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Sorry if my blanket statement seemed inclusive. We can pick this up on some future 'the shah was great' thread - one should be along any day.
In the mean time - Merry Christmas.
btw...I never mentioned Franco or Spain so let's wait until I do before jumping to conclusions about my thoughts on that.
In media stat virtus. The Great Game really never changes. The Czars wanted to control Iran, The British wanted to control Iran, the Soviets (oddly enough) came close to fulfilling the Czar's wishes, but we and the British thwarted them (we're rather new at the game, but not bad players!) installing our puppet and kicking out the Kremlin's.
In general, peoples around the world seem to fare somewhat better under our homies, than they have under the Soviets' stooges. Look no farther than Cuba, or VietNam for that matter to illustrate that point ... not to mention Chile, which like it or not, was at least temporarily saved from being another Cuba by Pinochet.
The British, by the way, also wanted Saudi oil, arranging for the House of Saud to take over the whole Arabian peninsula. But our team was aided and abetted by English arabist, St.John Philby, father of the notorious Kim, who worked against British interests. Our oil people also went 50-50 with the Saudis, whereas BP went 90-10, their way, with the Iranians ... which was Mossadegh's excuse for wishing to turn the place into a COMBLOC satellite, which of course would have eventually netted them "0"!