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By Root 380 0

kings while modernizing Iran by using Western models. New industries, roads, and railroads are built, universities are established, and hundreds of young Iranians are sent to Europe to be educated. A generation of the Persian elite learns Western technical know-how, and at the same time becomes familiarized with such modern concepts as democracy, rule of law, and freedom of expression. Despite his fascination with the West, Reza Shah, a ruthless despot, has little patience for civil liberties. He jails, tortures, and kills his critics and bans opposition political parties. Reza Shah also thinks of the mullahs, who helped him come to power, as obstacles to his modernizing of Iran. He bans the wearing of the Islamic veil for women and forces men and women to wear Western clothes.

1941: THE FALL OF REZA SHAH, FOREIGN OCCUPATION, A NEW SHAH

Toward the end of his reign, Reza Shah tries to put an end to British and Russian interference in Iranian affairs by allying with Nazi Germany. During the Second World War, the Allied powers—Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union—invade and occupy Iran for use as a route to strengthen the eastern front against Hitler. The Allies remove Reza Shah from power and replace him with his twenty-two-year-old son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who becomes known as the shah.

Occupation means more chaos and insecurity in Iran, as well as, for ordinary Iranians, the humiliation of living under foreign occupation. But the end of Reza Shah’s tyranny also brings a certain level of freedom to the country, and different political parties are established. The most influential of these is the communist Tudeh Party, which receives organizational and financial help from the Soviet Union. The Tudeh attracts many educated and working-class Iranians who are tired of centuries of corrupt autocratic rule in their country. The Tudeh also acts as the Soviet Union’s fifth column and works against British and American influence in Iran.

At the end of the Second World War, the Soviet Union refuses to pull its troops from Iran’s province of Azerbaijan, in the northwest of the country. The Soviets help Iranian communists establish the People’s Republic of Azerbaijan. The American president, Harry S. Truman, warns Joseph Stalin of the negative consequences of occupying Iran, and, according to some sources, threatens Stalin with a nuclear bomb. In a meeting in Moscow, Iranian prime minister Ahmad Qavam negotiates a deal in which Stalin will withdraw from the province in exchange for certain rights in Iran; Qavam later makes sure that these never materialize. After the Soviet troops withdraw, in December 1946, the shah’s army and Iranian nationalists massacre thousands of communists. In 1949, an unsuccessful assassination attempt against the shah, allegedly by a member of the Tudeh Party, gives the shah the perfect excuse to declare the Tudeh Party illegal and jail many of its leaders.

1951: NATIONALIZATION OF OIL

Mohammad Mossadegh, a popular nationalist politician, is chosen by the shah and the Majlis as the new prime minister; in less than a month he nationalizes Iranian oil, which had been controlled by the British for half a century. Mossadegh also tries to restrict the powers of the shah and turn him into a titular head of state. The British government embargoes Iran, lands troops in the Persian Gulf, and starts a secret campaign against Mossadegh with the help of the shah and his supporters. The British also warn the United States that Mossadegh’s government will lead to a Soviet annexation of Iran.

Mossadegh tries to garner American help in his battle to put an end to British interference in Iran. He tells the Americans that his failure will lead to a communist takeover of his country. Communists call Mossadegh an American stooge and try to undermine him through riots and by getting their members in trade unions and an underground military network to conspire against his government. President Truman remains sympathetic to Mossadegh until the last day of his presidency, in January 1953. Republicans in the U.S.