I have some questions that have puzzled me for a while. And I ask them to this post by wlandsodidwe due to that sig line and the nature of the post. Although anyone who can enlighten please jump in.
First, I remember Carter’s presidency very well. It was a nightmare of my life and I fear that coming up, under President Obama, my own daughter will suffer the consequences of a spineless leader.
Thus I remember the hostage crisis, the gas lines, 18% interest mortgage rates....yes I remember.
What I don’t quite understand is how the Shah....
a)got booted out of Iran
b)how Carter helped it happen
c)what is a “shah” and how was he a good guy. That title sounds like royalty, some sort of elitest. Hardly an elected kind of thing although I understand that rulers born to the job can be America’s friend.
Now I want to know, seriously, how the Democrat party constantly gets a pass on this guy? They seat him in the chair of honor at their conventions. He goes on these jaunts and he undermines this country and....
....no wait! Where the hell are the Republicans??? Why aren’t they all over the place, dissing this guy, educating this country as to the horrible foreign policies he preaches while in distant lands and hey, I understand Carter has some sort of private diplomatic company and what? Is it possible he is PAID to betray this country?
Where are the Republicans?
Okay, so those are my questions.
a)got booted out of Iran
The US had always supported the Shah with money and other things, because he was our friend in the middle east.
b)how Carter helped it happen
He pulled all money and military support from the Shah
c)what is a “shah” and how was he a good guy. That title sounds like royalty, some sort of elitest. Hardly an elected kind of thing although I understand that rulers born to the job can be America’s friend.
For the middle east he was a benevolent ruler. Women were treated as equals. They wore western dress and could drive. Yes, there were some who didn't like him. (Think the Osama Bin laden types). The Iranian people lived in a modern country. All that ended when the Ayotollah took over. The beheading began. Women were arrested for how they dressed and had to start wearing the head covering to survive.
The real question here, is why was the Shah treated in such a way by Carter, who now wants to talk to the current ruler, who keeps his people isolated and living a very deprived lifestyle. Women are treated worse than slaves were once treated in the US by Jimmah's ancestors.
Well I wish I could point to a place where we didn't replace one dictator with another, but having a hard time remembering one. You have to be crazy to think Africa is better off now than in 1950.
c)what is a “shah” and how was he a good guy. That title sounds like royalty, some sort of elitest. Hardly an elected kind of thing although I understand that rulers born to the job can be America’s friend.
Shah is the title of Persian/Iranian (Iran changed names in 1935) Kings since ancient times, held by the dozens of different Dynasties that ruled Persia. Actually the Emperor was Shahanshah (King of Kings). It is a sacred Kingship going back to the 6th century before Christ. While for the most centuries it was an arbitrary and despotic rule, in the late 19th Century the Persian state had degenerated into something absolutely impotent and worthless.
The people therefore in 1906 forced in a Revolution a Constitution of Western brand on the despotic King. Persia became a constitutional Monarchy, with a Parliament.
While formally nice, the Russians, to some degree the Brits, the Qajar Royals , which were Turks ruling Persia since the late 18th century and the Islamic clergy made sure that Persia remained a fragile, chaotic entity bound to be annexed one day by the Russian Empire.
The First World War brought foreign troops into Persia, which was plagued by famine. At the end of the war Persia was on the brink to be occupied by the Communist Russians from the north.
Then things changed radically.
Reza Khan, a Persian officer of the Russian-led Cossack Division, staged in 1921 a coup against the weak Government to save the country from the Communists and the British treaty that would have made Persia a British semi-colony. However it is to assume that initially the Brits also favored Reza Khans coup, because after WW1 they didn't have the time and money to care about Persia. So a new good ruler who could stabilize Persia made sense.
The time from 1921-26 is the time in which Reza Khan was first War Minister then Prime Minister, formally still under the childish Qajar shah. In this period Reza Khan created a strong Army to stabilize the country against Russian Communists and tribal rebellions.
Because of his success he rose steadily in power until 1924, where the Qajar shah left Iran for Europe. Reza Khan was a Western minded, brilliant strategist, and tried to make Persia a Republic (like Turkey became) with him as President. Now comes History's perverse irony: The Islamic clergy under Ayatollah Modaress and the Parliamentarian Mossadegh (of Qajar blood) were outraged and feared that a Republic would destroy Islam and the traditional power. They agitated violently against the idea of a Republic. Ironically those two forces were later the ones that cried for a Republic.
Prime Minister Reza Khan recognized that it would be better if he doesn't change the system, but the players. So he agreed the Parliaments plea that he becomes the new Emperor (Shahanshah). So in 1926 Reza Khan was crowned to be Reza Shah Pahlavi. Pahlavi ("heroic") was the name he gave his new Dynasty.
To summarize the following 16 years of Reza Shah I. rule:
He was an authoritarian, who ruled increasingly dictatorically over Iran, although the system was a constitutional Monarchy. The Parliament was a rubber-stamp. But I'm not saying that this was a bad thing. a)it was typical of the time, and b)it was the only way to reform Iran.
Reza Shah was an enemy of Islam. He knew that Islam was a foreign (Arabic) religion forced on Persians. He fought the Islamic clergy, which enslaved Persia for centuries. Radical Mullahs and Islamists were thrown into prison and often put against a wall. Reza Shah wanted to restore the glory of pre-Islamic Iran while at the same time making Iran a Western country. He secularized Iran, prohibited the veil and all other tribal and islamic dresses. He destroyed largely the Sharia (Islamic law) and replaced it with Western laws. Women and minorities enjoyed civil rights, denied to them long by Islam. Reza Shah was also a staunch anti-Communist and walled off the Soviets. He radically modernized the Industry, Cities, Infrastructure and especially the Military of Iran. He set up fantastic bridges, railways, factories and roads with European and American companies. All in all his rule marked the transition Iran's from oriental mud-hole into a Western-inspired, modernized nation state.
However in late 1941, the Soviets and Brits decided to invade Iran to depose Reza Shah. This was due to the growing economical ties between Iran and Germany. Reza Shah, while a dictator, however was NOT a pro-Nazi as it afterwards was often portrayed. He was interested in keeping Iran neutral and therefore maintained the presence of German specialists. But indeed many of them were German agents. German in 1941/42 also was indeed close to the Caucasus and could enter Iran at any time. So when the Anglo-Soviet armies rolled into Iran, Reza Shah quickly ordered a ceasefire and went into Exile (South Africa) in favor of his Son Mohammed Reza Shah. Mohammed Reza Shah was the last Shah of Iran, until he was overthrown in 1979.
how was he a good guy
The Shah (short for Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi) was a good guy for several reasons. At the beginning (1941-53) he was a pro-democratic minded, constitutional regent with few real power.
The Soviets, the Brits and USA had troops in Iran during World War 2, two ensure the flow of war material from America to Russia through Iran. The Shah's rule (who joined the Allied in 1943) made sure that there was internal stability, so the Allies could strengthen the Russians in the fight against Hitler.
1945-46, however while the Brits and US left Iran as promised, the Soviets stayed and installed communist regimes in north Iran. Iran was again at the brink of being made a communist puppet. The Shah however with the help of America (who at this time was the sole nuclear power) forced out the Soviets and his Army crushed the Communist puppet regimes in Iran.
Therefore in the following decades of the Cold War, the Shah was an important ally against the Soviets. Iran's oil was of strategic importance.
But then in 1953 Prime Minister Mossadegh with communist and islamist help tried to topple the Shah and nationalize the oil. Mossadegh was a irrational nutjob. A total fool and clown, far from the "national democratic hero" he is made by many today.
The CIA and the Iranian Army hand-in-hand staged a coup against Mossadegh and re-established the Monarchy in 1953. This time the Shah had to solidify his power, least Iran was lost to Communism. With US-Israeli help the SAVAK secret service was established to keep Commies and Islamists at bay. They were brutal folks, but I think we agree that this was necessairy against Commie Terrorists and Islamists, as it is today. So until the mid 1960's the Shah stabilized Iran and was a strategic ally of USA and the West and modernized the country. 1963 he initiated the "White Revolution", which were agrarian, economic and educational reforms. Woman were made fully equal to men! Schools and Hospitals set up in rural areas. Feudalism was abolished and land distributed to farmers. International investors were flocking to Iran. Iran became immensely wealthy (both the country and the Shah himself). The Shah became the "Guardian of the Middle East". His up-to date Army made sure that the Arabs and Soviets were under check, and the oil flowed freely to the West.
What I don’t quite understand is how the Shah.... a)got booted out of Iran
But his reforms and increasingly dictatorical rule angered the Communists, the Islamic clergy, "liberal" students who wanted no Monarchy, and also merchant guilds and a lot of poor people who didn't see the benefits of the Shah's reforms. So in late 1978/79 the protests increased and spiralled out of control. A lot of Iranians were in a craze and seeing the current deficiencies of the Shah rule, they supported a Revolution to establish a Republic. In the beginning the Islamists and Commies cooperated against the Shah. But after the Revolution, the Islamists seized all the Power and killed off their Communist partners. So in 1980 Iran was transformed violently into the "Islamic Republic" under the tyranny of Ayatollah Khomeini.
b)how Carter helped it happen
Carter established a ridiculous policy of "allying only with countries that have the same human rights record as we do". He embarrassed and cut support to important allies like Iran because the Shah's police services were fighting brutally against terrorists and revolutionaries. Carter and Brezisnky urged the Shah to leave Iran, so a "progressive" Revolution can take place. The Shah, who had cancer had to leave Iran (along with hundred-thousands of Iranians). He sought refuge in the USA. Carter denied him entrance. The cancer-afflicted Shah, our ally for four decades, was humiliated and left in the cold by Carter. However in the last moments of the Shah, he was finally allowed to enter America for cancer treatment, until he died shortly after. Under Carter America simply cut support to the Shah, and pressured him not to stop the revolution. In the run-up time Carter stopped also the payments the Shah made to bribe many clerics, so they won't agitate against him. Carter and Brezinski also were the initiators of the foolishly dangerous idea of a "Islamic belt" against the Soviets. They wanted Iran and Afghanistan to become Islamist so this religious belt would be a wall against the Soviets. This policy as we know gave rise to Al-Qaeda and the Mullahs in Iran. Carter called the Ayatollah Khomeini a "godly man" and did nothing to stop his seizure of power. His bungled and incompetent handling of the Hostage crisis also embarrassed America and gave key propagandistic victories to the Revolutionaries.
So in 1979 three disasters happened on Carter's watch in the Middle East:
-Revolution in Iran
-Soviets invade Afghanistan (Carter said that America can't do sh*t, so the Soviets gladly invaded. Of course after some years they got their rears kicked by the Afghans.)
-Saddam grabbed total power in Iraq
This was the beginning of the terrorist era (Al-Qaeda, Saddam, Iranian terrorism, Hezbullah etc.)! 1979 is a gloomy milestone in history. Most of todays conflicts went decidedly to the negative in this year. Carter had a role in this play... and he will pay for it one day. Maybe not in this world... but certainly in the one to follow.