 759
65. Ibid., p. 756.
66. Ibid., p. 746.
67. Ibid., p. 748.
68. PRO, British Embassy, Baghdad, to Foreign Ministry, August 21, 1953, FO 371/104570.
69. The British Embassy in Baghdad reported the content of the discussion. Quoted in Ruehsen Moyara de Moraes, “Operation ‘Ajax’ Revisited: Iran, 1953,” Middle Eastern Studies 29, no. 3 (July 1993): footnote 49.
70. Shah, Collected Works, 26 Tir 1336/1957.
71. Princess Soraya, Palace of Solitude, p. 104.
72. For an account of his life, see his chapter in my Eminent Persians (Syracuse, N.Y., 2008).
73. Prince Soraya, Palace of Solitude, p. 106.
74. PRO, Rome to Foreign Office, August 18, 1953, FO 371/104659.
75. The text of the telegram is provided in Ardeshir Zahedi’s Memoirs [Persian], vol. 1, p. 227.
76. Ardeshir Zahedi, interview with author, Montreux, December 22, 2006.
77. “Shah Denounces Mossadeq,” New York Times, August 22, 1953.
78. “Shah Leaves Rome to Fly to Tehran,” New York Times, August 21, 1953.
79. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, pp. 760–761.
80. PRO, Message from the Persian government, August 21, 1953, FO 371/104659.
81. Ebrahim Golestan, interview with author, Hayward Heath, U.K., December 19, 2006. He was at the airport, filming the scene of the arrival.
82. Shah, Collected Works, vol. 1941–1961, 1 Shahrivar 1322/August 23, 1953. The collected works gives the date of the message as August 23, but in fact it was, according to numerous sources, delivered on the night of August 22.
83. PRO, American Embassy in London, Foreign Office, August 23, 1953, FO 371/104570.
84. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 765.
85. Ibid., p. 762.
86. Ibid., p. 763.
87. Ibid., p. 764.
88. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, April 12 1955, FO 371/114810.
89. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 761.
90. PRO, FO to Washington, August 25 1953, FO 371/104659.
91. PRO, Sir W. Strang to Tehran August 29 1953, FO 371/104659.
92. Roosevelt, Countercoup, pp. 199–200.
93. Wright, “Memoirs,” vol. 1, pp. 187–188.
94. Appendix to chapter 10 of Wright’s memoirs included the full text of his marching orders, titled “Policy of Her Majesty’s Government in the Re-establishment of Diplomatic Relations with the Persian Government, December 17, 1953.”
95. Wright, “Memoirs,” vol. 1, p. 220.
96. Ibid., p. 207.
97. Ibid., pp. 207–208.
98. Ibid., p. 217.
99. Ibid., p. 213.
100. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 1017.
101. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, May 12, 1954, FO 371/109985.
102. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, October 20, 1954, FO 371/109985.
103. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p.1038.
104. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, pp. 931–932.
105. Iraj Amini, Barbal-e Bohran [On the Wings of Crisis] (Tehran, 2009), p. 105.
106. PRO, “Iran Annual Political Report 1954,” FO 371/114805.
107. Amini, Barbal-e Bohran, vol. 1, p. 8.
108. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, July 1 1954, FO 371/11066.
109. After the Islamic Revolution, Shaban escaped to the safety of exile, ending up in Los Angeles where he agreed to do an extensive interview with a seasoned journalist, wherein he denied playing any role in the events of August 19. He suggests that for much of that day he was in fact in prison.
110. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 012.
111. Shah, Answer to History, p. 95.
112. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, November 3, 1954, FO371/109985.
113. Princess Soraya, Palace of Solitude, p. 115.
114. Ardeshir Zahedi, interview with author, Montreux, March 20, 2006.
115. Princess Soraya, Palace of Solitude, p. 125.
116. “Young Ruler to Watch: Shah’s Job in Iran: A Sturdier Economy,” Newsweek, February 14, 1955.
117. Ardeshir Zahedi, interview with author.
118. Wright, “Memoirs,” vol. 1, p. 280.
119. FRUS, 1955–1957, vol. XII, p. 703.
120. Ibid., p. 704.
121. FRUS, 1955–1957, vol. XII, p. 727.
122. FRUS, 1952–1954, vol. X, p. 1014.
123. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, January 4, 1955, FO 371/114805.
124. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, March 15, 1955, FO 371/114868.
125. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, April 5, 1955, FO 371/114808.
126. Ardeshir Zahedi, interview with author, Montreux, March 20, 2006.
127. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, April 5, 1955, FO 371/114810.
128. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, April 12, 1955, FO 371/14810.
129. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, April 5, 1955, FO 371/114810.
130. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, August 3, 1955, FO 371/114811.
131. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, December 20, 1955, FO 248/1562.
132. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, November 23, 1955, FO 248/1563.
133. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, January 30, 1956, FO 248/1568.
134. PRO, “Iran Annual Review 1956,” FO 371/12707.
11 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
1. PRO, British Embassy, Tehran to Foreign Office, March 4, 1958, FO 371/133065.
2. FRUS, 1958–1960, vol. XII, p. 586.
3. Ibid., p. 584.
4. This is part of a report on Iran given to Communist China’s Foreign Ministry by the Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union. Chinese Foreign Ministry Archive, document no. 109–01347-03.
5. PRO, “The Internal Situation in Iran,” July 23, 1957, FO 371/12705.
6. Ibid.
7. Shah, Collected Works, Azar 1337–1341 (1958–1962), p. 263.
8. FRUS, 1958–1960, vol. XII, p. 584.
9. Ibid.
10. Several sources have confirmed the existence of this project, including General Alavi-Kia, and Israel’s ambassador to Iran, Moir Ezry. See his memoirs, Yadnameh, translated from the Hebrew by Ebrahim Khakhami (Jerusalem, 2000), pp. 205–210.
11. FRUS, 1958–1960, vol. XII, p. 659.
12. Ibid, p. 597.
13. FRUS, 1958–1960, vol.
XII, p. 606.
14. For an insider’s astute appraisal of why the CIA failed in its analysis of Iran, see Robert Jervis, Why Intelligence Fails: Lessons from the Iranian Revolution and the Iraq War (Ithaca, N.Y., 2010).
15. FRUS, 1958–1960, vol. XII, p. 589.
16. Ibid.
17. PRO, J. Foster Dulles to Chapin, October 8, 1957, FO 371/133009.
18. FRUS, 1958–1960, vol. XII, p. 584.
19. PRO, “Secret Minutes,” March 5, 1958, FO 371/133009.
20. Ahmad Norouzi Farsangi, Nagoftehay-e Zendegiy-e Sepahbod Gharani [The Untold Life of General Gharni] (Tehran, 1382/2003), p. 466.
21. PRO, British Embassy, Tehran to Foreign Office, March 4, 1958, FO/371/13309.
22. Ibid.
23. Farsangi, Nagoftehay-e Zendegiy-e Sepahbod Gharani. Throughout the book, Gharani is referred to as “martyr,” or Shahid. They make of him a devout man from childhood.
24. General Alavi-Kia, interview with author, San Diego, September 3, 2005.
25. Shakespeare, Othello, 1.1.35–36.
26. Numerous sources have written about this early history. For example, General Alavi-Kia, himself one of the founding deputy directors, talked at great length about the role of a handful of American colonels, particularly one who had served in Iran since late 1953. See also Mark J. Gasiorowski and Nikki R. Keddie, eds., Neither East Nor West: Iran, the Soviet Union, and the United States (New Haven, Conn., 1990), pp. 141–151.
27. General Alavi-Kia, interview with author, San Diego, September 3, 2005.
28. Ibid.
29. FRUS, 1958–1960, vol. XII, p. 539.
30. Ibid.
31. Ibid., p. 537.
32. General Hashemi, interview with author, London, August 7, 2004.
33. FRUS, 1958–1960, vol. XII, p. 541.
34. PRO, British Embassy, Tehran to Foreign Office, March 4, 1958, FO 371/133009.
35. FRUS, 1958–1960, vol. XII, pp. 539–540 .
36. PRO, British Embassy, Tehran to Foreign Office, March 4, 1958, FO 371/133009.
37. FRUS, 1958–1960, vol. XII, p. 541.
38. Ibid., p. 542.
39. Ibid., p. 537.
40. Ibid., p. 553.
41. PRO, British Embassy, Tehran to Foreign Office, Secret Minute, March 3, 1958, FO 371/133009.
42. Ibid.
43. FRUS, 1958–1960, vol. XII, p. 582.
44. Princess Soraya, The Autobiography of Her Imperial Highness, translated from German by Constantine Fitzgibbon (Garden City, N.Y., 1964), p. 147.
45. Ibid., p. 145.
46. PRO, British Embassy, Tehran to Foreign Office, April 14, 1954, FO 371/109985.
47. “My Baby Would Be Heir to Throne,” Daily Mail, November 25, 1957.
48. Soraya, Autobiography, p. 151.
49. Fardust, Memoirs, vol. 1, p. 208.
50. Soraya, Autobiography, p. 153.
51. Ibid., p. 154.
52. Gahnameye Panjah Sal Saltanat Pahlavi [Chronology of Fifty Years of Pahlavi Rule], vol. 2 (Tehran, 1356/1977), p. 933.
53. Soraya, Autobiography, p. 158.
54. Fardust, Memoirs, vol. 1, p. 209.
55. Anything Goes, July–August 2002, vol. 11, no. 12.
56. PRO, British Embassy to Foreign Office, May 13, 1958, FO 371/133019.
57. FRUS, 1958–1960, vol. XII, p. 549.
58. Gérard de Villiers with Bernard Touchias and Annick de Villiers, The Imperial Shah: An Informal Biography, translated by Jane P. Wilson and Walter B. Nichols (Boston, 1976), p. 213.
59. PRO, British Embassy to Foreign Office, May 13, 1958, FO 371/133019.
60. Fardust, Memoirs, vol. 1, p. 209. In his memoir, Alam, the Shah’s confidante, also refers to the fact that the Shah boasted about his affair with Grace Kelly. In a biography of Kelly, the story is confirmed.
61. Wright, “Memoirs,” vol. 2, p. 389. Sir Denis Wright kindly gave me access to the entire manuscript as well as many other documents in his collection.
62. My information on the Garter comes from Answers.com, an Internet site.
63. Sir Denis Wright, interview with author, Duck Bottom, England, December 13, 2000.
64. Ardeshir Zahedi, interview with author, Montreux, March 19, 2007.
65. I wrote a letter to the Vatican Archives and asked for the minutes of the meeting. I was informed of the seventy-five-year rule.
66. PRO, British Legation to the Holy See to Foreign Office, December 2, 1958, FO 371/136803.
67. Private report, Ala to His Majesty, 19 Dey 1337/January 9, 1959, Tarikhe Moaser-e Iran [Journal of Contemporary History of Iran], (Summer 1376/1997): pp. 145–147.
68. Farah Pahlavi, An Enduring Love: My Life with the Shah, translated by Patricia Clancy (New York, 2004), p. 47.
69. Dick Davis, Epic and Sedition: The Case of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh (Washington, DC, 1999).
70. Ibid., p. 81.
71. Ibid., p. 97.
72. Zahedi, Memoirs [Persian], vol. II, 1954–1965, pp. 102–103.
73. Ibid., p. 83.
74. Empress Farah, My Thousand and One Days: An Autobiography, translated by Felice Harcourt (London, 1978).
75. FRUS, 1958–1960, vol. XII, p. 625.
76. Ibid., p. 625.
77. Ibid., p. 622.
12 Russian House
1. PRO, “Torture in Iran,” March 19, 1956, FO 248/1560.
2. Ervand Abrahamian, Tortured Confessions: Prisons and Public Recantations in Modern Iran (Berkeley, Calif., 1999), p. 92.
3. Ardeshir Zahedi recounted the story to me in an interview. Zahedi, interview with author, Montreux, March 20, 2007.
4. For an account of his life, see my Eminent Persians: The Men and Women Who Made Modern Iran (Syracuse, N.Y., 2008).
5. The file that includes this report along with comments from embassy, Foreign Office, and British government officials had been closed “till 2032”—long after the normal period allotted for declassification of sensitive files. I made a special request for a reconsideration of this decision and within a few months learned that the file had indeed been opened for scrutiny. It is called “Torture in Iran, March 19, 1956,” and it is in PRO, FO 248/1560.
6. PRO, “Torture in Iran,” March 19, 1956, FO 248/1560.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. Tribal troubles were for much of the Shah’s time a nagging problem. From the time of Reza Shah, the central government’s attempt to forcefully settle these nomadic tribes had caused considerable consternation amongst them. The tribes had shed much blood defending their way of life. Sometimes foreign powers, including Britain and the United States, would use these tribes and their anger at the central government to pressure the Shah. Not long after the report about torture, the Shah approved a plan suggested by Mohammad Bahmanbeygi, a member of one of the most rebellious of these tribes. The idea was for roving schools to move with these nomadic tribes and educate their new generation. The effort bore fruit and the last decade of the Shah’s rule was essentially free from any serious tribal challenge. The revolution of 1979 changed the political dynamics amongst the tribes again. For an account of Bahmanbeygi, see my Eminent Persians.
10. PRO, “Torture in Iran,” March 19, 1956, FO 248/1560.
11. FRUS, 1955–1957, vol. XII, p. 917.
12. Ebrahim Golestan, interview with author, London, April 28, 2010. He kindly read an early draft of this chapter and offered his invariably astute and brilliant observations.
13. PRO, “Iran Annual Review, 1956,” FO 371/12707.
14. FRUS, 1955–1957, vol. XII, p. 917.
15. Ibid., p. 919.
16. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, May 21, 1956, FO 371/120752.
17. PRO, From Moscow to Foreign Office, July 12, 1956, PREM/1535.
18. PRO, Tehran to Foreign Office, July 18, 1956, PREM/1535.
19. FRUS, 1955–1957, vol. XII, pp. 951–952.
20. Ibid., p. 675.
21. Ibid.
22. Wright, “Memoirs,” vol. 2, p. 31
2. He kindly gave me access to his private papers as well. When his handwriting was hard to read, or when, hoping to avoid detection by possible secret police moles in his office, he had written in shorthand scribbles, he kindly and patiently read them out loud to me. Sir Denis Wright, interview with author, Hadenham, England, December 11, 2001.
23. Sir Denis Wright, interview with author, Hadenham, England, December 11, 2001.
24. Wright, “Memoirs,” vol. 2, p. 312.
25. “Soviet Government Statement to the Government of Iran,” Current Digest of the Soviet Press, XI, no. 31 (September 2, 1959).
26. “Perfidious Policy of Iranian Government, Pravda, February 14, 1959,” Current Digest of Soviet Press, 1959, XI, no. 6–7, pp. 24–26.
27. Ibid., p. 25.
28. Wright, “Memoirs,” vol. 2, p. 314.
29. Ibid., p. 315. In his memoirs, he refers to the following file as the one that contains all the correspondence on this topic: FO 371/140797.
30. Wright, “Memoirs,” vol. 2, p. 314.
31. Ibid., pp. 315–316.
32. Ibid., p. 316.
33. Ibid., p. 319.
34. Ibid., p. 321.
35. In interviews with me, Ardeshir Zahedi suggested that when as ambassador designate to the United States and later as foreign minister, he reviewed the ministry confidential files and he learned of Hekmat’s role. Zahedi, interview with author, Montreux, March 20, 2005.
36. PRO, “Iran Annual Review, 1959,” FO 371/14954.
37. “Editorial Note,” FRUS, 1958–1960, vol. XII, p. 626.
38. FRUS, 1958–1960, vol. XII, pp. 627–628.
39. Ibid., p. 629.
40. Ibid.
41. FRUS, 1958–1960, vol. XII, p. 638.
42. PRO, “Iran Annual Review, 1959,” FO371/149754.
43. FRUS, 1958–1960, vol. XII, p. 641.
44. PRO, British Embassy in Tehran to Foreign Office, April 23, 1959, FO 371/140882.
45. FRUS, 1958–1960, vol. XII p. 645.
46. PRO, “Persian Oil for Israel,” January 18, 1955, FO 371/114852.
47. FRUS, 1958–1960, vol. XII p. 646.
48. Ibid., pp. 658–659.
49. General Alavi-Kia, interview with author, San Diego, November 15, 2003.
50. “Taube nagt am Kohlstrunk,” Der Spiegel, no. 42 (October 18, 1950): 15. Hamid Shokat, who for a while worked as my research assistant at Stanford and on the Eminent Persians project, helped find and translate the article.
51. Klaus Körner, “Erst in Goebbels’, dann in Adenauers Diensten,” Die Zeit, August 24, 1990.