1919: The Anglo-Persian Agreement is signed finalizing British control of Persian army, treasury, transport system and communication network. Martial law is declared. Huge amounts of oil are extracted. Persian people get nothing.
1921 – 25: British assist a military coup, co-lead by Reza Khan Mirpanj, who eventually forces the King into exile and has himself made 1st Shah.
1933: Change in oil agreement giving Persia some of the oil profits (£7mil out of the £40mil made in 1947). The Shah changes Persia to Iran in 1935 to signify the Aryan origins of Persia, influenced by his close ties to Nazi Germany.
1941: UK and Russia invade Iran and depose the Shah, who is too close to the Nazis. His son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, is placed in power.
1949: Independent audit of the British oil company reveals it has been cheating Iran out off huge sums of money. The Majlis (Iran Parliament) begins moving towards either a 50-50 split or outright nationalization.
1951: Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, an upper-class Iranian committed to democracy and self-determination, gets a law through Parliament nationalizing the petroleum industry. Mossadegh comes to address the UN to defend his policies. He is made Time’s Man of the Year for 1951 (“the Iranian George Washington”).
1952 – 53: Regime changes; Newly-elected President Eisenhower’s Administration includes the Dulles brothers, who are proponents of the Cold War and see Communists everywhere. Meanwhile, Churchill’s Conservative party comes back into power in the UK, hell bent on keeping their grasp on the oil of Persia. The English persuade the US to attempt a coup of Mossadegh.
Although Roger Coiran, CIA chief of station in Tehran, warned Dulles that a coup would result in Iranians forever viewing the United States as a supporter of colonialism, the CIA orchestrates a series of dirty tricks, bribes and kickbacks (called Operation Ajax) to depose Mossedegh. The Shah retakes the throne. A new oil agreement is signed splitting Iran oil profits amongst UK (40%), US (40%) and other European (20%) oil corporations.
1954: Elections for Parliament are blatantly rigged; the Majdis become a rubber stamp for the Shah. Over the next 25 years, the Shah uses his secret police, the notorious Savak (trained by the CIA and Mossad), to torture more than a half million (of which at least 10,000 were killed).
The US action is transparent to the peoples and leaders of the Mid-East and tilts the region away from freedom and democracy toward dictatorships. The message is clear: oppressive regimes are ok as long as they are friendly to the West.
The Shah is allowed to purchase any weapons short of nuclear from the US and given the aid to do so. In the 70s, one-third of all US military purchases were made by Iran. Regular Iranians saw none of the plentiful US aid the Shaw was raking in during this time. People were doing so badly (average annual wage: $350), they turned to religion. The Ayotollahs gained influence.
1978 - 79: Anti-Shah demonstrations begin; President Carter sends riot-control equipment and is blamed by angry Iranians. The Shah is forced to flee to Panama, then comes to the US for medical treatment, making the Iranians suspicious that the US will once again try a coup. Iranians take hostages from the American Embassy as “insurance” against this widely-held assumption.
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