Setting Reagan straight on America’s Role in Iran

By Masoud Kazemzadeh

“The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.”

George Orwell, “Notes on Nationalism” 1945.

I was amazed by President Reagan’s remark s on Iran in the “debate.”  I couldn’t believe my ears when he said that the Shah was not that unpopular and that he had done some good for the Iranian people.

Let’s see what the facts are:  In 1953, after losing a referendum and leaving the country, the Shah was re-imposed upon the Iranian people by force of arms.  The main architect of the coup were the CIA, the British Secret Service, monarchist sections of the Army and members of the right-wing clergies, such as Ayatollah Kashani.

The CIA coup overthrew the liberal prime minister, destroyed the Constitution and smashed the post-war lukewarm democracy in Iran.  The Shah maintained control through torture, execution and naked genocide for the next 25 years.  His secret police, SAVAK, was established, trained and equipped by the CIA.  The reforms cited by President Reagan were forced upon the Shah (by President Kennedy) which he reluctantly and only partially carried out.  The reactionary part of the clergy, under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini, resisted these reforms.

As the 1977-79 events illustrated, the overwhelming majority of Iranians deeply resented and hated the Shah.  Two-and-a-half decades of oppression, darkness and ignorance led millions of Iranians to believe that the only alternative at the time, that of Khomeini, was utter utopia.  It took less than five months of Khomeini’s government to shatter all illusions which illuminated the diabolic nature of his regime.

President Reagan was categorically wrong when he asserted that the Carter administration was responsible for “abandoning” the “faithful ally of years.”  In fact, President Carter did everything possible, short of sending the Marines, to save the Shah.  To the very last second, the U.S. administration gave verbal, moral and material support to his regime.

For example, when oil workers went on strike, President Carter supplied gas (paid for by American taxpayers) to the Shah’s army and sent millions of dollars worth of anti-riot gear to the Shah.  In fact, the Shah didn’t use a penny of his own vast wealth to save his throne, but Mr. Carter used the U.S. Treasury to pay for the Shah’s mistakes, mismanagement and corruption.
 

There are several schools of thought on the U.S. role in Iran.  Many pro-Shah fascists in Iran, blame the British for the conspiracy to put their man (Khomeini) in power.  Some ultra-left Iranians share President Reagan’s view that the Carter administration was responsible for Khomeini coming to power.  They argue that when the CIA discovered that the revolution was becoming more radical every day, they decided to get rid of the Shah and replace him with the most conservative element within the opposition.

Iranian liberals hold the opposite view.  They argue that the Carter administration supported the Shah for too long, making a moderate compromise obsolete.  They blame President Carter for being totally silent on human rights violations in Iran, and for supporting the Shah to the end.

I believe that each of these groups have some truths to their claim.  If President Carter would have abandoned the Shah one or more years earlier, there is no doubt Iranian liberals would have captured power.  By allowing the Shah to fall without a civil war or introduction of U.S. military forces, the U.S. denied leadership to the Iranian left-wing, which was the only group capable of armed struggle.

Knowing the scope of opposition, the intensity of hatred toward the Shah, the readiness for insurrectionary action, the actual disintegration of the army, if President Carter would have done what President Reagan suggested, we would have a communist Iran today.  It is to Mr. Carter’s credit that instead we have a conservative, fundamentalist, right-wing  government in Iran.

A final note: it was America that supported thugs who tortured, raped, and killed thousands of innocent Iranians.  The fact that Ayatollah Khomeini’s regime commits the same atrocities and even worse by no means reduces the guilt and shame of U.S. foreign policy.  President Reagan not only doesn’t disapprove of atrocities by his own side but he has an amazing capacity not to hear or know about them.

Masoud Kazemzadeh is a graduate student majoring in political science.

Source: Daily Trojan, October 31, 1984. P. 4.  A publication of the University of Southern California.

Copyright Masoud Kazemzadeh