Persian Realm

Reza Pahlavi on MSNB

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlPCda6hB8Y  Reza Pahlavi on MSNBC _ 11Feb_ 2010

Sargord I Look forward to your photo

Please feel free to share it with us.

I am not at all glorifying a military occupation of Iran but merely situating the context and realities of this occupation which was inevitable at the time by the allies.

As an Iranian this occupation was indeed unjust but as a human being I believe it was necessary in a World that was plundged not in a local conflict like Iraq or Afghanistan today but a World War and a second one in the First half of the 20th Century to counter the Nazi Expansionist policies and it's bellicose ideology.

The Shah of Iran was the first to denounce this occupation and so did his son Mohamed Reza Shah who considered it as a humiliation.

But the state of poverty and misery in the country and the capital Tehran in particular was not merely due to the occupation of Iran by the allies but the fact that the entire European and Russian economy was in shambles due to the German Blitzkrieg.

France was in a far worse situation with the German Occupation. The jewish citizens were deported to the German concentration camps or other extermination camps in Poland and other German Occupied territories for labor work and mere extermination. The French government was forced to imose anti Jewish laws and collaborate with the German occupying forces and the entire economy was oriented to serve the interests of the German War Efforts. France was then divided into two zones one occupied by the Germans which was called La Zone Occupée which comprised Paris the Capital and every region above. The Southern part of the country called Zone Libre was in the hands of the French government of Pétain with their Militia ( similar to today's Bassijees in Iran today ) and the government could administer it to some extent. Only by mid 1943 the Germans started occupying the Zone Libre and started executing people and deporting jews, gypsies and anyone considered as an inferior or degenerate race including psychiatric patients.

Do you know the human costs for France due to German Occupation ? Only in France ( Excluding it's colonies) it summed to half a million deaths:

567,600 to be exact which can be divided as follows:

217,600 Military

267,000 Civilian  amongst which 83,000 Jews

Did Germany EVER Compensate France for that matter ? NO !

Iran in comparison had merely 200 deaths ( all Military) in a conflict that cost 70 Million Deaths World Wide. These are official statistics which do not take into account collateral damages and one can always find exceptions to the rule when you dig in figures as such but they are fairly Reliable.

Iran at the time was a Third World Country and Reza Shah's efforts to modernize the country aided by German and Italian allies was obviously shattered with the new Status Quo imposed by the War.

However Iran's Invasion was not a Colonial Invasion aimed at occupying Iran as part of a British or Russian (Soviet) Empire. Once the War was finished the British military pulled out ( not their advisors) but the Soviet's as they did in Eastern Europe refused to leave Northern Iran and particularly Azerbaijdan and if it were not for the Americans and President Truman ( which had the Atom Bomb in his hands as a tool to pressure the Russians out) the Soviets would not have pulled out. The Shah led his Army into Azerbaijdan and kicked out Pishervari's communist government and boasted to Iran's victory over it's enemies. He did the Right Thing and only possible and logical thing to do WITH the HELP of the American Support. It was not as "Heroic" a battle as it was claimed for if it were not for Truman threatening the Powerful Stalin, Azerbaijan and most probably Iran in it's entirety would have become a Soviet Sattelite Country like all other East European States for the next 70 years to come. Would You have prefered that ?

You don't play ball with a Super Power when you are a miget unless you wish to sacrifice your people's lives in the name of patriotism however noble in it's intentions. The Shah WAS Right to choose the American as Allies instead of the Power Hungry Soviets. Real Politics was not only an option but an absolute necessity to guarantee Iran's safety and territorial integrity.

This reality  is something that is entirely overlooked by even the Mossadegh followers who claim that IRan was a British Colony ( which it was not) and claim that the Shah was a British or American Puppet. It proves their shortsightedness as to the realities of a nation that was struggling to exist and be counted for in the new World Order after WWII where the United Nations was created in 1948 ( See Shah's Speach above) and where new rules of diplomacy were taking shape in order to maintain World Peace and naively no doubt put an End to All Wars in a utopian and wishful thinking way. But it was the only legitimate thing for diplomats to work towards given the horrors of the Previous World War II that totally devastated everything the World and not just the Western Civilization had Stood Up for in the name of Progress and Freedom.

The Shah as head of a weekend nation tried to rebuild Iran in this new context and he ruled as a Constitutional King for 12 years before the Oil Crisis of 1953 and Mossadegh trying legitimately but clumsily ( in my point of view) to redistribute the cards and nationalize Iranian Oil.

This became the First Crisis that the United Nations had to solve in the advent of WWII. Now everyone keeps saying the Shah overthrew Mossadegh a Democratically Elected Prime Minister. That is an oversimplification given that our country was anything but democratic even if at the Time the Shah was not involved in the domestic policies and left all decisions to the government he would name and let parliment debate and draft the laws.

But IRan needed first and foremost STABILITY in order to create a civil society from the rubbles of WWII. The Western World totally devastated materially was able to overcome such shortcomings nearly overnight thanks to the Marshall Plan to reconstruct Europe with American Help. Iran benefitted from American aid in terms of reconstruction and medical aid and development programs in order to maintain IRan's capacity to resist a Soviet Invasion and we benefitted from the American Umbrella just like our neighbours Turkey, Iraq or Afghanistan but with the particularity of not belonging to NATO like Turkey for instance and maintain at least on paper some military neutrality.

See the Shah's interview here where Barbara Walters explains why the Shah developed Iran's conventional Non Nuclear capabilities because he refused to see his country Occupied once more:

pictory: Shah Interview with Barbara Walters and US Networks (1974-77)

And throughout the 70 the Shah insisted on developing it's peaceful nucleare capability but also wished to have Nuclear Bomb because it did not belong to NATO and no one was out there to defend it.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut8ah3wVT-w

UNLIKE the Mullah's today The SHAH had a Coherent Foreign and Domestic Policy which was entirely demolished by the Revolution of 1979 and the mullah's mismanegment.

The Compensations You Refer too were Largely overcome by the Shah's Economic policies and his imposing Oil Prices on the West in a peaceful Vengeance that rightly  the West a devastating Oil Crisis in 1973 that benefited OUR Economy while paralyzing our former "Occupiers".

By Starting Our Stupid Revolution we fragalized Iran than strengthen it and this has led to the the absurd and incoherent policy of Iran under Ahmadinejad to try and justify Iran's nuclear development by using Israel as a scapegoat instead of the Ally it used to be under the shah.

We prefered the alliance with a bunch of Arab third world terrorists and turn Iran's economy to shambles like some occupied Palestinian Territory rather than the Booming economically developing country it was becoming under the Imperial Era and which by all economic statistics would have turned Iran's economy into what South Korea is today.

If there is anyone who needs to compensate Iranians it is the Islamic Republic of Iran !

I am sure Even Your Grandfather would agree if he were alive today.

Peace to his soul for his patriotism during the occupying years.

Best,

DK

Darius, we have a photo

Darius, we have a photo somewhere of my father during this period. It shows a poor, undernourished child, dressed in only an old shirt and without shoes, next to a skeleton of a tricycle without tires and seat upholstery.

This is what a former minister's son was reduced to, as a direct result of the foreign military occupation of Iran.

I actually took the time to look for the photo, so that I could upload it to an image hosting site and provide a link. Alas, I couldn't find it.

But the point is I get the sense you are trying to glamorize the military invasion and occupation of Iran by foreign powers. I can tell you from our family history, there was only a sense of loss and misery during these years.