“old Quasimodo”: Alam (1991), p. 246.
related to senior religious figures: Taheri (1986), p. 159.
requested a whiskey: Author interview with Kambiz Atabai, February 15, 2013.
“They shared a love”: Milani (2008), p. 198.
“The Shah is the Chairman”: Anthony Parsons, The Pride and the Fall: Iran 1974–79 (London: Jonathan Cape, 1984), p. 30.
“Well Tony”: Ibid., p. 62.
“Hoveyda was a very good friend”: Author interview with Mahnaz Afkhami, August 16, 2013.
“Amir, are you drunk already?”: Author interview with Ardeshir Zahedi, October 27, 2012.
“I was usually frank and ruthless”: Milani (2004), p. 26.
“should be so negligent”: Alam (1991), p. 315.
“a growing sense of alienation”: Ibid., p. 221.
“There is considerable anxiety”: Telegram 2488 from the Embassy in Tehran to the Department of State, May 1, 1972, FRUS, vol. E-4, documents on Iran and Iraq, 1969–72, document 182.
“Iran was in the category of states”: Author interview with Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, September 4, 2015.
$4.6 billion in 1973–1974: Hossein Razavi and Firouz Vakil, The Political Environment of Economic Planning in Iran, 1971–83: From Monarchy to Islamic Republic (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1984), p. 63.
“Iran is not a volcano now”: Mohamed Heikal, The Return of the Ayatollah: The Iranian Revolution from Mossadeq to Khomeini (London: Andrew Deutsch, 1981), p. 104.
“Once dismissed by Western diplomats”: “Oil, Grandeur and a Challenge to the West,” Time, November 4, 1974, p. 28.
33 percent: Andrew Scott Cooper, The Oil Kings: How the U.S., Iran and Saudi Arabia Changed the Balance of Power in the Middle East (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011), p. 212.
40 percent: Ibid.
“We have no real limit on money”: Ibid., p. 182.
25 percent stake: “Oil, Grandeur,” p. 28.
“on projects ranging from schools to hospitals”: Ibid.
$700 million: Ibid.
$1 million: Ibid.
“He was our baby”: Cooper (2011), p. 212.
Dr. Ali Kani stopped off in Beirut: Author interview with Ali Kani, February 23, 2013. Dr. Kani provided the details of his encounter with Musa Sadr in the same interview.
“I want them finished in my lifetime”: Alam (1991), p. 363.
they not mention the word “cancer”: F. Pahlavi (2004), p. 246.
formal diagnosis of “Waldenstrom’s disease”: Ibid., p. 247.
He and Alam had both expressed admiration: Cooper (2011), p. 165.
Flandrin watched in horror: F. Pahlavi (2004), p. 253.
told the French president: Ibid., p. 266.
$5 million: “Farah: Working Empress,” Time, November 4, 1974, p. 36.
forty office workers: Ibid.
twenty-six patronages: Ibid.
fifty thousand letters: Ibid.
“We will have to continue”: Ibid.
“Many problems touch me”: Ibid.
“My husband is interested in Iran’s GNP. I am interested in its GNH—Gross National Happiness”: Ibid.
“The only beautiful thing”: Author interviews with Farah Pahlavi, March 23–25, 2013.
“I didn’t want to repeat”: Author interview with Farah Pahlavi, November 13, 2014.
wrote him a letter: Author interviews with Farah Pahlavi, March 23–25, 2013.
opposed construction: Ibid.
preserve the ancient bazaar: Ibid.
“He was very hardworking”: Ibid.
Reza Ghotbi: Biography based on author interviews with Reza Ghotbi, March 25, 2013, and May 9, 2013.
Seyyed Hossein Nasr: Biography based on author interviews with Hossein Nasr, August 21, 2014, and November 18, 2014.
“I met her and she became very interested”: Ibid.
“The Queen was always the person”: Author interviews with Reza Ghotbi, March 25, 2013, and May 9, 2013.
“They once arrested a man”: Author interview with Farah Pahlavi, November 13, 2014.
“Furious, I spoke”: F. Pahlavi (2004), p. 236.
demanded the man leave his office: Author interview with Fereydoun Djavadi, July 13, 2013.
“Why do you hire so many leftists?”: Author interviews with Ardeshir Zahedi, October 27–28, 2012.
“I saw the Empress”: Parsons, The Pride and the Fall, p. 25.
11. THE TURNING
“Right across Islam, the mullahs are doomed”: 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. 480.
“People are turning to Islam”: “Religious Revival: Islamic Conservatives, Increasingly Militant, Stir Worries in the West,” Wall Street Journal, August 15, 1978.
“simple, sharply angled, steeply gabled”: Lesley Blanch, Farah, Shahbanou of Iran (Tehran: Tajerzadeh, 1978), p. 137.
“Kish was fantastic”: Author interviews with Farah Pahlavi, March 23–25, 2013.
establishing a committee of experts: Martin Woollacott, “The Shah Shoves Iran Towards Freedom,” Guardian, July 8, 1978.
“The bazaar is not just a collection of shops”: Amir Taheri, “The Bazaar,” Kayhan International, October 2, 1978.
80 percent: Ibid.
five thousand agents: Ibid.
“the religious processions”: Ibid.
“Politically, it is the bazaar”: Ibid.
“The Iranian government”: Ibid.
“government is best that governs least”: Ibid.
“The cost of living in Iran”: James F. Clarity, “Iran’s Flood of Oil Money Aggravates Her Inflation,” New York Times, October 7, 1974.
“There’s something a little desperate in the air”: “Iran’s Race for Riches,” Newsweek, March 24, 1975, p. 43.
“was to raise Iran’s standard of living”: Ibid.
“I genuinely fear”: Alam (1991), p. 464.
declared a one-party state: To learn more about the Shah’s decision to declare a one-party state in Iran in March 1975 and his views on democracy and pluralism, the following references are helpful: Ervand Abrahamian, Tortured Confessions: Prisons and Public Recantations in Modern Iran (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), pp. 149–154; Gholam Reza Afkhami, The Life and Times of the Shah (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009), pp. 423–440; Ali M. Ansari, Modern Iran Since 1921: The Pahlavis and After (London: Longman, 2003), pp. 185–187; Abbas Milani, The Persian Sphinx: Amir Abbas Hoveyda and the Riddle of the Iranian Revolution (Washington, DC: Mage, 2004), pp. 274–280; Amin Saikal, The Rise and Fall of the Shah: Iran from Autocracy to Religious Rule (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980), pp. 188–191.
“My motto is: ask the advice of the technocrats”: “We Cannot Take Chances,” Newsweek, March 1, 1976, pp. 20–21.
“I not only make the decisions, I do the thinking”: Lewis M. Simons, “Shah’s Dreams Are Outpacing Iran’s Economic Boom,” Washington Post, May 26, 1974.
“was taking on too much”: Habib Ladjevardi, director, interview with Denis Wright, Harvard University Center for Middle East Studies, Iranian Oral History Project, October 10, 1984, tape 3, p. 9.
“People are turning to Islam”: “Religious Revival.”
1.6 million: Mohammad Abdul-Rauf, “Pilgrimage to Mecca,” National Geographic 154, no. 5 (November 1978): 582.
“like a harlot”: Andrew Borowiec, “Moslem Fundamentalists Fight Shah’s Reforms,” Washington Post, June 24, 1975.
“the unholy alliance of black reactionist[s]”: Charles Kurzman, The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004), p. 289.
“Khomeini?” he asked: Amir Taheri, The Spirit of Allah: Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution (Bethesda, MD: Adler & Adler, 1986), p. 169.
“Right across Islam”: Alam (1991), p. 480.
“rather alarmed”: Ibid., p. 483.
“Do they suppose the military”: Alam (1991), p. 516.
“Young professional people want to escape”: Joseph Kraft, “Letter from Iran,” New Yorker, December 18, 1978, p. 144.
Prince Patrick Ali: The most detailed public source available on Patrick Ali’s life can be found on his Facebook page. The author e-mailed Patrick Ali Pahlavi at the Gmail account published on the writers.net site but did not receive a response.
“psychologically tortured”: http://www.writers.net/writers/72914.
“would like to lead a revolution”: Eric Hogland, project ed., Iran: The Making of US Policy, 1977–80, National Security Archive (Alexandria, VA: Chadwyck-Healey, 1990), “Research Study: Elites and the Distribution of Power in Iran,” February 1976, document 01012, p. 66.
over “the recent outrages”: Alam (1991), p. 428.
“It is human nature”: “Revolutionary Goals Will Remain Constant,” Kayhan International, September 13, 1977.
crammed with so many potions, pills, and creams: Several of the Shah’s inner circle raised their eyebrows at the suggestion that General Ayadi was a doctor in the truest medical sense of the word. Dr. Flandrin wryly observed that Ayadi was “a great purveyor of a variety of drugs.” See Farah Pahlavi, An Enduring Love: My Life with the Shah (New York: Miramax, 2004), p. 257.
Flandrin’s schedule rarely varied: Flandrin’s schedule was described in self-penned letters to Jean Bernard and published in F. Pahlavi (2004), pp. 254–255.
At the bottom of the gangway: The Shah’s chief of personal security and bodyguard, Colonel Kiomars Djahanbini, explained the logistics of the comings and goings of the French doctors. Author interview with Colonel Kiomars Djahanbini, March 25, 2013.
“I knew they were doctors”: Ibid.
“Each bottle lasted five days”: Author interview with Amir Pourshaja, March 16, 2013.
accidentally refilled the Shah’s bottles: F. Pahlavi (2004), pp. 256–257.
was swollen: Ibid, p. 257.
“Secondary school”: “We Cannot Take Chances,” Newsweek, March 1, 1976, pp. 20–21.
“a sudden icy wind”: F. Pahlavi (2004), p. 261.
lost interest in the monarchy: Alam (1991), p. 494.
“The internal situation is sound”: Ibid., p. 524.
“I saw the problems”: Amir Taheri, The Unknown Life of the Shah (London: Hutchinson, 1991), p. 218.
“the rate of migration”: Eric Pace, “Teheran Projects Face Challenges,” New York Times, June 6, 1978.
“What had happened”: Author interviews with Farah Pahlavi, March 23–25, 2013.
The group’s report: F. Pahlavi (2004), p. 258.
“would have alerted”: Ibid., p. 259.
“I am very sorry”: Eric Pace, “Corruption and Mistrust of Officials Continuing to Plague Iranian Government,” New York Times, February 22, 1976.
$100 million: Alam (1991), p. 460.
“to recommend changes”: Woollacott, “The Shah Shoves Iran Towards Freedom.”
“Everything is okay with the Shah”: Author interview with Henry Precht, March 13, 2013.
regular meetings: John Stempel wrote transcripts of their conversations, which were captured by the Iranian students who seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran in November 1979. The documents were later published in Hogland, project ed., Iran: The Making of US Policy, 1977–80.
“whether we had any recent difficulties”: Ibid., document 0145, April 14, 1976.
“about the future”: Ibid., document 01048, April 28, 1976.
12. THIRSTY FOR MARTYRDOM
“Something is in the air”: Ashraf Pahlavi, Time for Truth (N.p.: In Print Publishing, 1995), p. 11.
“I wonder when we’re going”: Author interview with Hossein Nasr, August 21, 2013.
38 percent: “How the Opec Fight Will Be Won,” Economist, January 15, 1977.
two million barrels a day: “Iran Reports Exports of Oil Decline 34.7%,” New York Times, January 12, 1977.
“We’re broke”: 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. 535.
50 percent: Joe Alex Morris Jr., “Is It for Real?: New Broom Stirs Lots of Dust in Iran,” Los Angeles Times, October 7, 1977.
“Government officials must walk up”: Marvine Howe, “Iran Fights Power Shortage, Threat to Development,” New York Times, July 11, 1977.
“we are now in dire”: Alam (1991), p. 537.
“People were flocking to town”: Interview with William Lehfeldt by William Burr, Foundation for Iranian Studies, Washington, DC, April 29, 1987, February 9 and April 19, 1988, pp. 3–167.
“we have more students”: Author interview with Parviz Sabeti, September 21, 2013.
“Sabeti sees everything as black”: Ibid.
“feeds and encourages the opposition”: A. Pahlavi (1995), p. 11.
“People were telling me things were bad”: Author interview with Ardeshir Zahedi, October 27, 2012.
“try feeding them cake”: William Branigan, “William H. Sullivan Dies at 90: Veteran Diplomat Was Last U.S. Ambassador to Iran,” Washington Post, October 22, 2013.
“The nearest I had been”: William H. Sullivan, Mission to Iran: The Last U.S. Ambassador (New York: Norton, 1981), p. 12.
between twenty-five thousand and a hundred thousand: Amnesty International Briefing, November 1, 1976, MDE 13/001/1976, p. 6.
“unprecedented”: “Torture as Policy,” Time, August 16, 1976, p. 32.
“Thousands of men and women”: Reza Baraheni, The Crowned Cannibals: Writings on Repression in Iran (New York: Vintage, 1977), p. 6.
“largely self-sufficient and comparatively wealthy”: “Torture as Policy,” p. 34.
“a bunch of Clockwork Orangers”: “Oil, Grandeur and a Challenge to the West,” Time, November 4, 1974, p. 38.
“There has been enough of this preaching”: U.S. Embassy cable to Secretary of State, “Subject: Shah Comments on Human Rights and Student Dissidents,” February 24, 1977, JCL, NLC-21-44-4-15-0.
described as “petty”: Gholam Reza Afkhami, The Life and Times of the Shah (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009), p. 387.
met with Martin Ennals: See Laurence Marks, “Shah Puts Carter’s Principles to the Test,” Guardian, November 20, 1977, and also William J. Butler, Chairman, Executive Committee, International Commission of Jurists, “Aide Memoire: Summary of Discussions Between His Imperial Majesty the Shahanshah Aryamehr and William J. Butler at Shiraz on May 2, 1978,” to His Excellency Amir Abbas Hoveyda, Minister of Court, Imperial Court, Tehran, Iran, June 8, 1978, Iran: The Making of US Policy, 1977–80, National Security Archive (Alexandria, VA: Chadwyck-Healey, 1990), document 01414. Although Butler’s letter to Hoveyda is dated June 8, 1978, it includes reference to his first meeting with the Shah, on May 30, 1977.
“pure fabrication”: H. D. S. Greenway, “Secret Police of Iran Call Image Unfair,” Washington Post, September 3, 1976.
3087 political prisoners: From the start, confusion surrounded the number of prisoners held in detention, tortured, and executed during the 1971–76 “dirty war” period. Consider the numbers alleged to be imprisoned. Whereas Amnesty International stated as many as a hundred thousand prisoners, the U.S. State Department estimated that the number of political prisoners jailed in Iran actually peaked at 3,700 in early 1976. See Jonathan Steele, “Iran Rights Improve,” Guardian, October 27, 1977. One year earlier, the Shah had provided Time magazine with a general estimate of between 3,400 and 3,500 detainees, though his numbers were given no credence in the Western press or by Western human rights organizations. See his interview in “Torture as Policy: The Network of Evil,” Time, August 16, 1976, p. 32. Savak’s Parviz Sabeti provided a still lower figure of 3,200 in his interview with
the author of September 21, 2013. Ironically, Sabeti’s lower estimate was confirmed to the author by an Iranian government official during the author’s July 2013 visit to the Center for the Study of the Islamic Revolution in Tehran. In reviewing the available sources, the number of political prisoners held in detention in Iran in the midseventies most likely ranged from a low of 3,200 to a high of 3,700. An earlier estimate of 7,500 provided by Iranian-born historian Ervand Abrahamian in his book Tortured Confessions: Prisoners and Public Recantations in Modern Iran (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), p. 108, should now be regarded as too high.
386 and as few as 312: Similar controversy involved the numbers of prisoners executed and tortured while in detention. While the Shah was in power he was accused of ordering the executions of thousands of dissidents. After the revolution, the Center for the Study of the Islamic Revolution commissioned Emad al-Din Baghi to conduct a new investigation. He was able to verify 386 deaths. See http://www.emadbaghi.com/en/archives/000592.php#more. His final report caused a sensation because until then the Islamic Republic had blamed the Shah for between 60,000 and 70,000 deaths. Baghi’s final toll was still too high, according to Savak’s Parviz Sabeti who told the author in their September 13, 2013, interview that the real number of deaths in custody was 312. Separately, historian Ervand Abrahamian provided a slightly higher figure of 368 in his book Tortured Confessions, p. 103. Citing Iranian sources, he claimed 93 executions with an additional 45 tortured to death, 9 suicides, and 197 guerrillas dead in gun battles with the Iranian security forces in the 1970s. Regardless of the different estimates, no more than 400 people died during the “dirty war” waged between antiregime terrorists and the Pahlavi regime in the 1970s.
“During the past year”: “Progress on Human Rights in Iran,” U.S. State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research, JCL, NLC-31-38-3-2-1.
“assist needy families”: Ibid.
“The human rights situation”: “Memorandum of the U.S. Stand on Human Rights,” Central Intelligence Agency Directorate of Intelligence, JCL, NCL-28-22-8-1-8.
five thousand office workers: Author interview with Parviz Sabeti, September 21, 2013.
twenty thousand claimed by critics: “Torture as Policy,” p. 32.
Ten thousand additional names: Author interview with Parvez Sabeti, September 21, 2013.
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