The Fall of Heaven
Page 77
“rule out returning one day”: Konjkav, “Town Talk—Ramazan Doesn’t Believe in Beating About Bush,” Kayhan International, October 19, 1978.
“Thank heavens we’re leaving”: “Premier Mobbed by Pressmen.”
“Iran isn’t the Iran it used to be”: Konjkav, “Town Talk—Austrian Farewell Party More Nostalgic Than Usual,” Kayhan International, October 21, 1978.
a shadowy group: The secret plan to oust the King and Queen, and the military contingency plan to withdraw the army south of Tehran to fight a civil war, was described in detail to the author by someone involved in the planning discussions.
“He was nervous and scared”: Author interviews with Ardeshir Zahedi, October 27–28, 2012.
“Please call the Shah”: Ibid.
“Have courage”: Ibid.
“They asked about the strike”: Author interview with Ali Hossein, 2013.
collapsed by two thirds: “Iran: At the Brink?” Newsweek, November 13, 1978, p. 79.
$60 million: Jonathan Kandell, “Iran’s Oil Workers Told to End Strike or Face Discharge,” New York Times, November 13, 1978.
“Iran’s oil supplies are the regime’s jugular vein”: “Iran: At the Brink?,” p. 79.
“a natural transfer of power”: “Transfer of Power Must Be Natural,” Kayhan International, October 21, 1978.
“I would walk one step”: Author interview with Reza Ghotbi, May 9, 2013.
“The mood was somber”: Author interview with Maryam Ansary, April 17, 2013.
“I went back alone in October”: Author interview with Princess Manigeh. The Princess responded to written questions with a statement dated November 5, 2014, and e-mailed the same day.
make a televised appeal: The idea of a televised address was suggested as early as October 21 by Khosrow Eqbal, brother of the late prime minister. Crucially, Eqbal believed the Shah should express sorrow “for some mistakes but he is trying hard and pleads for unity in the future. Iranians will easily forgive somebody who asks their forgiveness.” Memorandum of Conversation: Khosrow Eqbal and George Lambrakis, “Internal Situation,” October 21, 1978, Iran: The Making of US Policy, 1977–80, National Security Archive (Alexandria, VA: Chadwyck-Healey, 1990), document 01607.
“The prime minister was coming to me”: Author interviews with Farah Pahlavi, March 23–25, 2013.
she was cheered and embraced: Konjkav, “Town Talk—Ramazan Doesn’t Believe in Beating About Bush.”
“I have the feeling there is no hope anymore”: F. Pahlavi (2004), p. 285.
“very sad”: Author interview with Elli Antoniades, April 3, 2013.
“Death to the Shah”: Author interview with Kambiz Atabai, June 5, 2015.
“the Shah feels himself”: NSC Evening Report, October 24, 1978, Jimmy Carter Presidential Library.
“the favorite source”: Ray Moseley, In Foreign Fields (London: Moseley, 2010), p. 133.
“elderly man in rumpled clothing”: Ibid.
“We were able to intercept some messages”: Author interview with Henry Precht, March 13, 2013.
“We had the means to do it”: Author interview with Charlie Naas, March 3, 2014.
the CIA had also intercepted: Author interview with a former U.S. official who was among those reading transcripts of the Queen’s telephone conversations.
“feeding the Shah”: NSC Evening Report, October 24, 1978.
“He did not want to give”: NSC Evening Report, October 27, 1978, Jimmy Carter Presidential Library.
“There was not the least demonstration”: Hushang Nahavandi, The Last Shah of Iran (London: Aquilion, 2005), p. 295.
“Sire, no one must notice”: Ibid.
tens of thousands: “Four Dead as Rioting Continues,” Kayhan International, October 26, 1978.
stoned one to death: Ibid.
terrorist died: Ibid.
governor’s office: “Gendarmes Fire on Crowd Near Hamadan, 5 Dead,” Kayhan International, October 28, 1978.
Five people were shot and killed: Ibid.
hundred thousand: “Unrest Enters Fifth Week,” Kayhan International, October 29, 1978.
thirty thousand turned out in Gorgan: Ibid.
Government buildings: Ibid.
Rioters burned the center of town in Rasht: “Now Violence Sweeps Rasht,” Kayhan International, October 29, 1978.
pulled from her car: “Gendarmes Fire on Crowd Near Hamadan, 5 Dead.”
assassinated the local police chief: “Soldier Held for Jahrom Shooting,” Kayhan International, October 29, 1978.
“The entire capital was plagued”: “Student Defiance in Tehran,” Kayhan International, October 29, 1978.
“we shot off down a small alley”: Anthony Parsons, The Pride and the Fall: Iran 1974–79 (London: Jonathan Cape, 1984), p. 81.
“The more you feed an alligator”: “The Shah’s Fight for Survival,” Time, November 20, 1978, p. 50.
purged of hard-liners: “Purge of Savak,” Kayhan International, October 30, 1978.
1,451 political prisoners: Tony Allaway, “Shah Frees 1,451 Prisoners as Gesture of Conciliation Towards Opposition Critics,” Times (London), October 24, 1978.
“My boss cannot make up his mind”: Author interview with Kambiz Atabai, February 15, 2013.
the army had marched into Abadan: “Troops Guard Oil,” Kayhan International, November 1, 1978.
“sober but controlled”: NSC Evening Report, November 1, 1978, Jimmy Carter Presidential Library.
“leave the country than submit to that”: Ibid.
three hundred senior officers: “Iran: At the Brink?”
Baluchi horsemen: “Horsemen Attack Western Town Leaving Huge Toll,” Kayhan International, October 31, 1978.
that “his advice to the Shah”: NSC Evening Report, November 1, 1978.
“reported that none of his efforts”: Cable from Ambassador Sullivan to Secretary Vance and Dr. Brzezinski, November 1, 1978, Jimmy Carter Presidential Library.
“The fact is there was some”: Author interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski, September 4, 2015.
“Good news!”: Memorandum for the President from Zbigniew Brzezinski, NSC Weekly Report 78, November 3, 1978, Jimmy Carter Presidential Library.
“There were students in Western sports jackets”: “Iran: At the Brink?,” p. 78.
“with fixed bayonets”: Ibid.
“They are only firing in the air!”: “Mobs Run Wild,” Kayhan International, November 5, 1978.
five students: Ibid.
rampaging through the central business district: Dan Schanche, “Core of Tehran No Longer Safe from Mob Violence,” Los Angeles Times, November 5, 1978.
“surged onto the hotel grounds”: Ibid.
“as if by signal”: Ibid.
Two hundred thousand marched in Isfahan, etc.: “Two Killed in a Continuing Wave of Provincial Protests,” Kayhan International, November 5, 1978.
fired into crowds in Kohdasht: Ibid.
The town of Paveh remained cut off: “Armed Men Cut Off All Links with Town,” Kayhan International, November 5, 1978.
Staff at the Post, Telephones, and Telegraph: “PTT Strike,” Kayhan International, November 5, 1978.
Iran Air pilots refused to fly: Ibid.
the port city of Bandar Abbas: “Transport Grinds to a Halt in Ports,” Kayhan International, November 5, 1978.
several bomb threats: “Hilton Bomb Threat Scare,” Kayhan International, November 5, 1978.
“spent a long prayer session”: NSC Evening Report, November 4, 1978, Jimmy Carter Presidential Library.
dawned overcast with light drizzle: “Weather Watch,” Kayhan International, November 5, 1978.
prepared the banquet hall: “Tehran Diary,” Kayhan International, November 5, 1978.
Shadow Theater of China: Ibid.
Fiddler on the Roof: Ibid.
“order was rapidly evaporating”: NSC Evening Report, November 5, 1978, Jimmy Carter Presidential Library.
“the feeling of
extreme tension was palpable”: Parsons (1984) p. 93.
gathered outside the main gates: Tony Allaway, “Tehran Burns as Anti-Shah Rioters Go on Rampage,” Times (London), November 6, 1978.
“sort of shrugged their shoulders”: Ibid.
“hijacked buses and lorries”: Ibid.
“carpet stores owned by Jews”: Ibid.
“One large eleven-story building”: William H. Sullivan, Mission to Iran: The US Ambassador (New York: Norton, 1981), p. 177.
“there is a mob coming toward us”: Author interview with Bruce Vernor, March 12, 2013.
“forcibly evicted”: NSC Evening Report, November 5, 1978.
fatally shot in the head: Barry Came, “Yonky, Go Home,” Newsweek, November 20, 1978, p. 67.
“Below us on the streets rioters”: Tony Allaway, “Former Ministers Arrested as Shah Purges Old Regime,” Times (London), November 8, 1978.
“The Shah is finished”: William Claiborne, “Government Falls as Iranians Riot,” Washington Post, November 6, 1978.
“smoke [was] rising over the town”: Author interview with James and Libby Kirkendall, May 7, 2013.
“The mob spread garbage in the street”: John Westberg, “We Experience the Gathering Storm of Revolution,” personal diaries (1978–79).
“There will be no hysteria”: Author interview with Roy Colquitt, January 21, 2014.
“they were playing a new game”: Ibid.
the ride home was a terrifying ordeal: Author e-mail exchange with Cyndy McCollough, a student whose bus was stoned by rioters, June 3, 2015.
Mobs sacked the ground floor: Claiborne, “Government Falls.” See also Don A. Schanche, “Shah Puts Iran Under Rule of Military Regime,” Los Angeles Times, November 7, 1978.
seventy-five terrified guests: Claiborne, “Government Falls.”
Two young men working on an adjacent construction site: Schanche, “Shah Puts Iran Under Rule.”
400 banks: “An End to Iranian Dreams,” Time, December 4, 1978, p. 66.
“As slogan-chanting demonstrators surged”: Schanche, “Shah Puts Iran Under Rule.”
“When we emerged into the main street”: Parsons (1984), p. 94.
a large mob was seen advancing: Allaway, “Tehran Burns.”
“This has got to stop”: Author interview with Kambiz Atabai, June 8, 2013.
“I am the protocol chief”: Gholam Reza Afkhami, The Life and Times of the Shah (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009), p. 472.
“visibly shaken”: Ibid.
“While I was puzzling what to do next”: Sullivan (1981), p. 178.
“make out that he was telling [the Queen] of his intention”: Ibid., p. 179.
“a thinking, cultured man”: F. Pahlavi (2004), p. 287.
in a state of high dudgeon: Parsons (1984), p. 96.
that Mujahedin guerrilla fighters were responsible: Ibid., p. 99.
“Mr. Ambassador, who is going to be”: Author interview with Kambiz Atabai, June 8, 2013.
“People threw things”: Author interview with Elli Antoniades, April 3, 2013.
23. SULLIVAN’S FOLLY
“How hurriedly we are putting nails to our coffin”: Gholam Reza Afkhami, The Life and Times of the Shah (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009), p. 486.
“Tell the Shah that it is better”: Author interview with Hossein Nasr, November 18, 2013.
Twenty tanks entered the capital: Jonathan Kandell, “Iran Arrests Head of Secret Police, Other Officials and Businessmen,” New York Times, November 8, 1978.
Troops fired into the air: Ray Vicker, “As Tension Lingers in Iran, Shah Faces Problem of Maintaining Control While Bringing Reforms,” Wall Street Journal, November 10, 1978.
“A jolly good job, too”: Tony Allaway, “Tank Watchers in Tehran Await Back-to-Work Day,” Christian Science Monitor, November 10, 1978.
“We feel the army will give us protection now”: Vicker, “As Tension Lingers in Iran.”
“Maybe now we get peace”: Ibid.
“Long lines of automobiles and people”: Ibid.
telex system remained out of order: William Claiborne, “Former Prime Minister Jailed in Iranian Anticorruption Drive,” Washington Post, November 9, 1978.
Credit dried up: “An End to Iranian Dreams,” Time, December 4, 1978, p. 66.
“With the oil workers on our side”: “The Shah’s Fight for Survival,” Time, November 20, 1978.
1.2 million barrels a day: James Tanner, “World Oil Output Is Said to Be Surging as Interruptions in Iran Enter 10th Day,” Wall Street Journal, November 9, 1978.
“We were suppressed for so many years”: Jonathan Randal, “No Quick End Seen to Petroleum Strike,” Washington Post, November 10, 1978.
the Shah had phoned him: Author interview with Reza Ghotbi, March 25, 2013.
“Sire, I am not a speechwriter”: Ibid.
“For months, I and Ghotbi”: Author interview with Hossein Nasr, November 18, 2013.
“She came out”: Author interviews with Reza Ghotbi, May 9, 2013.
“did not find anything wrong with it”: Author interviews with Farah Pahlavi, March 23–25, 2013.
“I was asked to see what had happened”: Statement provided to the author by Dr. Amir Aslan Afshar, former grand master of ceremonies to the Shah of Iran, Walchsee, Austria, August 21, 2015. Dr. Afshar’s statement described the events surrounding the Shah’s decision to deliver his November 6, 1978, speech to the nation.
“Why have they taken the speech to Her Majesty?”: Afkhami (2009), p. 479.
“For the first time, the Shah came to my office”: Afshar, statement, August 21, 2015.
“put him in a position of weakness”: Author interview with Reza Ghotbi, March 25, 2013.
“I should not say the things”: Afshar, statement, August 21, 2015.
“if he were to give a speech of this sort”: Afkhami (2009), p. 479.
threw the speech down: Afshar, statement, August 21, 2015.
he made several revisions: Author interview with Reza Ghotbi, March 25, 2013.
“He was not forced or manipulated”: Ibid.
“In the climate of liberalization”: NSC Evening Report, November 6, 1978, Jimmy Carter Presidential Library.
“In this speech”: Afshar, statement, August 21, 2015.
“The tone was contrite”: “The Shah’s Fight for Survival,” Time, November 20, 1978.
“People called the court”: Author interview with Reza Ghotbi, March 25, 2013.
phone Nasr afterward: Ibid. See also Afkhami (2009), p. 480.
“I should never have agreed”: Afshar, statement, August 21, 2015.
“In one hand, the Shah held out” “The Shah’s Fight for Survival,” p. 50.
“Until the day an Islamic republic”: Ronald Koven, “Military Cracks Down on Rebels in Iran,” Washington Post, November 7, 1978.
Reporters were required to submit their questions: Ibid.
present Khomeini as a social moderate: Author interview with Abolhassan Banisadr, July 11, 2013.
“rejects the authoritarian models”: Koven, “Military Cracks Down.”
“at least 45,000”: Ibid.
5,000: Barry Came, “Yonky, Go Home,” Newsweek, November 20, 1978, p. 67.
met at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, November 6: Policy review Committee Meeting, White House Situation Room, 11:00 a.m.–12:12 p.m., November 6, 1978, Jimmy Carter Presidential Library.
“There has been an increase”: Telegram from Ambassador Sullivan to Secretary of State, “Political/Security Report November 9,” November 9, 1978, Iran: The Making of US Policy, 1977–80, National Security Archive (Alexandria, VA: Chadwyck-Healey, 1990), document 01709.
The 365 passengers on board: Uri-Bar Joseph, “Forecasting a Hurricane: Israeli and American Estimates of the Khomeini Revolution,” Journal of Strategic Studies 36, issue 5 (2013): 18.
“We are in office temporarily”: “Shah Appoints Military Government to Halt Riots,” Times (London
), November 7, 1978.
new “emergency committees”: Tony Allaway, “Iran Plea to Muslim Leaders to Help in Halting Violence,” Times (London), November 10, 1978.
“I am being pressed to authorize”: Hushang Nahavandi, The Last Shah of Iran (London: Aquilion, 2005), pp. 321–322.
“I do not understand how you can arrest”: Ibid., p. 323.
“Mr. Hoveyda’s arrest”: Farah Pahlavi, An Enduring Love: My Life with the Shah (New York: Miramax, 2004), p. 288.
“That would not be easy for me”: Navahandi (2005), p. 323.
“The religious [people] would find”: NSC Evening Report, November 9, 1978, Jimmy Carter Presidential Library.
“Sullivan’s grand idea”: Author interview with Henry Precht, March 13, 2013.
“Sullivan had these ideas himself”: Author interview with George Lambrakis, September 13, 2014.
“We didn’t want to be responsible”: Ibid.
“When the Shah failed to react”: Author interview with John Stempel, February 20, 2013.
“we were not involved on either side”: Ibid.
“I have blues on my skin from the Shah’s jail”: Author interview with Reza Ghotbi, May 9, 2013.
“barbarians”: Afkhami (2009), p. 496.
refused to come to Niavaran: Author interviews with Farah Pahlavi, March 23–25, 2013.
“Do you want me to go and talk to him”: Ibid.
“My mother was the sister”: Author interview with Reza Ghotbi, May 9, 2013.
November day: There is some confusion among the principals as to the exact date of Farah Pahlavi’s first meeting with Bakhtiar. In the final weeks of November and December 1978 the rapidly changing situation and numerous breaking crises meant that dates and events became telescoped. In separate interviews with the author, Farah Pahlavi and Reza Ghotbi agreed that her first meeting with Bakhtiar likely occurred in the latter part of November, certainly after the November 5 riots but before opposition leader Karim Sanjabi’s release from prison in early December (his release was one of the conditions Bakhtiar had stipulated during their first meeting). In her autobiography An Enduring Love, the Queen apparently conflated two separate events that actually occurred five to six weeks apart: her meeting with Bakhtiar and her discussion with Generals Moghadam and Oveissi, who urged her to talk to her husband about appointing Bakhtiar to the premiership (see pp. 291–292). The conversation with the generals actually occurred in late December, at about the time the Shah was trying to persuade another statesman, Gholam Hossein Sadiqi, to accept the post of prime minister. The author’s conclusion based on research and interviews is that Farah’s introductory meeting with Shahpur Bakhtiar took place between November 25 and 30, 1978.