Read All the Shah’s Men Online
Authors: Stephen Kinzer
All the Shah’s Men (34 page)
The campaign against Mossadegh intensified after an anti-Mossadegh diplomat, Loy Henderson, arrived as American ambassador. Henderson is shown talking to the ill-fated Foreign Minister Hussein Fatemi.
Sir Francis Shepherd, the British ambassador to Iran, worked tirelessly to undermine Mossadegh’s government.
Asadollah Rashidian, one of Kermit Roosevelt’s key Iranian agents, built support for the coup by bribing politicians, mullahs, newspaper editors, and gang leaders.
General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, father of the Gulf War commander, headed a crack police brigade in Iran during the 1940s and returned on a clandestine mission to help arrange the coup.
Ayatollah Abulqasim Kashani, a powerful fundamentalist cleric, supported Mossadegh at first but then turned against him. Kermit Roosevelt sent him $10,000 the day before the coup.
Princess Ashraf, the Shah’s tough-minded twin sister, helped persuade her brother to support the coup. A British agent said he secured her cooperation by gifts of cash and a mink coat.
CIA agents persuaded the Shah to sign a decree dismissing Mossadegh from office and another naming a disaffected officer, General Fazlollah Zahedi, to replace him. The decrees were of dubious legality, but they helped rally support for the coup.
The British and Americans chose General Zahedi (left) as the figurehead leader of their coup. Another key collaborator was Colonel Nematollah Nasiri, commander of the Shah’s Imperial Guard.
On August 19, 1953, anti-Mossadegh crowds surged through the streets of Tehran. Some military units joined them, and by midnight they had succeeded in overthrowing the government.
The Shah, who had fled in panic when the coup seemed to be failing, flew home to reclaim his throne. Soon he began centralizing power in his own hands.
Mossadegh was arrested, tried by a military tribunal, and found guilty of treason. He spent three years in prison and the rest of his life under house arrest. He died in 1967.
Mohammad Reza Shah ruled harshly for twenty-five years and was finally overthrown in 1979. Revolutionaries like these carried portraits of Mossadegh, symbolizing their determination to take revenge for the 1953 coup. The new regime in Iran imposed fundamentalist rule, aided anti-Western terror groups, and inspired Islamic radicals in many countries.
INDEX
Abadan.
See also
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company
British evacuation of
conditions at
construction of
strike at
violence at
Abbas Shah
Achaemenians
Acheson, Dean
Afghanistan
Afshartus, Mahmoud
Ahmad Shah
Ala, Hussein
Alam, Assadollah
Albania
Alborz College
Albright, Madeleine
Alexander the Great
Ali (caliph)
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
See also
Abadan
colonialism
contract terms of
Mossadegh and
nationalization of
origin of
post-coup efforts
Reza Shah and
strikes at
Supplemental Agreement
United Kingdom
United Nations
United States
Anglo-Persian Agreement
Anglo-Persian Oil Company.
See also
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company
anti-Americanism, Islamic Revolution of
anti-Communism, United States.
See also
communism
anti-Semitism
Buenos Aires bombing (1994)
Reza Shah
Arab conquest
Arachosians
Aramash, Ahmad
Aramco
Arbenz, Jacobo
Archimedes
Argentina
Aristotle
Armenia
Aryans
Ashraf, Princess
Asia Minor
Assyria
Atatürk, Kemal
Athens
athletes
Attlee, Clement
Azerbaijan
Azeris, oppression of
Babylon
Bakhtiar, Shapour
assassination of
Baltic countries
Bani-Sadr, Abolhassan
Baqai, Muzzaffar
Baskerville, Howard
bast,
Batmanqelich, Nader
Bazargan, Mehdi
Bedamn network
Beirut bombing (1983)
Berlin blockade
Bevin, Ernest
Bill, James A.
bin-Laden, Osama
“Bloody Monday,”
Boer War
Bohlen, Charles
Bolsheviks
Bolton, George
Bowie, Robert
Bradley, Omar
British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6).
See
Secret Intelligence Service (MI U.K.)
Buenos Aires bombing (1994)
Butler, R. A.
Byroade, Henry
Byzantine Empire
Cadman, John
Carroll, Lewis
Carter, Jimmy
Central Asia
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
See also
Office of Strategic Services (OSS); Operation Ajax; Secret Intelligence Service (MI U.K.); United States
anti-Communism of
covert activities of
creation of
Islamic Revolution of
MI6 and
Mossadegh and
Operation Ajax
opposition within
Chafik, Madame.
See
Ashraf, Princess
Chiang Kai-shek
Chile
China
Churchill, Winston
Eisenhower and
embargo
Mossadegh and
Operation Ajax
petroleum
reelection
Truman and
clerics, secular reformers and
Clinton, Bill
Cold War, impact of
colonialism
democracy
Iran partition
Kashani and
Majlis (parliament)
Middle East
Mossadegh and
Muzzaffar al-Din Shah and
Nasir al-Din Shah and
petroleum
Reza Shah and
Supplemental Agreement
United Kingdom
United States
Columbia University
communism.
See also
Tudeh (Masses) party
anti-Communism, United States
Iran
Korea
military power
Operation Ajax rationale
United States and
Communist party, establishment of
Congo
constitution and Constitutional Revolution
drafting of
failure of
Cossack Brigade
Cottam, Richard W.
coup of 1953.
See
Operation Ajax
Ctesiphon
Cuba
Curzon, Lord
Cyrus
Czechoslovakia
Daftary, Mohammad
Danton
Darbyshire, Norman
D’Arcy, William Knox
Darius
Davidson, R. R.
De Carlo, Yvonne
Delhi (India)
democracy, Iran
Dewey, Thomas
Drake, Eric
Dulles, Allen
career of
coup of
Eisenhower and
Goiran and
Mossadegh and
Dulles, John Foster
career of
coup of
Eden and
Mossadegh and
Operation Ajax and
United Kingdom and
Eden, Anthony
Egypt
Eisenhower, Dwight
CIA and
Dulles, John Foster and
election of
Iran and
Mossadegh and
Operation Ajax and
United Kingdom and
Elamites
Elizabeth I (queen of England)
Elkington, Edward
Emami, Jamal
embassy hostage crisis.
See
hostage crisis
Embry, Major
Estonia
Ethiopia
Euclid
Export-Import Bank
Falle, Sam
Farman Farma, Prince
Farmanfarmaian, Manucher
Farouk (king of Egypt)
farr,
Farzanegan, Abbas
fascism, Reza Shah.
See also
Germany; World War II
Fateh, Mostafa
Fatemi, Hussein
fatwa
Kashani, Ayatollah Abolqasem
tobacco industry
Fedayeen-i-Islam
Fergusson, Donald
firmans,
Operation Ajax
Fischer, Michael M. J.
Foster, John Watson
France
Mossadegh and
Nasir al-Din Shah and
Franco
Franks, Oliver
Fraser, William
Freemasonry
free press.
See
press
French Revolution
Funkhouser, Richard
Furughi, Mohammad Ali
Gasiorowski, Mark J.
Genghis Khan
Germany
Nasir al-Din Shah and
Reza Shah and
Sharogh, Bahram and
World War I
Zahedi and
Gidel, Gilbert
Gifford, Walter
Goiran, Roger
Golshayan, Abbasgholi
Goode, James F.
government.
See also
Majlis (parliament); specific countries
Iran
Muzzaffar al-Din Shah
Nasir al-Din Shah
Persia
Reza Shah
Shiite Muslims
Grady, Henry
Greece
Group of Fifty-Three
Guatemala
Guilanshah, Hedayatollah
Hamas
financing of
Hamid Reza
harem women
Harriman, W. Averell
Harris, Owen
Heiss, Mary Ann
Henderson, Loy
Hezbollah
financing of
Hitler
hostage crisis, Iran
Hungary
Hussein (caliph)
Hussein, Saddam
Imperial Guard
India
International Court of Justice (World Court)
Ionia
Iran.
See also
Majlis (parliament); National Front; Tudeh (Masses) party
Abbas Shah and
colonial partition of
communism in
creation of
culture of
Dulles brothers and
hostage crisis
Islam
Islamic Revolution of
Mohammad Ali Shah and
Muzzaffar al-Din Shah and
Nasir al-Din Shah and
Persian heritage
petroleum industry
press
Qajar dynasty
Reza Shah and
Shiite Muslims
United States and
Iraq
Isfahan
Iskandari, Abbas
Islam
Islamic Revolution of Iran,
Ismail (Safavid leader)
Israel
Italy
Jackson, Basil
Jafari, Shaban “The Brainless,”
Jalili, Ali
Japan
Jebb, Gladwyn
Jefferson, Thomas
Jinnah, Mohammad Ali
Jones, Alton
Jordan, Samuel
Jung, Carl Gustav
Karbala
Kashani, Ayatollah Abolqasem
Kashmir
Keddie, Nikki R.
Keyvani, Farouk
Khamenei, Ayatollah Ali
Khatami, Mohammad
Khomeini, Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khrushchev, Nikita
Kiani, Ataollah
Korea
Kufa
Kurds, oppression of
labor strikes, Abadan
Lambton, Ann K. S.
Lansing, Robert
Latvia
League of Nations
Lebanon
Beirut bombing of (1983)
Leggett, Frederick
Levy, Walter, J.
Liaquat Ali Kahn
Libya
Lindbergh kidnapping
Lithuania
Lockridge, James.
See
Roosevelt, Kermit
Louis, William Roger
Love, Kennett
Luther, Martin
Lydia
Macedon
MacLean, Fitzroy
Majlis (parliament)
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company
colonialism
Kashani and
Mohammad Ali Shah and
Mohammad Reza Shah and
Mossadegh and
Nasir al-Din Shah and
National Front
Reza Shah and
Tudeh (Masses) party
United Kingdom
Makki, Hussein
Mangano, Silvana
Man of the Year of 1951 (
Time
magazine),
Mansur, Ali
Mao Zedong
Marathon, Battle of
Marxism.
See also
communism
nationalism
Tudeh (Masses) party
Mason, Alick
Matine-Daftary, Hedayat
McClure, Robert
McGhee, George
McKinley, William
media.
See
press
Mesopotamia
Middle East, colonialism
Middleton, George
military
Iran
Operation Ajax
MI6.
See
Secret Intelligence Service (MI U.K.)
mob violence
modernization
Reza Shah and
Tudeh (Masses) party
Mohammad (prophet)
Mohammad Ali Shah
Mohammad Reza Shah,
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company nationalization law signed
army and
Ashraf, Princess and
assassination attempt on
death of
dictatorial style of
Dulles, Allen and
Fatemi and
flight of
Harriman and
Kashani and
Khomeini and
lifestyle of
Majlis (parliament) and
Mossadegh and
Operation Ajax and
personality of
Qavam and
Rashidian, Asadollah and
return of
Roosevelt, Kermit and
Tudeh party and
United Kingdom and
United States and
Zahedi and
Mongols
Montesquieu
Morrison, Herbert
Mossadegh, Ali
Mossadegh, Gholan-Hussein
Mossadegh, Mahmoud
Mossadegh, Majid
Mossadegh, Mohammad
Acheson and
achievements of
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) nationalized by
Anglo-Persian Agreement
burial of
career of
Churchill and
CIA and
death of
descendants of
dismissal of
Dulles, Allen and
Egypt and
Eisenhower and
failures of
Harriman and
health of
Henderson and
imprisonment and house arrest of
Kashani and
Khomeini and
legacy of
MI6 and
mob violence
Mohammad Reza Shah and
Nasiri and
National Front
Operation Ajax
personality of
popularity and influence of
prime minister
resignation of
surrender of
tributes to
Truman and
Tudeh party and
United Kingdom and
United Nations and
United States and
World Court and
Zahedi and
Mountbattan, Earl
Muniz, Jo
o Carlos
Mussolini, Benito
Muzzaffar al-Din Shah
Nadir Shah
Nahas Pasha
Nasir al-Din Shah
Nasiri, Nematollah
National Front
National Iranian Oil Company
Netherlands
Nicholas II (czar of Russia)
Nicholson, Harold
Nixon, Richard
Northcroft, E. G. D.
nuclear weapons, Soviet Union
Office of Strategic Services (OSS).
See also
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Dulles, Allen and
Roosevelt, Kermit and
oil.
See
petroleum
Operation Ajax
costs of
Dulles brothers
failure of
historical assessments of
impact of
Iranian press
opposition to