All the Shah’s Men (33 page)
Read All the Shah’s Men Online
Authors: Stephen Kinzer
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Zabih, Sepehr. The Mossadegh Era: Roots of the Iranian Revolution (Chicago: Lake View Press, 1982).
Reza Shah was a harsh tyrant but also a visionary reformer. The British forced him from his throne in 1941. His eldest son, the future Mohammad Reza Shah, stands second from left.
The British built the world’s largest oil refinery at Abadan on the Persian Gulf and made huge profits there. Their Anglo-Iranian Oil Company was supposed to be a partnership with Iran, but Iranians were not permitted to audit the books.
Abadan was a colonial outpost, with swimming pools and tennis courts for the British administrators and slum housing for tens of thousands of Iranian workers. Buses, cinemas, and other amenities were reserved for the British.
Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh thrilled Iranians when he nationalized the oil company in 1951. Here he is shown in the bed from which he often conducted business.
Mossadegh visited the United States in 1952. President Harry Truman tried to arrange a compromise between Iran and the British.
Henry Grady, the American ambassador to Iran, sought to prevent a clash between Mossadegh and the West. So did President Truman’s special envoy, W. Averell Harriman.
On October 4, 1952, the unthinkable happened: the last Britons sailed away from Abadan. It was a triumph for Iranian nationalism and a humiliating defeat for the British. They set out to reverse it by overthrowing Mossadegh.
Mohammad Reza Shah wanted to guide Iran’s future, but Prime Minister Mossadegh believed that monarchs should leave politics to elected leaders. The Shah bitterly resented Mossadegh’s efforts to reduce his power.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill believed in covert operations and strongly encouraged the coup. He and Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden failed to win American support while President Truman was in office, but succeeded after Dwight Eisenhower assumed the presidency in 1953.
Soon after Eisenhower approved the coup, the CIA sent one of its most resourceful agents, Kermit Roosevelt, to Iran to carry it out.
The brothers who ran the overt and covert sides of American foreign policy during the Eisenhower administration were determined to overthrow Mossadegh: Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and Director of Central Intelligence Allen Dulles.
