So intense was the shah's identification with the Third Reich that in 1935 he renamed his ancient country "Iran," which in Farsi means Aryan and refers to the Proto-Indo-European lineage that Nazi racial theorists and Persian ethnologists cherished. End quote. Not the same shah. The Allies deposed Reza Shah in 1941 and replaced him with his more cooperative son, Mohammer Reza Pahlavi, who reigned until 1979.
This is a good book with lots of good information about the Pahlavi dynasty. ReignOfTerror is correct, anti-mahdi was referring to Reza Shah who was an Iranian military officer created by the Brits in order to stop bolshevik penetration into Iran in the early 1920's.
Reza Shah renamed Persia to the current Iran because he said that Persia was a name given to his country by the Greeks.
Muhammed Reza Shah, the son of Reza Shah was no boyscout, but he was a staunch supporter of America. When the Arabs embargoed oil to the West in the 1970's because of Israel, the Shah kept the oil flowing to the West. When the bumbling carter greased the skids for the Shah, America lost a stalwart ally in this unstable area. As a matter of fact, Israel would not have to be doing what it has to do in South Lebanon, if the leftist American government would have stood behind the Shah in his moment of need.
Indeed!!! Now track the White Revolution the son imposed in an attempt to modernize Iran.
He even used the tried and true, five year plan soviet style central planning; re-locations of villagers, state funded (still in existence) and owned industries, giant and mostly useless state projects.
The Shah was a despot. He was our despot, but he still was as unreliable an ally over the long term as any despot can be. Once he was gone another rose to take his place.
This is why Islamo-Nazism (national socialism imposed in a dictatorship in an Islamic country is indistinguishable in effect from the Islamic paradise of the Ayatollah. The people at the top own everything, the villagers and the bazaars cower in fear and uncertainty.
The Supreme Council of Iran contains the richest mullahs you will likely find anywhere. They own and run everything.
This last fact is the only restraint they may have to delay the descent into the Abyss they are looking into (the mullahs). It is nice to be rich and own everythng. It is not nice to be devastated and reduced to garbage dump gleaning because you went to war with the wrong people.