“greatly underestimated”: Confidential: Memorandum of Conversation, document 481.
“I had a phone call from [Khomeini’s eldest son]”: Author interview with Abolhassan Banisadr, July 11, 2013.
“Finally I became so exasperated”: Laing (1977), p. 217.
“Having successfully stripped”: Department of State Bureau of Intelligence and Research, document 483.
convened a meeting of grandees: According to legend, the elder statesmen of the Pahlavi Court confronted the Shah, who told them he would “flush them down the toilet.” But Dr. Fereydoun Ala, son of former prime minister Hossein Ala, firmly disputes this version of events as a myth. Although the Shah fired the officials after he learned of their discussion, neither he nor they actually met in person to discuss the matter. The Shah recoiled from personal confrontations. Author interview with Fereydoun Ala, May 8, 2013.
“I urged His Majesty to reign and not rule”: Author interview with Ardeshir Zahedi, October 27, 2012.
“They have reduced the Iranian people”: The account of the October 1964 speech is provided by Moin (1999), pp. 121–128.
a Royal Iranian Air Force Hercules: Ibid., p. 128.
“But when he left Turkey”: Ibid., p. 136.
6. “JAVID SHAH!”
“Shah is a kind of magic word with the Persian people”: Eric Pace, “Oil Boom Is Aiding Reform Plans of Shah of Iran,” New York Times, September 25, 1967.
“Now I could do more than sympathize”: Farah Pahlavi, An Enduring Love: My Life with the Shah (New York: Miramax, 2004), p. 141.
small M3 machine gun: Author interview with Colonel Kiomars Djahinbini, March 25, 2013.
“As soon as [the guman]”: Ibid.
“Oh, my God, Farah, darling!”: F. Pahlavi (2004), p. 135.
“I continued putting on my makeup”: Ibid.
“Four times in my reign”: E. A. Bayne, Persian Kingship in Transition (New York: American Universities Field Staff, 1968), p. 38.
“After that the system was changed”: Author interview with Colonel Kiomars Djahinbini, March 25, 2013.
“Once we were driving back to Saadabad”: Ibid.
“I want to build a government”: Bayne (1968), p. 59.
“a copy of the Quran and a picture of Ruhollah Khomeini”: Abbas Milani, The Persian Sphinx: Amir Abbas Hoveyda and the Riddle of the Iranian Revolution (Washington, DC: Mage, 2004), p. 171.
One of the judges: Amir Taheri, The Spirit of Allah: Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution (Bethesda, MD: Adler & Adler, 1986), p. 156.
Khomeini approved the fatwa: Ibid., p. 156.
handed the gunman his weapon: James Buchan, Days of God: The Revolution in Iran and Its Consequences (London: Murray, 2012), p. 133.
Mansur had tried to persuade: Abbas Milani, The Shah (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), p. 173.
Farah collapsed: Farah Pahlavi, My Thousand and One Days: The Autobiography of Farah, Shabanou of Iran (London: W. H. Allen, 1978), p. 59.
“I was filled with sadness”: Ibid.
“When I was first married”: Sally Quinn, “Why Iranian Monarchy Is Different,” Kayhan International, October 13, 1971.
“I had nothing to do”: Amir Taheri, The Unknown Life of the Shah (London: Hutchinson, 1991), p. 182.
“sticking my nose”: Ibid.
“I remember in the Golestan Palace”: Author interviews with Farah Pahlavi, March 23–25, 2013.
“For the first time I saw”: F. Pahlavi (2004), p. 141.
“all the facilities, schools”: Author interviews with Farah Pahlavi, March 23–25, 2013.
“Now I could do more than sympathize”: F. Pahlavi (2004), p. 141.
photographed donating blood: Author interview with Dr. Fereydoun Ala, May 8, 2013.
“We built libraries in public places”: Author interviews with Farah Pahlavi, March 23–25, 2013.
28 children’s libraries: Lesley Blanch, Farah, Shahbanou of Iran (Tehran: Tajerzadeh, 1978), p. 76.
118 mobile libraries: Ibid.
2,400 villages: Ibid.
success in reducing illiteracy: In the short space of fifteen years Iran’s rate of literacy climbed to 50 percent from just 17 percent. Amir Taheri, “New Frame for a New Picture,” Kayhan International, June 10, 1978.
received a phone call from the Queen: Author interview with Elli Antoniades, April 3, 2013.
“His Majesty was always asking me about my day”: Author interviews with Farah Pahlavi, March 23–25, 2013.
“a sprawling city of one- and two-story buildings”: Franc Shor, “Iran’s Shah Crowns Himself and His Empress,” National Geographic 133, no. 3 (March 1968): 302.
“The beaches bounce”: “Revolution from the Throne,” Time, October 6, 1967, p. 32.
10 percent annual growth spurt: “US Asks Shah’s Aid in Mideast,” Christian Science Monitor, August 24, 1967.
$130: “Revolution from the Throne,” p. 32.
$250: Pace, “Oil Boom.”
$700 million: Ibid.
75 percent: “Revolution from the Throne,” p. 32.
26 million subjects: Pace, “Oil Boom.”
98 percent: “Revolution from the Throne,” p. 32.
“Iran must first become”: Author interview with Reza Ghotbi, May 9, 2013.
“Shah is a kind of magic word”: Pace, “Oil Boom.”
“When everybody in Iran”: Bayne (1968), p. 73.
“If you don’t say to the Iranians”: Author interview with Fereydoun Djavadi, July 13, 2013.
“always ridiculous reasons”: Bayne (1968), p. 233.
“One village elder”: “Revolution from the Throne,” p. 32.
“by the year 2000 the world would be divided”: Bayne (1968), p. 233.
“the realities of the future”: Eric Hogland, project ed., Iran: The Making of US Policy, 1977–80, National Security Archive (Alexandria, VA: Chadwyck-Healey, 1990), “Political/Intelligence Issues: The Strength and Durability of the Shah’s Regime—Assessments of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR),” p. 3.
“uses [parliament] mostly for window-dressing”: “Revolution from the Throne,” p. 33.
“that our independent policy”: Eric Pace, “Shah of Iran Says He Hopes World Will ‘Do Without’ Military Alliances,” New York Times, September 14, 1967.
“beckons all the Middle East”: “LBJ Calls Iran’s Progress a Lesson ‘Others Have to Learn,’” Washington Post, August 23, 1967.
advanced fighter jets: “US Asks Shah’s Aid in Mideast.”
“It is not a source of pride or satisfaction”: “A Revolutionary on the Throne,” Kayhan International, October 29, 1967.
“Daddy, it’s time to come!”: Bayne (1968), p. 33.
“This month, Iran will hold a blowout”: “Revolution from the Throne,” p. 32.
“hospitals all over Iran”: Ibid., p. 34.
“God bless His Majesty”: “Iran: Crowns Himself—and His Queen,” Time, November 6, 1967, p. 47.
Tehran’s stock exchange: “Hoveyda Opens Stock Exchange,” Kayhan International, October 24, 1967.
The barbaric practice of hanging criminals: Pace, “Oil Boom.”
pardoned by the Shah: “Royal Pardon for Convicts,” Kayhan International, October 26, 1967.
men who had planned: “Monarch Pardons Marble Palace Conspirators,” Kayhan International, October 29, 1967.
arts festivals: Karim Emami, “Empress Opens Arts Festival at Shiraz,” Kayhan International, September 12, 1967.
270 million television viewers: “270 Million People See Eurovision Telecast,” Kayhan International, October 28, 1967.
“box of jewels”: “Tehran ‘Like a Box of Jewels’ from the Sky,” Kayhan International, October 24, 1967.
“I told the Shah it was foolish”: Author interview with Ardeshir Zahedi, October 27, 2012.
approved the change: “Assembly Names Empress Regent,” Kayhan International, September 9, 1967.
“Long may her influence”: Asadollah
Alam, The Shah and I: The Confidential Diary of Iran’s Royal Court, 1969–77, introduced and edited by Alinaghi Alikhani (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991), p. 171.
“This could have been a ceremony”: Patrick O’Donovan, “Shah’s Byzantine Rite,” Washington Post, October 27, 1967.
“The Shah and Queen remained”: Eric Pace, “Coronation of a Modern Monarch and His Queen in Iran Is Marked by Pomp of Old Persia,” New York Times, October 27, 1967.
“shaped rather like a wastepaper basket”: O’Donovan, “Shah’s Byzantine Rite.”
“as spectacular as a city in flames”: Ibid.
Struggling to hold back tears: “Empress Had to Fight Back Tears,” Kayhan International, November 5, 1967.
“It was the Queen and her son”: Nicholas Herbert, “The Shah Crowns Himself at Brilliant Tehran Ceremony,” Times (London), October 27, 1967.
“guns fired, bells rang, trumpets sounded”: O’Donovan, “Shah’s Byzantine Rite.”
“ignoring the bows and curtsies”: Ibid.
“The King of Kings is wearing the crown”: Pace, “Coronation of a Modern Monarch.”
17,532 roses: “Crowning the Shadow of God,” Time, November 3, 1967.
one for every day of the Shah’s life: Ibid.
“The crowds were enormous”: O’Donovan, “Shah’s Byzantine Rite.”
“the sleepless population”: “The Night of Nights in Tehran,” Kayhan International, October 28, 1967.
“He launched a revolution”: “Iran: A King Crowns Himself—and His Queen,” p. 47.
“It had been a dignified, rich and popular coronation”: Herbert, “The Shah Crowns Himself.”
“It was a morning of dazzling jewels”: O’Donovan, “Shah’s Byzantine Rite.”
7. ROYALS AND REBELS
“Wake up!”: Imam Khomeini, Islamic Government: Governance of the Jurist (Tehran: International Affairs Department, The Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini’s Works, 2008), p. 131.
“I always had in mind the Romanovs”: Author interview with Farah Pahlavi, March 26, 2013.
up before dawn: Author interview with one of Grand Ayatollah Khomeini’s former bodyguards, July 2013.
set their watches by his daily walk: Ibid.
“Even we were affected by his discipline”: Ibid.
“In private meetings”: Ibid.
“I do not know what sin I have committed”: Baqer Moin, Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah (London: I. B. Taurus, 1999), p. 147.
“this old man who is spending”: Ibid.
infiltrated his household with informers: Author interview with Parviz Sabeti, May 10, 2014.
“the old shark has had his fangs pulled out”: Amir Taheri, The Spirit of Allah: Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution (Bethesda, MD: Adler & Adler, 1986), p. 155.
“Najaf, like Qom and Mashad”: Moin (1999), p. 147.
“If we staged an uprising”: Ibid., p. 142.
“full of crazy ideas”: Asadollah Alam, The Shah and I: The Confidential Diary of Iran’s Royal Court, 1969–77, introduced and edited by Alinaghi Alikhani (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991), p. 42.
On the evening of August 5: Ibid., p. 81.
“to abandon his hippyfied ways”: Ibid., p. 83.
“Where on earth”: Ibid., p. 93.
forty-day ski vacation: Alam (1991), p. 121.
thirteen lectures: The lectures can be read in English in Khomeini, Islamic Government.
“remain in abeyance”: Ibid., p. 21.
“We have in reality, then, no choice”: Ibid., p. 29.
“pseudo saints”: Ibid., p. 131.
“negligent, lazy, idle and apathetic people”: Ibid., p. 129.
“Wake up!”: Ibid., p. 131.
“is the religion of militant individuals”: Ibid., p. 2.
“[The ulama] must be exposed and disgraced”: Ibid., p. 134.
54 percent or 14.5 million Iranians: Department of State Airgram, “Youth in Iran: Assessment by Embassy Youth Committee,” American Embassy Tehran, February 22, 1971, U.S. Department of State, Foreign Relations 1969–76, vol. E-4, Documents on Iran and Iraq 1969–72.
Ali Shariati: To learn more about the life and work of Ali Shariati see Al Rahnema, An Islamic Utopia: A Political Biography of Ali Shariati (New York: I. B. Taurus, 2000), and Ali Shariati, On the Sociology of Islam: Lectures by Ali Shariati, trans. Hamid Algar (Berkeley, CA: Mizan Press, 1979).
$50 million: E. A. Bayne, Persian Kingship in Transition (New York: American Universities Field Staff, 1968), p. 80.
“The liberal states of Western Europe”: Department of State Airgram.
“a terrible character”: Count Alexandre de Marenches interviewed by Christine Ockrent, Dans le secret des princes (Paris: Stock, 1986), p. 245; translation by Roger McKeon.
“medieval tyrant”: Ibid.
“One day, a child of his family”: Ibid.
Parviz Sabeti: Parviz Sabeti provided the author with details of his biography in a series of telephone and in-person interviews.
“Our task was not only to fight”: Author interview with Parviz Sabeti, May 10, 2014.
an Israeli recommendation: Ibid.
infiltrating his household with informers: Ibid.
“I often used to see the Shah”: Ibid.
General Nasiri: To learn more about his life see Abbas Milani, Eminent Persians: The Men and Women Who Made Modern Iran, 1941–79, vol. 1 (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2008), pp. 468–473.
“He parlayed his power into wealth”: Ibid., p. 471.
“Any time I wrote reports”: Author interview with Parviz Sabeti, May 10, 2014.
Hossein Fardust: To learn more about his life see Milani (2008), pp. 438–444.
“eyes and ears”: Ibid., p. 438.
“the ultimate ‘clearinghouse’ for all reports”: Ibid., p. 442.
“notorious for wearing the same shirt”: Ibid., p. 443.
“They can’t even let me have one friend”: Ibid., p. 442.
he told his wife to consult him: Author interviews with Farah Pahlavi, March 23–25, 2013.
The Queen was aware: Ibid.
“He grew to despise all those whose birthrights”: Milani (2008), p. 440.
as a boy on the tennis court: Ibid., p. 441.
“Why is Savak pushing so much negativity?”: Author interview with Parviz Sabeti, May 10, 2014.
“I didn’t blame His Majesty but Fardust”: Ibid.
edit his intelligence reports: Ibid.
met each other on only one occasion: Ibid.
“Farah knew me from television”: Ibid.
“He is very, very independent”: Margaret Laing, The Shah (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1977), p. 21.
“In general I get the impression”: Alam (1991), p. 150.
“young people in Iran”: Central Intelligence Agency, Research Study: “Elites and the Distribution of Power in Iran,” February 1976; Eric Hogland, project ed., Iran: The Making of US Policy, 1977–80, National Security Archive (Alexandria, VA: Chadwyck-Healey, 1990), document 01012.
“The Shah had too many brothers and sisters”: Habib Ladjevardi, ed., Memoirs of Fatemeh Pakravan, Iranian Oral History Project Center for Middle Eastern Studies (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1998), p. 85.
“We never spoke politics in family gatherings”: Author interview with Prince Gholam Reza, December 7, 2014. The author’s questions were forwarded to the Prince who then dictated his replies and e-mailed them back through an associate.
“most ambitious supporters”: Central Intelligence Agency, document 01012, p. 65.
“a wheeler-dealer”: Ibid., p. 66.
“quasi-legal business ventures”: Ibid.
“most flagrant act of irresponsibility”: Ibid.
“I always had in mind the Romanovs”: Author interview with Farah Pahlavi, March 26, 2013.
“She was obsessed with corruption”: Author interview with Parviz Sabeti, May 10, 2014.
“I
spoke against corrupt courtiers”: Ibid.
“‘How can my son become king’”: Ibid.
“It took three days to write”: Ibid.
“Mr. Sabeti, the report you”: Ibid.
“As her father I may be able to forgive”: Alam (1991), p. 105.
“an unexpected growth of interest in religion”: Department of State Airgram, “Youth in Iran.”
“The banning of political parties”: Amir Taheri, “Return of the Mosque,” Kayhan International, October 21, 1978.
“conservative, inward looking”: Department of State Airgram, “Youth in Iran.”
8. THE CAMP OF GOLD CLOTH
“We stand on our own feet”: “We Stand on Our Own Feet,” Kayhan International, October 19, 1971.
“Ah yes, Khomeini”: Carole Jerome, The Man in the Mirror (Toronto: Key Porter, 1986), p. 84.
“Let’s go and visit the halls”: Hushang Nahavandi, The Last Shah of Iran, trans. Steve Reed (London: Aquilion, 2005), p. 39.
two thousand schools: Sally Quinn, “A Sumptuous Party of Parties by the King of Kings,” Washington Post, October 11, 1971.
“What status does this library”: Nahavandi (2005), p. 43.
“Of course my life is better”: John K. Cooley, “Prosperity, Vitality Mark Iran’s 2,500th Year,” Christian Science Monitor, October 15, 1971.
Sixty thousand had recently turned out: Asadollah Alam, The Shah and I: The Confidential Diary of Iran’s Royal Court, 1969–77, introduced and edited by Alinaghi Alikhani (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991), p. 64.
“a worthy successor to earlier monarchs”: “Memorandum: Nothing Succeeds Like a Successful Shah,” Central Intelligence Agency Office of National Estimate, October 8, 1971, National Security Archive.
“the foreseeable future”: Ibid.
“obviously happy, almost radiant”: Nahavandi (2005), p. 39.
“modern, but so suited”: Ibid.
the inspiration of Shojaeddin Shafa: Cyrus Kadiver, “We Are Awake: 2,500-Year Celebrations Revisited,” http://iranian.com/CyrusKadivar/2002/January/2500/index.html, January 25, 2002.
“the most wonderful thing”: “Iran: The Show of Shows,” Time, October 25, 1971.
“rewaken the people”: William McWhirter, “We All Meet at the Club for Lunch,” Life, October 29, 1971, p. 22.
The Fall of Heaven Page 68
