The U.S. & the Shah

The Shah The U.S. & The Shah With the Shah in exile, Khomeini identified the U.S. as "the By Scholastic Great Satan" and an "enemy of Islam." The slogans, eerily familiar today, had deep roots in injured Iranian and Islamic pride. But they A quarter century earlier, in 1953, the C.I.A. had secretly also served a practical purpose: Revolutions, Islamic and otherwise, helped topple Iran's prime minister and restore the Shah to his seldom deliver on all their promises, and a clear external enemy can throne after he had gone into exile during a power struggle with serve as a useful diversion from internal problems. members of Iran's elected parliament. Why were American leaders so determined to keep the Shah Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi in power? It was the height of the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, and Iran was seen as a potential target for the Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (1919-80), king of Iran (1941-1979), spread of Soviet Communism. American presidents, from Dwight D. was born in Tehran on October 26, 1919, the eldest son of Reza Eisenhower in the 1950s to Jimmy Carter in the 1970s, gave the Shah. He completed his primary school in Switzerland. He returned Shah, who was sympathetic to the West, their support. to Iran in 1935, and enrolled in a Tehran military school, from which At home, however, the Shah could be a ruthless leader. he graduated in 1938. In 1939 he married a sister of Faroq I, king of After he regained power in 1953, he abolished Iran's tenuous Egypt. The couple divorced in 1949. Mohammad Reza married two multiparty system and placed himself at the head of a one-party state more times, in 1950 with Soraya Esfandiari and 1959 with Farah controlled by his secret police. Dissent was violently suppressed. Diba. Although a forward-thinking ruler in many respects—he created a modern economy almost from scratch, and with it a He replaced his father, Reza Shah, on the throne on September 16, growing middle class, and extended suffrage and other basic rights 1941, shortly before his 22nd birthday. He continued the reform to women—the Shah was seen by many Iranians as a puppet of the policies of his father, but a contest for control of the government West. soon erupted between the shah and an older professional politician, At the same time, many of the Shah's reforms, especially the nationalistic Mohammad Mosaddeq. those involving women, infuriated conservative Muslims, led by Khomeini, a Shiite scholar. During World War II, Britain and the USSR were concerned by Reza In 1978, the simmering opposition to the Shah—not only from Shah's friendly relations with Germany. In 1941 the two countries Khomeini's followers, but also from a middle class that sought invaded and occupied large areas of Iran. They forced Reza Shah to greater political freedom—boiled over and brought millions of people abdicate, and in the absence of a viable alternative, permitted onto the streets. The Shah and his wife fled in January 1979, Mohammad Reza to assume the throne. The new shah's reign ushering in a brief period of confusion before Khomeini assumed began against a backdrop of social and political disarray, economic control as Supreme Leader over what became the first Islamic problems, and food shortages. theocratic regime in the modern Middle East. Khomeini and the mullahs—and a roving army of "spiritual Despite his vow to act as a constitutional monarch who would defer enforcers" known as the Revolutionary Guards—ended up to the power of the parliamentary government, Mohammad Reza substituting one autocratic regime for another. In doing so, they increasingly involved himself in governmental affairs and opposed or dashed the hopes of millions of Iranians who thought the revolution thwarted strong prime ministers. Prone to indecision, however, would bring more freedom, not less. Mohammad Reza relied more on manipulation than on leadership. Women lost the social gains they had made under the Shah, and He concentrated on reviving the army and ensuring that it would were forced to wear head coverings and full-body cloaks called remain under royal control as the monarchy's main power base. In chadors. Opponents were imprisoned and tortured as ruthlessly as 1949 an assassination attempt on the Shah, attributed to the pro- under the Shah. A parliamentary democracy existed mostly on Soviet Tudeh Party, resulted in the banning of that party and the paper, with true authority residing with the mullahs. expansion of the Shah's constitutional powers. The Shah In the context of regional turmoil and the Cold War, the Shah established himself as an indispensable ally of the West. Beset by advanced cancer, the shah left Iran in January 1979 to Domestically, he advocated reform policies, culminating in the 1963 begin a life in exile. He lived in Egypt, Morocco, the Bahamas, and program known as the White Revolution, which included land reform, Mexico before going to the United States for treatment of lymphatic the extension of voting rights to women, and the elimination of cancer. His arrival in New York City led to the Iranian takeover of the illiteracy. American Embassy in Tehran by "Students of Imam's Line" and the taking hostage of more than 50 Americans for 444 days. In 1967 he crowned himself as King of the Kings (Emperor of Iran) and his wife, Farah Diba, as Shahbanoo (Empress), which caused The Shah died in Cairo, Egypt, on July 27, 1980 discontentment amongst diffrent levels of society.

Coronation of Mohammad Reza Shah These measures and the increasing arbitrariness of the Shah's rule provoked both religious leaders who feared losing their traditional authority and students and intellectuals seeking democratic reforms. These opponents criticized the Shah for violation of the constitution, which placed limits on royal power and provided for a representative government, and for subservience to the United States. The Shah saw himself as heir to the kings of ancient Iran, and in 1971 he held an extravagant celebration of 2,500 years of Persian monarchy. In 1976 he replaced the Islamic calendar with an "imperial" calendar, which began with the foundation of the Persian empire more than 25 centuries earlier. These actions were viewed as anti-Islamic and resulted in religious opposition.

The shah's regime suppressed and marginalized its opponents with the help of Iran's security and intelligence organization, the SAVAK. Relying on oil revenues, which sharply increased in late 1973, the Shah pursued his goal of developing Iran as a mighty regional power dedicated to social reform and economic development. Yet he continually sidestepped democratic arrangements and refused to allow meaningful civic and political liberties, remaining unresponsive to public opinion.

By the mid-1970s the Shah reigned amidst widespread discontent caused by the continuing repressiveness of his regime, socioeconomic changes that benefited some classes at the expense of others, and the increasing gap between the ruling elite and the disaffected populace. Islamic leaders, particularly the exiled cleric Ayatollah Khomeini, were able to focus this discontent with a populist ideology tied to Islamic principles and calls for the overthrow of the shah. The Shah's government collapsed following widespread uprisings in 1978 -1979 and consequently an Islamic Republic succeeded his regime.