Ray Takeyh - The Last Shah

The Last Shah

Published with assistance from the foundation established in memory of James Wesley Cooper of the Class of 1865, Yale College.

Copyright 2021 by Ray Takeyh.

All rights reserved.

This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers.

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2020937955

ISBN 978-0-300-21779-7 (hardcover : alk. paper)

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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher dedicated to being a resource for its members, government officials, business executives, journalists, educators and students, civic and religious leaders, and other interested citizens in order to help them better understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other countries. Founded in 1921, CFR carries out its mission by maintaining a diverse membership, with special programs to promote interest and develop expertise in the next generation of foreign policy leaders; convening meetings at its headquarters in New York and in Washington, DC, and other cities where senior government officials, members of Congress, global leaders, and prominent thinkers come together with CFR members to discuss and debate major international issues; supporting a Studies Program that fosters independent research, enabling CFR scholars to produce articles, reports, and books and hold roundtables that analyze foreign policy issues and make concrete policy recommendations; publishing Foreign Affairs, the preeminent journal on international affairs and U.S. foreign policy; sponsoring Independent Task Forces that produce reports with both findings and policy prescriptions on the most important foreign policy topics; and providing up-to-date information and analysis about world events and American foreign policy on its website, www.cfr.org.

The Council on Foreign Relations takes no institutional position on policy issues and has no affiliation with the U.S. government. All statements of fact and expressions of opinion contained in its publications are the sole responsibility of the author or authors.

I dedicate this book to my parents and all those who suffered at the hands of the revolution.

Contents

Cast of Characters

Dean Acheson, U.S. secretary of state, 19491953, under President Harry S. Truman

Hossein Al, prime minister of Iran, March 1951April 1951 and 19551957; ambassador of Iran to the United States, 19451950

Asadollah Alam, prime minister of Iran, 19621964

Ali Amini, prime minister of Iran, 19611962

Jamshid Amouzegar, prime minister of Iran, 19771978

Hassan Arsanjani, Irans minister of agriculture, 19611962

Clement Attlee, prime minister of the United Kingdom, 19451951

Gholam Reza Azhari, chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, 19711978; prime minister of Iran, 19781979

Shapour Bakhtiar, prime minister of Iran, January 1979February 1979

Teymur Bakhtiar, first director of SAVAK, 19571961

Abolhassan Banisadr, first president of Iran, 19801981

Morteza-Qoli Bayat, prime minister of Iran, 19441945

Mehdi Bazargan, prime minister of Iran, February 1979November 1979

Mohammad Beheshti, chief justice of Iran, 19801981

Ernest Bevin, British secretary of state for foreign affairs, 19451951; lord privy seal, March 1951April 1951

Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser, 19771981, under President Jimmy Carter

Reader Bullard, British ambassador to Iran, 19421946

James Byrnes, U.S. secretary of state, 19451947, under President Harry S. Truman

Warren Christopher, U.S. deputy secretary of state, 19771981, under President Jimmy Carter; U.S. secretary of state, 19931997, under President Bill Clinton

Allen Dulles, director of central intelligence, 19531961, under Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy

John Foster Dulles, U.S. secretary of state, 19531959, under President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Anthony Eden, British secretary of state for foreign affairs, 19351938, 19401945, and 19511955; prime minister of the United Kingdom, 19551957

Manuchehr Eqbal, prime minister of Iran, 19571960

Akbar Etemad, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, 19741978

Hossein Fatemi, Irans minister of foreign affairs, 19521953

Mohammad Ali Foroughi, prime minister of Iran, 19411942

Abbas Gharabaghi, Irans minister of interior, August 1978January 1979; appointed chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces in January 1979

Henry Grady, U.S. ambassador to Iran, 19501951

Averell Harriman, U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union, 19431946, under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman; U.S. secretary of commerce, 19461948, under President Harry S. Truman; U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, 19611963

Richard Helms, director of central intelligence, 19661973, under Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon; U.S. ambassador to Iran, 19731976, under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford

Loy Henderson, U.S. ambassador to Iran, 19511954, under President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Cordell Hull, U.S. secretary of state, 19331944, under President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Robert Huyser, deputy commander of U.S. European Command, 19751979; dispatched as military adviser to stabilize Iran in early January 1979 under President Jimmy Carter

Ayatollah Abol-Qassem Kashani, speaker of the Majlis, 19521953

Mohammad Khatami, chief of staff of the Iranian air force, 19571975

Ahmad Khomeini, son of Ruhollah Khomeini

Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the Islamic Revolution and first supreme leader of Iran, 19791989

Robert Komer, member of the national security staff under U.S. National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy

Ali Mansur, prime minister of Iran, 19401941 and March 1950June 1950

Hassan Ali Mansur, prime minister of Iran, 19641965

George McGhee, U.S. assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern, South Asian, and African Affairs, 19491951, under President Harry S. Truman; U.S. under secretary of state for political affairs, 19611963, under President John F. Kennedy

Robert McNamara, U.S. secretary of defense, 19611968, under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson

Arthur Millspaugh, adviser to the U.S. State Department Office of Foreign Trade; advised Finance Ministry of Iran, 19221927 and 19421945

Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet minister of foreign affairs, 19391949, under Josif Stalin

Nasser Moqaddam, director of SAVAK, 19781979

Leland Morris