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Title: All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror by Stephen Kinzer ISBN: 0-471-26517-9 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 18 July, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.04 (49 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: As Thrilling to Read as it is Illuminating
Comment: "All the Shah's Men" is a wonderfully constructed account of America's fateful decision to back Britain and it's principle Iranian oil interests by overthrowing Iran's popular, democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, in 1953. Based on his extensive research into a variety of Iranian and American sources including now declassified CIA documents, veteran New York Times journalist, Stephen Kinzer, has produced a historical analysis that reads like a spy thriller. In addition to focusing on the fascinating details of the American-sponsored coup itself, Kinzer provides a vivid and objective portrait of the principle players including the coup's colorful mastermind, CIA operative, Kermit Roosevelt, Iran's enormously popular and passionately nationalistic Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, and a host of other individuals ranging from world leaders to the shadowy organizers of street mobs in Iran.
Much to his credit, Kinzer examines an understandably controversial subject without employing a predictably judgmental perspective. For example, while Kinzer displays tremendous sympathy toward Mossadegh, he avoids characterizing him as completely virtuous, and competent leader who was overthrown by a rapacious world power. In many ways Mossadegh was a virtuous leader, and his decision to nationalize the deeply oppressive and intractable Anglo/Iranian Oil Company not only earned him tremendous popularity in Iran, but also generated tremendous sympathy in the anti-colonial Truman Administration (which invited him to the United States) and even within the conservative Eisenhower Administration, albeit to a lesser extent. But as just as Mossadegh's grievances against Britain may have been, Kinzer demonstrates that he lacked the shrewdness and the practicality to negotiate with Britain when he had the upper hand. While it was probably impossible for Mossadegh to fully understand the increasingly binary nature of America's global rivalry with the Soviet Union, and how the American government would come to view him in this context, one can't help but wonder how a more skilled and ruthlessly practical politician such as Ghandi or Ho Chi Minh would have handled the situation. Kinzer concludes that while Mossadegh was undoubtedly the victim of an American-sponsored coup, his own understandable, but deeply impractical political passions were partly to blame.
Equally fascinating is the lens that Kinzer turns on the American leadership and on its gradual shift from sympathizing with Mossadegh to ultimately backing the British in their quest to regain control of their Iranian oil concessions. In part this resulted from changing political fortunes on both sides of the Atlantic. In roughly the same time frame Attlee's Labor Government in Britain, and the Democratic Truman Administration in America-both of which were largely sympathetic to Mossadegh-were replaced by the more deeply reactionary administrations of Churchill and Eisenhower. Churchill saw himself as the last bastion of the remaining British Empire, and Eisenhower had campaigned on a strong anti-Communist platform. In this context neither leader was willing to tolerate a nationalistic leader of Mossadegh's calibur in Iran. Despite its role in overthrowing the elected leader of a sovereign nation, the American government emerges from these pages in a surprisingly sympathetic manner by at first attempting to work with Mossadegh and then reluctantly helping the British to overthrow him. It is perhaps the British with their hidebound arrogance and total dismissal of Iranian interests who come across as the book's only villains.
Finally there is the planning and execution of the coup itself, by CIA operative, Kermit Roosevelt. This part of the story contains so many fascinating and unbelievable twists that it even prompted President Eisenhower to compare it to a dime store novel after Roosevelt provided him with a subsequent intelligence briefing on the subject. One could argue that the Iranian coup formed the blueprint for so many subsequent right-wing coups in places like Nicaragua (1955), Vietnam (1963), Brazil (1964), Chile, (1973), Florida (2000), Venezuela (2002--which actually failed) and Haiti (2004). In most cases, the process of overthrowing a democratically elected government involved a strong man to replace the deposed leader, organizing and dispatching violent mobs to create chaos and to provide the veneer of popular rage toward the existing government, control and skillful application of the mass-media, at least minimal military and police cooperation, and some sort of legal or judicial process to vilify the outgoing leadership and legitimize the new one. Roosevelt skillfully assembled and deployed these elements in deposing Mossadegh and replacing his government with that of the deeply repressive Mohammad Reza Shah.
Kinzer concludes his book with some practical questions and hypothetical examinations of other possible outcomes. Could Mossadegh have avoided the coup if he had been more flexible? Would America's long-term foreign policy aims have been better served by backing Mossadegh and by standing for democracy in practice as well as in rhetoric? Was the coup really necessary to counter the perceived Soviet threat? How might subsequent American foreign policy have differed if the coup actually failed, which it very nearly did?
In examining these issues, Kinzer come to two sobering conclusions. First, he observes that having easily overturned an undesirable government in one country, American foreign policy makers, most notably the Dulles brothers, believed that "regime change", as we now call it, was a simple and practical approach to implementing America's global security requirements in potentially troubled regions. Kinzer also concludes that seemingly inexplicable events such as the humiliating American Hostage Crisis in 1979 and many subsequent terrorist attacks have origins in the coup that overthrew Mossadegh. Kinzer does not frame his conclusions in a manner that blames America or justifies terrorism. Instead, he provides a rational explanation of cause and effect and suggests that the blowback from the Iranian experience should be considered when making similar policy decisions.
Rating: 5
Summary: An excellent book, packed with information
Comment: I recommend this book to every person interested in the modern history of the Midde East and wondering why are there only extremists rising from the region. The book examines recently declassified CIA documents and accurately pieces together the series of events that led to the 1953 coup that ousted the nationalist prime minister, Dr Mohammad Mossadegh. It is provides another example of the consequences of colonialism and emperialism and it is very pertinent considering the recent wave of occupation politics adopted by the US government.
All the Shah's Men is written with the suspense of a mystery novel and very hard to put down once you pick it up. It is accessible, and provides sufficient background for the reader not familiar with the politics and history of Iran.
Rating: 5
Summary: Something you will not see on the 5 O'Clock News
Comment: I read this book along with the idiots guide to the Koran. I have been on a journey of personal enlightenment and would like to understand the truth of Islam and the Middle East. This book helps shed some light on the pillar of "the axis of evil, " Iran and how it was shaped, formed, and started by none other than the Eisenhower administration of the United States of America. Our lack of fore sight on Middle Eastern policy has laid the ground work for the Taliban in Afghanistan the funding of Hamass and other extremist organizations. I fear we are only doomed to repeat these actions with our unwavering backing of Sharon of Israel. We must take each country and situation as its own and offer humility and respect. We must support the adoption of a modern middle class that will reach out to the west in friendly relations. Take Turkey's Example: they have had moderate leadership supported by the west that has allowed them to form a state that is majority Muslim and still economically viable with many democratic freedoms and steered safely clear of the meddling hands of the Soviets.With the short team band-aid foreign policy of the Bush Administration I fear we are doomed to repeat our mistakes and celebrate a victory such as Operation Ajax- which in the end is truly a sobering defeat. I highly recommend this book. It will allow you to argue Middle East politics from the inside rather than finger pointing and going off of what the 5 oclock news feeds us at the trough every night. There is a reason that Iran refers us to as the Great Satan. There is a reason for the extreme Islamic regime. Iran is a pendulum and I hope in the near future we can adopt a policy that helps it stop somewhere in the middle rather than swinging wildly from side to side.
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Title: Sleeping With the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude by ROBERT BAER ISBN: 1400050219 Publisher: Crown Pub. Date: 15 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: A History of Modern Iran Since 1921: The Pahlavis and After by Ali Ansari ISBN: 0582356857 Publisher: Longman Pub. Date: 03 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
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Title: An Enduring Love : My Life with the Shah - A Memoir by Farah Pahlavi ISBN: 140135209X Publisher: Miramax Pub. Date: 10 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century by Paul Krugman ISBN: 0393058506 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala by Stephen C. Schlesinger, Stephen Kinzer, John H. Coatsworth, John H. Coatsworth ISBN: 0674075900 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: August, 1999 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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