Tom’s Comments (group member since Jun 14, 2009)

Tom’s comments from the Q&A with author Tom Gabbay group.

You too. Nice chatting with you.

I think Ike realized by the end of his term how quickly the Military-Industrial Complex had grown his eight years, and how it might change US policy. When there is that much money put into weaponry, at some point you're going to use it, even if it isn't really necessary. His famous warning came in his farewell speech.

Almost certainly. Truman declined to interfere in Iran. It was only when the Eisenhower administration entered office, with the Dulles brothersrunning foreign policy - Allen at CIA and Jon Foster at State - that they gave the CIA power to conduct covert ops. Before that the agency was mostly pushing paper around Washington.

It's true, although while researching for the book, I came to the conclusion that, while the 1953 CIA coup was a mistake and has been the root of so many problems we face today, it's difficult to completely condemn it. The Soviet Union, which had just exploded their first atomic bomb, was a real threat and would probably have made a move on Iran if given the chance. In retrospect, I guess we should have supported the democratically elected government. Of course, it's a lot easier to make that judgment now.

Hi Katie

You're right - sorry about that. Here's the corrected link"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-gab...

I just posted a blog on the subject at The Huffington Post. You can find it at:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-gabbay...

Please leave any thoughts you have, pro or con, in the comments section.

Will wrote: "I quite enjoyed the characters in TLC. It was like watching the Warner Brothers ensemble from the 1940s, the Maltese Falcon et al. Was that an inspiration for your characters? If not, what was?"

In fact, that was exactly where I started with this book. What if one of the most beloved films of all time was based on an incident in Jack Teller's life? And what was the real story, before Hollywood got its hands on it? If you look at the last couple of paragraphs in the book it drops a clue about that. Hint: Julius Epstein was a real screenwriter.

Will wrote: "Is this Q&A open to queries re The Lisbon Crossing?"

Sure. It's open to pretty much anything.

Will wrote: "There may be a fork in this road, but it has several possible new directions, not just two. Will the current religious despots resort to a Tianaman response and brutally crush the growing dissent, ..."

You make some excellent points. Scary times, indeed, but like all crises, full of opportunity. We may be witnessing the beginning of the end of Islamic fundamentalist rule in Iran, where it all began.

Something big is happening in Iran. Whatever the outcome of the current turmoil, it is a turning point in the country's history and could have an enormous impact on all of us.

I'm not an expert on Iran by any means, but while researching my novel, The Tehran Conviction, I came to understand the country's recent history, and thus the politics of a place that we in the West sometime see as unreasonable and irrational. The CIA-sponsored overthrow of the democratically elected government in 1953 still haunts the country. They were a fledgling democracy at the time, trying to achieve independence from the outside world. They trusted the United States because America had gone through the same process. They, too, had made a Declaration of Independence from Britain. But that trust was betrayed. The oil was too important and the Soviet Union too close to take chances with democracy in what was seen as an unstable country.

Shah Reza Pahlavi was installed and the absolute power he held for 26 years was very often abused. When, in 1979, the people had had enough, there was turmoil in the streets much like we're seeing today. But the democratic forces in the country had been weakened from years of oppression, so the Fundamentalist clergy prevailed in the power struggle that took place when the Shah fled. The Islamic Revolution was born.

Now, 30 years after that revolution, and 56 years after the coup, it seems to me that Iran has a chance at moving beyond the backward-looking philosophy of its religious leaders. If that's true, it could be a "game changer" in the Middle East and beyond.

This video provides a sense of what is happening:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3er0fl...