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

You left out a very important piece of the story (I'm assuming this wasn't purposeful). The Shah was NOT installed by the Americans.

Mohammad Reza Shah (Pahlavi) assumed power in 1941, after his father was pushed out by the British & Soviets. During the period before the 'coup' (which wasn't in fact a coup), Iran functioned as a quasi-constitutional monarchy. Mossadegh was elected by the Majlis (Parliament) as PM, not president and not shah. Mossadegh was an ambitious man and pushed his power as far as he could, to the point of overstepping his rights as PM and leading the Shah (at the urging of the British) to seek his removal.

But the Shah was a coward, and was fearful of Mossadegh's popularity. So he asked for US help in ensuring Mossadegh's dismissal. When some of the military sided with Mossadegh, the Shah fled; this left Mossadegh as the highest-ranking official in Iran -- making him de facto leader.

For many reasons, Mossadegh was unacceptable as leader to the West (esp. the British), so another attempt to depose the PM was launched, under US orders. It resulted in the PM being forced to resign, and the Shah returned to his prior office. In other words, he was reinstalled. This distinction is important, as is the fact that Mossadegh was elected by the Parliament, not the people.

There's a good book on the subject, that gives the reader an exceedingly fair look at the 1953 crisis and Iranian history. It ends with some considerable bullshit, but everything else was well-written and researched.

you should read the book All the Shah's men and then throw some money at folks to make a spy thriller based on it. The book reads like a spy novel but it is actually history and explains why Iran hates us.

There were historically two times that the Brits toppled pro democratic govts in Iran and reinstalled monarchist rule

Most people know about 1953: after the Iranian Prime Minister Mossadegh nationalized Iran's oil industry ( which until then was operated as a concession by British Petroleum, and powered the British navy), a joint CIA/ MI5 operation known as TP AJAX was put into effect, reinstalling the last Shah of Iran (the same one that would be later permanently toppled in the 1979 Islamic Revolution)
Currently the most popular book on that is "All the Shah's Men" by Stephen Kinzer. http://www.amazon.com/All-Shahs-Men-American-Middle/product-reviews/0470580410

However I also recommend Prince Farmanfarmaian's book "Blood and Oil"


What most people don't know is about the 1906 Constitutional Revolution in Iran, which established the first democracy in the Mideast, ended the 2500 history of absolute monarchy in Iran by adopting a system of Constitutional Monarchy where the King reigned but an elected Parliament ("Majlis") ruled as in the UK ( actually they copied the Belgian constitution). However this was short lived, since the British and Russian imperial forces backed another shah and put him back in power, and ended up shelling Iran's Parliament building. http://www.iranreview.org/content/Documents/Contemporary_History_The_Bombardemant_of_Majlis_June_23rd_1908.htm

Probably the best source on that is Janet Afary's book "
The Iranian Constitutional Revolution"


A certain American named Morgan Shuster who had been hired by the democratic govt to manage Iran's finances (who Britain and Russia hated) wrote a famous memoir about the times entitled "The Strangling of Persia"

All of these books are available on Amazon, buy used I suggest.

Context for the Iran comment can be found in All the Shah's Men, an excellent book about the 1953 CIA coup in Iran which is practically already the script for a movie directed by Billy Ray starring Aaron Eckhart as Kermit Roosevelt.

I really suggest you read this book

http://www.amazon.com/All-Shahs-Men-American-Middle/dp/0470580410

It is very informative on the subject and will inform you about all the politics that lead up to the 1953 coup.

Also fuck Kermit Roosevelt.

I forget what I was watching, I think it was BBC Iran and the West they said the CIA never expected Khomeini to be able to take power. All the Shahs Men(http://www.amazon.com/All-Shahs-Men-American-Middle/dp/0470580410) is a wonderful book which covers the coup against mossadegh.

http://www.amazon.com/All-Shahs-Men-American-Middle/dp/0470580410 - just to make it easier! :) enjoy! -

As for the paper If I get to a good state on it, maybe. haha. It's not one of my finer works. but I'm using Iran as a case study.

Another book you may like, that I used when researching Iran for my paper! Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah. It's on OpenLibrary and is quite fascinating. Khomeini, no matter how you feel about him. was a genius.

Here is the desktop version of your link

There is an excellent book titled "All The Shah's Men" that goes into great detail concerning this coup d'etat. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company (better known today as British Petroleum) had a lucrative deal with the Iranian government to share the vast majority of the oil earnings with foreign investors. But in 1951, the Iranian government voted to nationalize Iran's oil fields and more importantly, democratically elected Mohammed Mossadegh who fought against foreign companies. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company begged Winston Churchill to help and he reached out to the CIA. The CIA started the coup under Operation Ajax and the SIS started their own operation titled Operation Boot. This CIA led coup ended in 1953 with Mossadegh being deposed by a brutal dictator; Mohammed Rezi Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran.

Fun Factoids:

President Teddy Roosevelt's grandson, Kermit Roosevelt Jr. was the CIA's Directorate of Plans and senior coordinator for Operation Ajax.

Maj. Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf Sr., grandson of Gen. Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. and commander in chief of United States Central Command during the invasion of the Persian Gulf War, was sent by the CIA to persuade the Shah to return from exile. In addition, Schwarzkopf Sr. also trained the brutal paramilitary police force SAVAK whose torture methods ranged from electric shock, pulling of teeth, and pouring boiling water down the anus. After the 1979 revolution, SAVAK was dismantled but it is highly likely the SAVAK command and its methods were simply implemented under the new name SAVAMA.

So crimes against humanity in the name of a religion are time sensitive? Or is there a statute of limitations on moral indignation?

There's a reason some of these people are very angry. We just typically see the end result and rarely how the atrocities began

I don't really see how Islam, as it is written, is any more violent than Christianity or Judaism, but for some reason, people separate the economic and political motivations from the religious ones, excuse the old motivations as being irrelevant, and leave a nice, neat little scapegoat with which the West can engage in a permanent war and gradual genocide.