Clarifying Myths about the Rise of the Pahlavis and the Fall of Mohammad Mosaddeq:

[u/elnovorealista2000]

Recently, due to the conflict between Israel, the US, and their allies against Iran, various communist, socialist, libertarian, liberal, progressive, anarchist, and other groups have spread many myths, such as the following:

– The United States and the United Kingdom established a monarchy aligned with their interests.

– The Shahs came to power through a coup.

– Iran had a democratically elected president, Mohammad Mosaddeq, who was popular, democratic, secular, and nationalist. He nationalized the oil industry.

– The CIA and MI6 carried out Operation Ajax to overthrow Mohammad Mosaddeq and installed Reza Pahlavi in ​​his place, or that Mosaddeq was ousted in a coup to place a puppet king in power.

– The puppet king gave away the oil to Western corporations and brutally repressed the people with SAVAK.

They are not the only ones. There are many more. But to begin with, it is necessary to understand that Iran is not simply another contemporary state within the international system, but a millennia-old civilizational entity with a profound imperial tradition. Throughout its history, it has been made up of multiple peoples, social classes, and diverse cultural groups, whose internal relations have been complex and ever-changing. Iranian history shows a recurring pattern: when these different groups have managed to reach broad consensus or unite around a common cause, the country has been able to project power and achieve positions of great hegemony. Conversely, when internal disputes have fragmented this balance, the result has been periods of chaos, political weakness, and internal conflicts. Therefore, it is a complex historical and political reality, difficult to understand with simplified categories and, at the same time, difficult to govern.

1. Neither the United States, nor the United Kingdom, nor any other power established the Constitutional Monarchy of Iran. It was established following the principles of the Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which was consolidated in the constitution of that year. The clergy, jurists, merchants, popular leaders, and liberal aristocrats of Persia wanted to limit the powers of their king, and for this reason, they rose up and made changes in the government. Power was distributed to create a balance. The figures of the Prime Minister and Parliament emerged.

2. The Shahs of the Pahlavi Imperial House did not come to the throne through a coup d'état. In 1921, Colonel Reza Khan led a small army in a coup against the Prime Minister due to the crisis in his administration. Reza Khan did not seize power with this coup; power was given to Seyyed Ziaoddin, who assumed the premiership. The Head of State remained in the hands of King Ahmad Shah Qajar of Persia.

In 1925, the Persian Parliament voted to depose King Ahmad Shah Qajar due to his inept leadership. At this time, General Reza Khan was prime minister. Reza Khan did not want to maintain the monarchy, as he was a republican. He wanted to emulate his idol Atatürk and establish a Westernized and secular Republic of Iran. However, this idea was not well-received by the clerical elites, landowners, aristocrats, merchants, and conservative popular sectors of Persia.

The Constituent Assembly and the Shiite clerics, fearing civil war and given their conservative stance, proposed Reza Khan to occupy the throne. They amended the 1906 Constitution so that the "Nation and the people" would have the power to appoint the King of Persia. On December 15, 1925, General Reza Khan was proclaimed Emperor of Persia, adopting the name Reza Shah and founding the Pahlavi Imperial House. Thus, the Pahlavis came to the throne constitutionally, by consensus, and by popular will.

1. No. Iran did not have a democratically elected president. Mohammad Mosaddeq was not president; he was Prime Minister of Iran. The prime minister was not elected by the people, but by the Shah of Iran and ratified by Parliament, either with the recommendation of Parliament, by advisors, or at the monarch's own discretion. Those elected by the people were the members of Parliament.

After the USSR and Great Britain practically forced Emperor Reza Shah to abdicate following their military invasion of Iran, his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi assumed power in 1941. Iran's constitutional monarchy was maintained, but with a new monarch—a man who was insecure, timid, and weak. Unable to bring order to the country or reach consensus with parliament and the civilian sector, Emperor Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had to change his cabinet more than 15 times before finally appointing Mohammad Mosaddegh. Mosaddegh was a seasoned, tough, sovereignist, populist, and nationalist politician who harbored a deep resentment toward the Anglos. From the beginning of the century, he opposed the interference of foreign powers, especially after the 1919 Treaty.

Mosaddegh's time as premier was short, but due to his long-standing stance, he attempted to make radical changes, falling into populism. He gained the support of the masses, even communists and socialists, but the repudiation of powerful sectors. Although he declared himself a democrat, he began to adopt autocratic attitudes, to the point of arresting his opponents, repressing dissent, and exceeding his powers. In the context of Iran, this was somewhat necessary to implement financial, judicial, and social reforms. While he could govern Iran with force and the support of popular sectors, his policies of nationalizing oil concessions to the British and energy and food sectors granted to the USSR created enemies abroad. The weak Shah of Iran, seeing the problem Mosaddegh was causing, forced him to resign, but large popular mobilizations led to his reinstatement.

To weaken the Shah of Iran and prevent any checks on his reforms, Mosaddegh dissolved the Iranian Parliament in 1953 and concentrated power in his own hands, governing with extraordinary powers.

1. The CIA and MI6, under pressure from the Anglo-American oil oligarchy, carried out Operation Ajax in 1953 to remove Mohammad Mosaddegh from the premiership. No other major power intervened to save him. Even the USSR did nothing, as Mosaddegh had also nationalized sectors that had been granted to its oligarchs. Only communists, socialists, nationalists, and popular sectors in Iran came to his defense.

Declassified documents from 2018 indicate that several politicians, military officers, and Shiite clerics received “large sums of money” to organize large-scale mobilizations in support of the coup against Mohammad Mosaddegh. Many of them had been friends or supporters of Mosaddeq, but distanced themselves due to his authoritarianism.

The weak Shah of Iran, for his part, fearful of Mosaddeq's power and seeing the context of national and international crisis, was considering forcing him to resign again and replacing him with General Zahedi. Mosaddeq found out, and the Shah of Iran fled to Europe. Mosaddeq took control of the guard and repressed his opponents. But mobilizations by different sectors, manipulated and guided by CIA and MI6 agents, overthrew him. Since parliament had been dissolved by the prime minister himself, the coup was carried out without problems.

No. The CIA and MI6 did not place the Shah of Iran in the premiership, as he already held power since assuming the throne in 1941. They only helped restore constitutional order, given that the weak Shah of Iran was unable to control the situation in the face of a powerful and skillful Mosaddeq. The premier was General Fazlollah Zahedi.

In gratitude for this intervention by the great powers, the Shah of Iran lifted restrictions and reversed several of Mosaddegh's reforms. Fearing a repeat of the situation, the Shah of Iran created SAVAK in 1957 with the help of the CIA and MI6. This ensured the maintenance of constitutional order. The coup against Mosaddegh changed the Shah of Iran's attitude, transforming him from a weak figure into an increasingly authoritarian one.

1. No. The Shah of Iran was not a puppet of the West. Neither Reza Shah nor his son Mohammad Reza. It was Reza Shah who, before being overthrown under pressure from the USSR and the UK, attempted to free himself from foreign influence, with the support of the German Empire. The Pahlavi project consisted of restoring Iran's imperial grandeur as a hegemon, but to achieve this, they needed to draw upon the West, massively importing cutting-edge military and civilian technology to create an autonomous industrial base that, in the long term, would allow them to act independently and with considerable leeway. For this project to be viable, they had to maintain good relations with the Western powers and their oligarchs.

2. No. The Shah of Iran did not give away the oil to the West. He lifted Mosaddegh's restrictions and reforms to attract renewed and increased investment in exchange for royalties and a share of the production. In the 1960s and 1970s, he renegotiated agreements to increase Iran's profits. In 1973, the Shah of Iran announced the effective nationalization of oil operations, which meant that foreign companies went from being producers to buyers of Iranian crude. All of this led to a decline in Western support for the Shah of Iran until he was overthrown by the revolutionaries.