Hey Everyone,
I started working on the beginnings of an Iranian centered time line a few weeks ago. The basic premise is that the 1953 Iranian coup d'etat that put the Shah back into power and in the process removed Mohammad Mossadegh, the popularly elected Prime Minister, and lead to the death of Iranian democracy, never occurs. I only have a bit written, so I'll post up what I have and see if there's any interest in it. Criticisms would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
A Man of His Times, A Man For His Times: Mohammad Mossadegh and the Making of Iranian Democracy
Prologue-
There are some men who are born to lead; kings and emperors, despots and directorates, chiefs and clerics. These are the ones who we can point to and say, “That one, he’s destined for greatness,” or, “He’ll be great once he inherits the leadership of the nation.” And then there are those who we never suspect, men whose personal qualities and whose dreams are those that the nation can follow and can be inspired by. Mohammad Mossadegh, former Prime Minister of Iran, is one of those select few.
Under PM Mossadegh, Iran began its first tentative steps into the modern world. Through his vision of a secular, modern, democratic Iran, and through his close personal friendships with Presidents Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy, Mossadegh inspired the Iranian people to reach out towards the future, towards greatness. Were it not for Mossadegh and his inspirational messages of democracy and modernization, who knows what Iran would have turned into? Though few know of it, there were plans in place at the start of the Eisenhower Administration to launch a coup d’etat to remove Mossadegh and put Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi back in power with a general, Fazlollah Zahedi, replacing Mossadegh. Thankfully, these plans came to nothing following Mossadegh’s face-to-face meeting with President Eisenhower in early 1952.
Mossadegh did much more than become the guiding force behind Iranian democracy and modernization. He became an inspirational figure to tens of millions in developing nations and the voice of the Third World. Through his nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and the negotiated reimbursement of the British government and Anglo-Iranian for their losses suffered in the nationalization, Mossadegh secured legitimacy for himself, his government, and his people. In the two decades after, Mossadegh and those that followed him as Prime Minister would use the oil profits to build roads, schools, hospitals, and fund moderate Islamic clerics who would counteract the growing influences of radicals and the forces of fundamentalism in the Islamic community.
Under Mossadegh, Iran was transformed from a backwards, underdeveloped Middle East oil exporter into a modern, developed, westernized Middle East democracy. In the five decades since then, Iran, with help from their long standing allies in the United States and Western Europe, has become the beacon for democracy, personal liberty, and freedom in an area of the world that was traditionally known for the complete opposite. During the Cold War, Iran served as the middle section of America’s “West-Middle-East” strategy of stationing fighters, bombers and ballistic missiles in Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan to counter the Soviet Union. At the same time, Iran and its leaders fostered the infant Pakistani democracy, gave support to the secular Turkish government, spurred on democratic revolts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Jordan, and served as an effective counter to Gamal Abdel Nasser’s pan-Arab, fascist autocracy in Egypt and later the United Arab Republic with Syria.
Though Mossadegh’s dream of a democratic Middle East eluded him in life, his vision of Middle East democracy that balances secular western-style elections and government with traditional Muslim values lives on. Though reforms have swept through most of the Middle East, the most recent example of which was the successful Lebanese Cedar Revolution, democracy has yet to come to places like Saudi Arabia, Yemen, or Somalia.
I started working on the beginnings of an Iranian centered time line a few weeks ago. The basic premise is that the 1953 Iranian coup d'etat that put the Shah back into power and in the process removed Mohammad Mossadegh, the popularly elected Prime Minister, and lead to the death of Iranian democracy, never occurs. I only have a bit written, so I'll post up what I have and see if there's any interest in it. Criticisms would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
A Man of His Times, A Man For His Times: Mohammad Mossadegh and the Making of Iranian Democracy
Prologue-
There are some men who are born to lead; kings and emperors, despots and directorates, chiefs and clerics. These are the ones who we can point to and say, “That one, he’s destined for greatness,” or, “He’ll be great once he inherits the leadership of the nation.” And then there are those who we never suspect, men whose personal qualities and whose dreams are those that the nation can follow and can be inspired by. Mohammad Mossadegh, former Prime Minister of Iran, is one of those select few.
Under PM Mossadegh, Iran began its first tentative steps into the modern world. Through his vision of a secular, modern, democratic Iran, and through his close personal friendships with Presidents Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy, Mossadegh inspired the Iranian people to reach out towards the future, towards greatness. Were it not for Mossadegh and his inspirational messages of democracy and modernization, who knows what Iran would have turned into? Though few know of it, there were plans in place at the start of the Eisenhower Administration to launch a coup d’etat to remove Mossadegh and put Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi back in power with a general, Fazlollah Zahedi, replacing Mossadegh. Thankfully, these plans came to nothing following Mossadegh’s face-to-face meeting with President Eisenhower in early 1952.
Mossadegh did much more than become the guiding force behind Iranian democracy and modernization. He became an inspirational figure to tens of millions in developing nations and the voice of the Third World. Through his nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and the negotiated reimbursement of the British government and Anglo-Iranian for their losses suffered in the nationalization, Mossadegh secured legitimacy for himself, his government, and his people. In the two decades after, Mossadegh and those that followed him as Prime Minister would use the oil profits to build roads, schools, hospitals, and fund moderate Islamic clerics who would counteract the growing influences of radicals and the forces of fundamentalism in the Islamic community.
Under Mossadegh, Iran was transformed from a backwards, underdeveloped Middle East oil exporter into a modern, developed, westernized Middle East democracy. In the five decades since then, Iran, with help from their long standing allies in the United States and Western Europe, has become the beacon for democracy, personal liberty, and freedom in an area of the world that was traditionally known for the complete opposite. During the Cold War, Iran served as the middle section of America’s “West-Middle-East” strategy of stationing fighters, bombers and ballistic missiles in Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan to counter the Soviet Union. At the same time, Iran and its leaders fostered the infant Pakistani democracy, gave support to the secular Turkish government, spurred on democratic revolts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Jordan, and served as an effective counter to Gamal Abdel Nasser’s pan-Arab, fascist autocracy in Egypt and later the United Arab Republic with Syria.
Though Mossadegh’s dream of a democratic Middle East eluded him in life, his vision of Middle East democracy that balances secular western-style elections and government with traditional Muslim values lives on. Though reforms have swept through most of the Middle East, the most recent example of which was the successful Lebanese Cedar Revolution, democracy has yet to come to places like Saudi Arabia, Yemen, or Somalia.