Arguably, the Shah of Iran was a man surrounding numerous controversies in the late 1970s. It may, actually, be true to say that he was the center of the most turbulent events that changed the course of the world's future. Yet, justice can't be accomplished by merely reading his book, representing his views of the events that led to his fall and the Islamic Republic's rise in Iran. In fact, this book must be supplemented by other resources, including several of his interviews with foreign media that are available on YouTube, as well as few other books such as "All the Shah's Men," written by Stephen Kinzer. That is because Shah ignores the roots of some of the decisive events during his reign. Maybe he was unaware of them, not for all he is to blame because some of the evidence has been revealed recently. For example, he did not believe that the CIA implemented the 1953 coup under the title "Operation Ajax." Kinzer sheds light on this in his book, citing actual documents of the British and Americans' correspondences.
Having watched several of Shah's interviews on YouTube with the foreign media, read Kinzer's book, and read Iran's history from the Islamic Republic's perspective (during school years), I decided to understand Shah's opinions through his book. I was born after his death, and, as an Iranian, I deserve to know what happened in the late 1970s that changed the lives of Iranians and impacted the world's politics. That was my goal in reading this book, and here's my take.
Shah starts the book with a brief overview of Iran's history until his father (Reza Shah) takes over the power and establishes the Pahlavi dynasty. While most elderly Iranians, like my late grandparents, recall him as a fearsome leader, Shah argues that he was a kind man inside but had to use force to help the country progress from years of poverty and ignorance. His disagreement with the British caused his exile, and the young son (Mohammad Reza) was crowned as the new Persian king. Iran was still in chaos and under heavy influence by the British and the Russians. Shah did not seem to have a plan to free Iran, mostly because he was inexperienced.
In his reign, the turning point is the events that led to Iranian oil's nationalization, which had been under British control for many years. The man behind these events was Dr. Mossadeq, the Prime Minister whom Shah didn't like. He calls Mossadeq a Russian connection in his book. Despite his disagreement with the Prime Minister, Shah argues that he favored nationalizing Iran's oil but was not in line with Mossadeq's approach. One may side with Shah because Mossadeq's eventual success against the British, described in detail by Kinzer, led to catastrophic economic issues resulting from an embargo on Iran's oil imposed by Britain.
On the other hand, Shah doesn't clarify how he would proceed with nationalizing the oil. Here is where Shah's unawareness of the events becomes clear. He says that as anarchy was spreading the country following the economic problems, he left the country so that Iranians could determine their future. The declassified documents reveal that he left the country in fear of his life, assuming that his kingdom was over. In the meantime, the Americans orchestrated a coup in Iran to overthrow Mossadeq and brought back the Shah as a king with ultimate power. This was perfect for the West because they had found an ally in an oil-rich country in the Middle-East that happened to have an extraordinary geopolitical situation as well.
More than half of the book is devoted to Shah's brief description of his views for Iran's future and his ambitions to revive the country from poverty into modernity. He calls it the "Revolution of the Shah and the People" and later "the White Revolution." On the surface, this revolution resulted in changes that are in line with prominent human rights. One of them was to give women the right to vote. As he also indicates in his book, he proceeded with these changes too early and too fast. Giving women the right to vote in the 1950s and 1960s, when women's rights were violated in Western countries, became his primary problem with Iran's traditional and deeply religious community. The man who led this opposition was Khomeini, who led the 1979 revolution.
While Shah complains in his book about the role of the Western media and governments in the Islamic Revolution's success, he confesses that he relied on his American "friends" a little too much. In a video available on YouTube, President Carter admires Shah's "great leadership" that has converted Iran into "an island of stability in one of the most troubled regions in the world." This was in 1978 in Tehran during the New Year's celebration. In another rare but precious video on YouTube, which is a clip of the ABC News program in 1979, it is revealed that President Carter told Shah he had to leave the country. One would, justifiably, ask why?
As Shah explains in his book, and one can conclude from his interviews on YouTube, as soon as he argues for a fair oil price, the West keeps mounting pressure on him. He counts two reasons for his asking price for oil. First, Iran needed money to move forward towards modernization, which, at the time, could only be supplied from selling its oil. Second, he knew that oil would not last forever and, so he wanted to inform the West that they had to look for alternative sources of energy before it became too late. Shah also argues that it would be in the West's interest to not rely on oil for energy because war or conflict could easily block their oil supply. He took the initiative and ordered six nuclear power plants and a few solar energy plants to be constructed in Iran.
The West, though, was busy with the war in Vietnam and other smaller conflicts. The last thing they wanted was a Middle-Eastern king to raise the oil price on them. They didn't just pressure the Shah to reduce the oil price. In return, they increased the cost of the commodities that Shah bought from them. That didn't do the trick, so they pointed to the violation of human rights in Iran - and that's while Shah was trying to give voting rights to the Iranian women. With all the options burned, the West sought an alternative, and it was Khomeini. There are videos of Khomeini's interviews with Mike Wallace on YouTube. He promised to maintain good relations with the Americans. I think today's world events leave no need to elaborate on how well he kept his promise.
This book is full of one man's ambitions to move a country from poverty to modernization. Shah was not a perfect leader, and, as he agrees, he made mistakes in his time. He tried to advance Iran too fast at a time that the public was not ready. He went head-on with the Western powers and attempted to create an autonomous and independent country in the Middle East. His dreams for a prosperous Iran cost the West temporary pain, which they couldn't tolerate. The one resource that caused all of it was oil. And the events began with Mosaddeq. Shah was lucky that Mosaddeq had a temporary success upon which he founded his "White Revolution." But his revolution cost him the throne because he trusted his allies in the West more than he should have. The Islamic Revolution of 1979 did not succeed because of internal force but of the West's deliberate manipulation of another country. This is the ultimate conclusion that one can draw from reading Shah's last book.