The Shah was in power from 1941 to 1979. He was briefly removed from power by Mosaddegh, but a coup organized by the US and the UK returned him to power.
Yes, the Shah was not a "strongman," but SAVAK was quite capable of controlling and taking out any political opposition. There was certainly fear among the political opposition. It was the US led by Carter and Vance that warned the Shah not to use force against the political opposition. The Shah followed that "advice" until it was too late. Brzezinski advised the Shah belatedly to unleash SAVAK, but by that time, it was too little, too late. The Shah was hamstrung by conflicting advice from Vance and Brzezinski.
It is only conjecture, but if the Shah had opted to ignore the US and use SAVAK to eliminate the opposition, the Iranian Revolution may never have got off the ground. They could have assassinate Khomeini in France.
During the final days, the Shah used to summon often Ambassador Sullivan in the middle of the night seeking counsel on what to do. The conflicting advice out of Washington made things much worse. And the treatment of the Shah after he left Iran by the US was a disgrace. It was just another example of the US abandoning an ally when it became expedient to do so. It happened in Vietnam and Egypt and to some extent in Libya. Protecting American national interests should be the primary goal of our foreign policy, not some ambiguous human rights campaign that is directed against our allies.
Iran is far worse off today than it was under the Shah. And we are living with the world's biggest sponsor of terrorism and future nuclear power because of bad decisions by Carter and his foreign policy team.
You left the part out where Nixon withdrew any US internal collection in Iran. All “intel’ on conditions in Iran would come through SAVAK.I think it was part of a deal for the purchase of F14s. So with SAVAK controlling the USA “window” into Iran, its no wonder that the US was caught with its pants down when things went “squirrelly” there. Now yes there was “other reporting” outside official collection channels that said things are not good. “Official Washington” pretty much ignored those! Of course at the “end game” having Jumping Jimmy sitting in the place ‘where the buck stops” was icing on the cake!
I remember one of the “outside” channel reports pointed out that our 50,000 personnel footprint (I think I remember the number right. I know it was a number that shocked me in its size!) was very irritating to the common Iranian. It made the propaganda of an “American Colony” look true! So if Iran ever comes back to normal lets remember that!
Regarding SAVAK, SAVAK was certainly not worse then Iraqi secret police or the Syrian, or the Turkish, or the Egyptian! Go be a dissident in Jordan and see if you get thrown roses!
They were rather typical for any Mideast despot.
The reason its “popular” to think of them as “super bad” is because of the 1970s demonstrating Iranian students & and our lazy “disinterested in the facts” western media and delusional literati.
The West is not the East or Mideast and vice versa!
Too many people believed 7 still believe that stupid Coca-Cola commercial! The one where all join hands and sing, “I’d like to teach the world to sing...etc”, etc. Every time I saw that commercial I would think , ‘and these people vote!’.
Whenever you have Dems in charge the weakness they project is an open invitation to bad people to advance their agendas. Every foreign disaster can be traced to weakness rather than strength which they respect.