Originally posted by: ElFenix
Originally posted by: Vonkhan
There's a war in his backyard and you expect him to do nothing? ... esp. after the US's role in establishing a dictatorship in Iran in the first place
Grow up
if anyone put reza shah in power it was the british. his son was put in power by brits and the soviets (for fear that the father would align himself with nazi germany). iran had basically been an absolute monarchy since 1501, 275 years before the declaration of independence. so i'm not sure how you could claim that US americans established the dictatorship in iran.
As of now, Iran is a democracy. I was refering to the below ...
From wiki:
Under the direction of Kermit Roosevelt, Jr., a senior
CIA officer and grandson of the former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, the
CIA and British intelligence funded and led a covert operation to depose Mossadegh with the help of military forces loyal to the Shah, known as
Operation Ajax.[3] The plot hinged on orders signed by the Shah to dismiss Mossadegh as prime minister and replace him with General Fazlollah Zahedi, a choice agreed on by the British and Americans. Despite the high-level coordination and planning, the coup initially failed, causing the Shah to flee to Baghdad, later leaving for Rome. After a brief exile in Italy, the Shah returned to Iran, this time through a successful counter-coup. The deposed Mossadegh was arrested, given a show trial, and condemned to death.[citation needed] The Shah commuted this sentence to solitary confinement for three years in a military prison, followed by house arrest for life.[citation needed]
Zahedi was installed to succeed Prime Minister Mossadegh.
The American Embassy in Tehran was reporting that Mossadegh had near total support from the nation and was unlikely to fall. The prime minister asked Majles to give him direct control of the army. Given the situation, alongside the strong personal support of Eden and Churchill for covert action, the American government gave a go-ahead to a committee, attended by the
Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, Kermit Roosevelt, Ambassador Henderson, and Secretary of Defense Charles Wilson. Kermit Roosevelt returned to Iran on July 13 and on August 1 in his first meeting with the shah. A car picked him up in the midnight and drove him to the palace. He lay down on the seat and covered himself with a blanket as guards waved his driver through the gates. The shah got into the car and Roosevelt explained the mission. The
CIA provided $1 million in Iranian currency, which Roosevelt had stored in a large safe, a bulky cache given the exchange rate 1000 rial = 15 dollars at the time. [4].
The Communists staged massive demonstrations to hijack the prime minister?s initiatives. The United States had announced its total lack of confidence in him; and his followers were drifting to indifference. On August 16, 1953, the right wing of the Army reacted. Armed with an order by the shah, appointing General Fazlollah Zahedi as prime minister, a coalition of mobs and retired officers close to the Palace, attempting what could be counted as a coup d?etat. They failed dismally. The shah fled the country in an humiliating haste. Even Ettelaat, the nation?s largest daily newspaper, and its pro-shah publisher Abbas Masudi, published negative commentaries on the shah [5].
In the following two days the Communists turned against Mossadegh. They roamed Tehran raising red flags and pulling down statues of Reza Shah. This frightened the conservative clergies like Kashani and National Front leaders like Makki, who sided with the shah. On August 18, Mossadegh hit back. Tudeh Partisans were clubbed to be dispersed[6].
Tudeh had no choice but to accept the defeat. In the meantime, according to the
CIA plot, Zahedi appealed to the military, and claimed to be the legitimate prime minister and charged Mossadegh with staging a coup by ignoring the shah?s decree. Zahedi?s son Ardeshir acted as the go-between for the
CIA and his father. On August 19th the thugs organized with $100,000 of the
CIA funds finally appeared, marched out of south Tehran into the city center, other mobs joined in. Gang with clubs, knives, and rocks controlled the street overturning Tudeh trucks and beating up anti-shah activists. As Roosevelt was congratulating Zahedi in the basement of his hiding place the new prime minister?s mobs burst in and carried him upstairs on their shoulders. That evening Ambassador Henderson suggested to Ardashir that Mossadegh not be harmed. Roosevelt furnished Zahedi with $900,000 left from the operation Ajax funds. The shah returned to power, but never extended the elitism of the court to the technocrats and intellectuals who emerged from Iranian and Western universities. Indeed, his system irritated the new classes, for they were barred from partaking in real power. [7]
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