Answer to History

212 Pages·1979·25.54 MB·English

by  Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

7023420
955
ML
M72a
Mohammad Reza Shah,
Shah of Iran
Answer to history
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Digitized by the Internet Archive
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http://archive.org/details/answertohistoryOOmoha
Somebooksofhistorybecomepartofhistory;
somebooksofcurrenteventsarethemselvescur-
rentevents.Thisbookisboth.
The final draft of Answer to History was
completedby theShahjustdaysbeforehedied
on July 27, 1980. Completing it was, in the
Shah's words, "a race against time." In it, he
shows how the United States, once the most
powerfulcountryonearth,founditselfhostage
to the whims of Iran, a land few Americans
knewmuchabout.Intellinghisownstory,the
Sbahtathlesgrhoouwnsd cbleetawrleyenthtahte IUr.aSn. ahnasd tbheecoSomveieat •I-L—<jitlytJ^V
Union, which for over half a century has
pursueditsgoalswithincreasingsuccess.Inthe
"slideintochaos"precipitatedbytheKhomeini
regime, the Shah saw the ultimate beneficiary
beingtheU.S.S.R.,whichwillreachtheapogee
ofitsstrengthnolaterthan 1983,withtheWest Tj ^7
facing"adecadeofharrowingdanger."
Answer to History begins with what really J_\^ J_
happenedduring the Shah's periodofexile in
the Bahamas, Mexico, the U.S., Panama, and
finally Egypt. It goes on to cover all of the
momentous experiences of the Shah's reign, a
bpviroliolskaeisnfusflolrreoaftlhlhyeerwAoemereseraainncddanvairlrel.eaaindse,rwaisthtomawnhyo^stuhr^-e =^^^.^^^q£^^He^^de^velrodpamdeonntss
with American presidents from Roosevelt to
Carter;leaderssuchasChurchill,DeGaulle,and
Tito; and strategists such as Henry Kissinger.
He deals with SAVAK and the CIA's rolein
helpingtotrainitsagents,andwiththedouble
standardoftheWest,whosehumanrightsadvo-
cateswerecriticalofsomeofthepracticesofhis
regime, butare silent about thereign of terror
that succeeded him. The Shah shows how the
—
interplay between the Black and the Red the
14th-century clergy and the Tudeh Party loyal
to theSoviets—blockedfortheirownpurposes
his proudest achievements: the White Revolu-
tioninwhichtheShahintroducedlandreform,
worked toward the liberation of women, and
raisedthestandardoflivingofhispeople,pro-
vidingdisparateethnicgroupswithprideinthe
2,500-year-oldcultureofPersia. When theene-
miesofhisreigntooktothestreets,theShahfelt
thathereactednottoostrongly,butnotstrongly
enough.Hischapterson"TheUnholyAlliance
of Red and Black" and "The Terror" are in-
formativeandalarming.
MohammedRezaPahlaviconsideredhimself
the staunchest ally of the United States in the
PersianGulfarea. InhisAnswertoHistoryhe
revealstheforcesthatbetrayedhim,andleftthe
U.S. without an economically and militarily
strongallyinacritical partoftheworld.
ANSWER
TO
BYMOHAMMAD REZA PAHLAVI
HISTORY
THESHAH OF IRAN
^5
STEIN AND DAY/PuMis/iers/New York
Author's Note
ItismyintentionthattheAmericanversionofAnswertoHistory
be thedefinitivetext.
M. R. Pahlavi
FirstpublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica1980
Copyright© 1980(thisedition)MohammadRezaPahlavi
Copyright© 1980TranslationMichaelJosephLtd.
Copyright© 1979Editions-AlbinMichel
Allrightsreserved
DesignedbyLouisA.Ditizio
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
ALLlFs vUUIiJ I rvEM.;V UDKAKlTj
..«
STEINANDDAY/Publishers/ScaibotoughHouse
BriarcliffManor,N.Y. 10510
ISBN 0-8128-2755-5
LC 80-52039
7023420
Idedicate this book to the memoryofall those Iranian men and
women who havesuffered anddied for theircountry