All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror

This book is an easy read for anybody (like myself) with little history knowledge of the 20th century Iran, with focus on the events in 1953.
It highlights from critical western perspective how following events like the 1979 revolution were the consequences of past colonial mistakes of the UK and the US, and (at least to some extent) explains the odd Iranian policies as the result of the western interferences of the past.
Very recommendable.

How Iran started to see USA as "the great satan" (2/2 people found this helpful)

The law of unexpected consequences is an exercise that retropsective history studies allows us to savour and see what lessons can be learnt for the future. This book is an exceptional example of that approach since while focussing on an event in the early 1950s, it allows an overview of the major outcomes some 50 years later.

Since the case involves Iran the more recent evolution into an Islamic Republic and its strong anti-US stance is well known. What this book covers in a very well written and structured overview benefitting from recent US government documents and increased academic research on the subject,is how the post WWII US (anti-communist) and UK (retention of control of oil production and supplies) national interests became embroiled in overthrowing another country's democratic government which had challenged the basis on which their national resources were being exploited and the re-installation of the more friendly Shah as supreme ruler. The ramifications of that policy 50 years later in terms of Iran's depiction of the USA as "the great satan" and the rise of Islamic fundementalism in the void of democratic regimes in the Middle East have many of their roots in this story.

The book succeeds on many levels and weaves together many strands including:

a good short analysis of Iran's history and why incompetent and corrupt rulers had created the exploitative situation of its national oil resources by a UK company that existed post WWII layered onto a society that in its legacy was very different from many other Middle East countries and in Mohammad Reza Shah had a young ruler whose indecisiveness and strong belief in his need to wholly control the armed forces to survive, set the seal on his whole future;

the role of how that UK company (Anglo-Persian Oil Company) by being totally intransigent in negotiating with the democratically elected Iranian government and following a stubborn old style imperial mindset stood to lose everything under the subsequent Iranian nationalisation;

how that error was compounded by incompetent UK government ministers and diplomats (such as the unworldly Herbert Morrison as Foreign Minister under Atlee) or devious tactics (Churchill and Eden exploiting on the election of Eisenhower the anti-communist card to propose a coup to largely serve UK financial interests);

the USA's move from the initial Truman government's strong support post WWII for strong new national governments being the best bulwark against communism and large effort being devoted to applying pressure on the UK, which then all dramatically shifted with the election of Eisenhower on an anti-communist ticket. His letting the Dulles brothers in their CIA and Secretary of State roles move to inserting a US operative (the resourceful Kermit Roosevelt) to assume control of and finance the long running UK founded Iranian network to overthrow the Iranian government by fostering street riots, led to a precedent which was to then be used by the CIA several times in many other less developed countries over the next two decades;and,

finally the star of the book Mohammad Mossadegh, a man from a high ranking Iranian family who by being well educated and an international legal background was able to not only garner the support of his people for his policies in a way that Iran had not experienced before but on the interntational stage proved more than a match for the UK, especially before the UN Assembly. However those same visionary qualities as is well shown also held the seeds of his destruction since his lack of pragmatism in negotiating a deal with the UK or exercising of realpolitik when fed information as to the tactics being applied by Iranian royalists and the UK and USA against his government and unwillingness to make some hard calls, let others quickly undermine his authority by creating a perception of anarchy and communist involvement (even though it took two attempts over a week!).

While it is easy with the gift of retrospect to see everything panning out as it did subsequently happen, what this book demonstrates is that the Truman government policy which was pursued with great effort at the time has been vindicated and the claimed communist threat was risible even at the time based on then known facts to the US (sadly one missing area as the author admits is any release of Soviet documents from that period).

While I think the book is finally light on its criticism of Eisenhower (whose ongoing lack of interest in CIA activities was fatal to later international developments) and Eden (who when he was UK Prime Minister after Churchill attempted a similar approach over the 1956 Suez Canal crisis but failed to get US support and had to resign), these are small points.

What this great book sadly teaches us is the key lesson of the folly of major powers trying to build nations that are friendly and subservient to their sponsoring government will always have limited lives due to national interests re-asserting themselves eventually - the publishing of this book as the USA (& to a lesser extent the UK) try and build a "friendly" Iraq from the current turmoil in 2006 indicate that lesson has not yet been wholly learnt.

Intro to Anglo-saxon policies in the Middle East (6/6 people found this helpful)

This book does not talk about only Iranian history in 20th century but also the dramatic change in American foreign policy during 1950s. It takes Iran as a case study to explain American inverventionist foreign policy and this policy's negative impacts on the democratisation process of the developing nations. The story of Iran's legendary politician, Mohammad Mossadegh, who put a big fight for democracy in his country, is portrayed righteously in a very dramatic way by the author. It is a landmark book to understand the current shortcomings of Iran as a non-secular state. It also gives hints about the roots of terror coming from the Middle East. The author claims that the roots of today's terorism (including Al-Qaeda) lie partly with the American coup at Iran. I think it is a forced conclusion because Al-Qaeda, as well as many other terorist groups, are linked to Saudi finances. He does not explain this contradiction.

Afterwards, I read a biography of Mossadegh from an Iranian author and the stories match perfectly. Kinzer basically used Mossadegh's life as an input to portray the negative impacts of American interventionist foreign policy. A "must read" material about the 20th century Middle East history. This book grew in me after reading it and now I keep it as a reference book in my library.

Simply Superb (9/9 people found this helpful)

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Simply the best non-fiction I have ever read. If you want to understand the background to the geo-political climate of the world today, read this book. The credibility of the author represents an objective account of history if ever there was one within this subject. As an added benefit, the story itself is gripping.

Good tale, well told (12/13 people found this helpful)

What this book may lack in depth it more than makes up for in being so readable and accessible. America and the UK conspired in 1953 to overthrow a democratic government in Iran - the Americans, under Eisenhower, becuase they were fixated with a supposed threat from Soviet Russia, and the British because they didn't want to lose the massive profits they and the Anglo-Iranian oil company were making from an industry that Iran's prime minister Mohammed Moassadeq had convinced the Iranian parliament to nationalise.

Kinzer argues that it could have been different - Truman after all was having none of it - and he recalls Morgan Shuster, the American who helped the administration of Iran's fledgling constitutional revolution earlier in the century.

But the 1953 coup set a precedent - as Kinzer draws out well - for US-sponsored coups elsewhere, set up the Shah as Iran's dictator and, well, the rest is history. As Ali Khamenei, now Iran's supreme leader, said: "We are not liberals like Mossadeq and Allende whom they can easily push aside".

All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror

Stephen Kinzer

Reader Reviews:

History of 20th century Iran in light reading (0/0 people found this helpful)

How Iran started to see USA as "the great satan" (2/2 people found this helpful)

Intro to Anglo-saxon policies in the Middle East (6/6 people found this helpful)

Simply Superb (9/9 people found this helpful)

Good tale, well told (12/13 people found this helpful)

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