All The Shah's Men Summary

All the Shah’s Men:An American Coup and The Roots of Middle East Terror by Stephen Kinzer is about an important event that the United States took part in, yet it is left out of textbooks, leaving many Americans today not knowing about it ever taking place. It tells the story about an event in 1953 where a mission driven partly by the United States to overthrow the Prime Minister of Iran occurred. Kinzer’s book is a very educational book that helps to inform people what happened in Iran in 1953 and gives insight to why the United States has the relations with Iran that it has today. In the early twentieth century Britain had owned the Anglo-Iranian Oil company after Persian rulers sold oil concessions to foreigners for almost nothing (Kinzer,2).

The new prime minister, Fazlollah Zahedi, is now is office” (Kinzer, 182). After the success of the coup, Mohammad Mossadegh stayed in his house while the Iran people were circling his house. He eventually secretly got away and the people destroyed his house (Kinzer, 184-186). Mohammad Mossadegh didn’t hide for long, he surrendered to the new Prime Minister. Mohammad Mossadegh was sentenced to three years in prison which was then followed by a life sentence of house arrest (Kinzer, 193). He died on March 5, 1967 at age 85 and there was no public mourning or funeral allowed (Kinzer, 195). In the following years after the coup Mohammad Reza Shah became the dictator and turned the Iranian people against him by his cruel ruling. Which ultimately led to the 1979 revolution that overthrow him (Kinzer, 202). After being overthrown the United States allowed him to enter and this made the Iranians even more anger. In response to their anger they stormed the American embassy and held 52 American hostage for 14 months (Kinzer, 202). This event was the turning point to the relations the United States had with