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All The Shah's Men Summary

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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). …show more content…

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

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embassy in Tehran and seized control of the embassy. Farber provides both an international and domestic viewpoint on the crisis, which offers the reader more of an outlook on the situation. Farber’s international viewpoint provides the reader with the look into the origins of the situation and the policies the United States had put in place in Iran. These policies include the part in ousting Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh by the United States, the United States backing of the Shah and the inclination of policy makers to turn their backs to the problem of authoritarianism in Iran, which was causing suffering for the people in the country. These problems began when the United States took interest in the Middle East in the 1970’s because of its oil rich ground.

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Farber successfully argues that the iranian hostage crisis was infact the first encounter with radical islam. Farber paints the picture of two oppossing rivals. The Shah represents corruption and the Khomeini represents relegion. The Shah is allowed to enter the United states to recieve treatment for cancer. The fall of the Shah of iran leads to Ayatollah Khomeini and his followers to take over.

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Taken Hostage tells the story of the Iran hostage crisis lasting from November of 1979 to the day Reagan’s inauguration. During this period of time, sixty six Americans were held in captivity by Students Following the Line of Imam after the United States allowed the Shah to undergo medical treatment amidst the Iranian revolution. Americans, after a tough decade of inflation, gas shortages, lack of trust in the government, and the defeat in Vietnam were yet again brought into a situation in which required their complete faith that the Carter administration would save the captives. The hostage crisis was a complete shock to the American people in addition to the heightened tensions because of economic decline, government mistrust, and energy

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In 1978 it marked the beginning of many political and religious disturbance in Iran. The Iranian Revolution has a history of chaos in order to put power in the hands of the people. The 1953 coup was to overthrow of the elected prime minister of Iran Mohammad Mosaddegh. Mohammad Mosaddegh almost succeeded in deposing the shah incensed Iran's intellectuals.

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In the opening chapter, Kimball begins his discussion by describing his encounter with the then Ayatollah, Ruhollah Khomeini, in Qom, Iran on Christmas Day. He described the Ayatollah as being very charismatic and grandfatherly, as well as being an extraordinarily influential religious and political leader (Kimball, p. 1). The two discussed a number of important issues like the Iranian revolution, Christian-Muslim relations, Jesus, and the U.S. hostages (Kimball, p.

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"Hidden Iran" is a book written by Ray Takeyh explaining about the Islamic republic power and paradox that existed. It shows the relationship between Iran and America. The author is an expert in history and politics of Iran wrote this book demystifying the regime of Iranian and shows the fault lines, which explain the behavior of domestic politics. The author critiques the approach of US to Iran since its revolution in 1979 and its failure of change successive administration behavior.

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Finally, the Shah died in July 1980 while living in Egypt. Now what the students of Iran truly wanted, for the Shah stand trial for his heinous crimes against humanity, was impossible. These events show the true power of economic goals and how they can turn a non-economic event into a truly dramatic struggle for national and international

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It was explained that the British people had nice houses, gardens, etc. while the locals lived in mud houses. From this, it makes sense why Dr. Mossadegh wanted to eliminate foreign power within Iran so that the people of Iran could live better lives. Because Dr. Mossadegh stood up against power, that made him a foe of the United States and the United Kingdom, which led them to stage the coup against Dr. Mossadegh. The extent that both the U.S. and the U.K. went to perform the coup was significant.

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While this is happening, none of the people in Iran are fully aware of how to react because the country didn’t have a leader at the time. Marjane had to experience this imperialism during her teenage years and it played a large role in her perspective. To demonstrate this in the book, it says, “‘God did not choose the king. ’[said Marjane’s father] ‘He did so!

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The 1953 coup was the event when Britain and with the help of United Stated to bring down the prime minister of Iran, Mohammad Mossadegh. Before him, the Shah signed a treaty letting Britain own and have complete control the oil. Once Mossadegh was elected prime minister, he signed a bill which passed as a law which let Iran nationalize and takes back its oil. He planned to free Iran from exploitation from Britain to reclaim what was theirs and get rid of the company. Since Britain owned the oil company, they were outraged with the idea of Mossadgh and tried to negotiate to get 50/50 profit from the oil.

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The Shah kept none” (27). This was the perspective of many adversaries of the Shah. Because of the manipulative nature of the Shah, the citizens felt that they couldn't trust him. As a community, the Iranian citizens “wanted only one thing: his departure!” (41).

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Researchers who are studying the 1953 Iranian Coup, or operation AJAX as it is known, have speculated and often wondered what the involvement of the United States CIA and British Intelligence truly was. Why did this have to have taken place in the first place is often asked. What was so critical in this sphere of the world that made the world powers of the United States and Great Britain deem it necessary to get rid of the lawfully elected prime minister at the time, Mohammad Mossadeq, and impart their own choice for this position while propping up the Shah? This was a time when the British Empire was unraveling. Newly elected British prime minister Winston Churchill, “was committed to stopping his country’s empire from unraveling further.”

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From a secular point of view, the Pahlavi regime’s incessant abuse of power, overarching oppression, and limitations to basic human freedoms would have naturally fostered distaste amongst a certain group of the Iranian populace: broadly that of the educated, urban class. However, it is the imposition of Western ideals and alien values upon Iranian society as a whole which created even more disgust amongst the wider, general population. The Pahlavi regime might have perhaps been able to sustain the oppression of the Iranian people if his western backed policies were effective and popular with the Iranian people, but his failures with Iranian Oil and land reforms only exacerbated the situation. It was feared by many intellectuals that the growing westernisation of Iran, and more specifically Iran’s role with the west, would threaten the core traditional Iranian (and to some extent Islamic) values in society at that time. Hence, Al-e Ahmad, as the leading literary figure at that time, saw in Islam a medium through which to reunite an entire population, and as a force great enough to overthrow the Pahlavi regime; herein lies the core moral dilemma of many secular Iranian intellectuals at the

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This evil act pursued by the Shah and police was a defeat for the Iranian people, but they continued to demonstrate daily. Although many people fled the country, including Marji when she got sent to Austria by her parents, the people of Iran and Marjis parents who stayed, fought for humanity and eventually

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Prior to the 1979 Revolution, there was much opposition against the Mohammed Reza Shah, the head of the country, and how he used the secret police to control the country. On January 16, 1979 the Shah left

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