Status Updates From A History of Iran: Empire o...

Extremely sad in light of current events:
“The failure of the West fully to take advantage of the opportunity offered by a reformist president in Iran already looks like a bad mistake. One such opportunity came after the September 11 attacks in the US when members of the Iranian leadership condemned the terrorist action in forthright terms, and ordinary Iranians showed their sympathies with candlelight vigils…

“The [Pahlavi] monarchy became more remote and disconnected from the attitudes and concerns of ordinary Iranians. In a sense, paradoxically perhaps as a result of combatting underground Marxists for so long, the Shah [Mohammed Reza] made the mistake of a Marxist analysis: he thought that if he could just secure material prosperity through successful development, then everything else would fall happily into place.