Summary and overview of ALL THE SHAH’S MEN Book (Iranian coup d’état) | Stephen Kinzer book

Summary or Essay of ALL THE SHAHS MEN:

This book was written by Stephen Kinzer. He has won a prize on foreign communicator who has been working in more than sixty countries. He has worked in Berlin and has published many books that were related to Iran and the Middle East region. This book discusses the Iranian coup d’état which occurred in the year 195. The coup backed by US intelligence agency in which the prime minister of Iran Mohammad Mossadegh was overthrown by Islamists supported by American and British agents. The important thing is that the author does not seem to look pro-American. He presented the facts according to his knowledge.

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Iran like other Middle East countries is a hub of oil and gas reserves. The western world was always keen to realise their interest at the expense of others. In 1933, Reza Shah contracted a deal in the oil abstraction rights of Iran to the Anglo-Persian Oil Company that was later known as BP (British Petroleum). Iran was almost neutral in the Second World War, but Reza Shah was inclined towards Axis based on his friendship. Such things led to the indirect inclusion of Iran in the World War. In 1941, due to the Allied invasion of Iran, the monarchist Reza Shah was compelled to hand over all the powers to his son Muhammad Reza Shah. This happened due to the backing of West super powers, and as a result, Reza Shah decided to uphold the agreements with APOC (Anglo-Persian Oil Company). Later on, it was named Anglo-Iran Oil Company.
Iran had never seen democracy until the mid of the twentieth century. In 1951 the first ever democratic elections held in Iran. People from all around the country strongly participated in the elections. As a result, Muhammad Mossadegh was elected as the prime minister of Iran. He is still the second most famous and loved the personality of Iran. The man was a strong advocate of free and sovereign Iran. He had the opinion that Iran must be free from all foreign influences. He wanted to run the government on his people’s power. He was against the western involvement in the internal affairs of the country. Many policies were introduced by the government in this regard. So the new government decided to seize all the oil assets built by the British. They cancelled all the contracts made with British company BP. They told them there would not be any further contracts with the company. This created major issues for the British government. They lacked oil supplies which were previously extracted from the Iranian reserves.

Great Britain decides to fight against this government legally. The British government filed a case against Mossadegh’s government in Belgium’s International Court. The case proceeded for a long time, and finally, they lost it against the new government of Iran. It created more irritation in British camps, and they started using different tactics to pressurise Iran government. They started creating problems for Iran at each international forum. They blockaded the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf. They also put restrictions on Iran’s international trade and tried to create problems for the economy. This resulted in a massive crisis in Iran. The government faced many issues during that time. The economy of the country started declining speedily.
Iran’s prime minister was not a problem for the British only. He was a constant headache for the United States too. America was concerned about the government’s international relations. America was worried because Iran’s prime minister was seeking help from the regional superpower Soviet Union in fighting the case against the British government. Soviet also had always been a threat to the United States of America. It created a sense of fear in United States’ government. So Iran had become a mutual problem for both USA and Great Britain. Which led towards the planning of a cure which would be suitable for both United States and the Great Britain. In this regard, Dwight D Administration had a deal with the American President Winston Churchill that they will bring back the pro-western government of Reza Shah. They presented their detailed plan and proposed that by doing so, they will again convert the circumstances into their interests.

After two years of Mossadegh’s government, United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the British intelligence agency MI6 planned a coup in the federal capital of Iran, Tehran. In 1953’s summers, the first ever elected prime minister of Iran Muhammad Mossadegh was overthrown as a result of a US-British coup. Many supporters of the elected prime minister fought for him but all in vain. It created a complete chaos in the country. People were killed and jailed.  They did not just overthrow him, but Mossadegh was sentenced to spend the rest of his life under house arrest in his country.

Then according to the plan, Reza Shah again became the ruler. This pro-west Iran’s government led by Reza Shah spent almost two decades without any interruption inside the country. The British and USA utilised the resources the maximum hey could. They used the oil and gas reserves of ran. The economic restrictions were cancelled, to make people of ran a bit satisfied and relieved. Iran’s government was openly following USA’s policies. The King was nothing but a puppet playing in the hands of West. The sovereignty of Iran had been completely breached. The people were looking for radical changes. Reza Shah did not face major problem for many years, but after almost 20 years, Iran witnessed a bloody revolution. The movement was led by the most famous personality of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei. In 1979. Iran emerged as the Islamic Republic, the one it is today. A huge number of activists lost their lives fighting against their army. USA and Britain tried their best to suppress the movement, but finally, it resulted in a big revolution. The people became aware of their rights. They fought against the foreign intervention. They started building a sovereign nation. The western influence was strongly opposed by Khamenei and his follower. Khamenei was a charismatic personality and a great leader. He influenced his people so well that they strayed following him as he was they, messiah.

The book tells about the early 1950s US policy about Iran. The policy was frequently driven by the fear of irritating the British government or trying to be a sincere and honest agent, or as being encouraged by the struggle to halt communism. At the end of the book, the author tells that US Companies were enjoying much more benefit than the British government after the coup. They were granted a lot of oil contracts by the government of Iran. Shah was more inclined towards the USA than Great Britain. As a tactic conclusion of this book, this is considered the main reason for this coup. A famous British critic David Pryce-Jones takes this issue with the end in his essay “A very elegant coup”. According to him, the main issue was the attempted communist takeover. The image of Central Intelligence Agency in the eyes of Kinzer as immoral, haughty and thuggish was factually a notion adopted by the people who tended to sympathise with this attempt. A lot of people have the opinion that the West particularly America gained nothing but hatred by the Iranians. The Americans ask today that, why do Iranians hate us? The author presented a fair view of the situations America led Iran into.

The coup resulted in the anger of the local people. They started seeing America as a more hateful country. Their sovereignty was compromised. So when Iran saw Islamic revolution, they became strong. Their policies being strong against West and Israel. Till now Iran deals with West strong handily. They Leader Ayatollah Khamenei led Iran towards more constructive approach against the United States and Great Britain. The people of Iran now better understand their rights than before. The British wanted to claim more source of Iran than before. They suppressed Iranians, so they may enjoy their won interested, which led towards this problem. They did not care about the sovereignty of Iran and its people. The coup resulted in the destabilising of the whole Middle East region. Many other countries got affected. The United States felt more powerful that it has overthrown an elected government of Iran, so it invaded in other countries like Iraq and Afghanistan. They bombed Iraq for a long period. Iraq faced severe human and food crisis. The United States had started invading in the internal matters of many countries. All this happened due to its first attempt of invading Iran which was successful.

This book cannot be read like a page-turning novel, and it deals with the hard issues of today.  American and British readers of today should blush with disgrace. It was very easy to look that many Iranians endure accepting the involvement by America in the affairs that was internal. Statement of Albright did not look to make the news that was big during the period. Some of the evidence in Stephen Kinzer All the Shah’s Men: is known as it at first glance that seems unlikely. Many of the events seem to be public.

Other documents from the journals and biographies and the CIA history of service it seems very truthful. Other things like Americans overthrowing the democratically elected leaders of Iran seem to make the news such as holding the hostage of Americas 25 years later. The story of Kinzer, in a nutshell, depicts that many rulers of Persia have oppressed the people of Persia. By 20^th century Britain owned the oil of Anglo-Iranian Company that have given the expense to Iran and kept the workers of Iran in the conditions that were miserable. Britain failed to merge with Iran for the arrangement that was done fairly. Elected as the pro-independence that was very popular in reply to the courting of Shah Mohammad Mossadegh who was the prime minister of Iran and the oil company was nationalised appealing that the company of oil in Iran was the national feature. Britain still failed to merge and as an alternative implied the action of the military. Mossadegh disqualified the diplomats of Britain, so they influenced the Americans who have a fear of the Soviets to phase the coup in their home. The CIA was effective through the meetings of secret and the payments that overthrown Mossadegh as the prime minister and transported back the Mohammad Reza Shah as the monarch. Shah was sustained by America but was treated leading towards the revolution in the year 1979 along with the taking of hostage at the embassy of America.