The Stuff “Nightmares” Are Made Of...
| Arash Norouzi The Mossadegh Project | March 28, 2008 |
Carl T. Rowan (1925-2000), a well known African-American journalist, syndicated columnist and TV pundit, applauded the Bill Clinton administration’s “step toward reconciliation” with Iran in a column from March 21, 2000. That step included acknowledging the U.S. role in the 1953 coup, which Rowan referred to in the context of his visit to Iran in 1962 while working as a hired propagandist for President Lyndon Johnson.
The brief editorial reveals little about Rowan’s personal feelings about U.S. imperialism in Iran, but he appears to have clung to the U.S. government’s positive attitude toward the Shah. As President Kennedy’s Deputy Secretary of State and
President Johnson’s director of the United States Information Agency, Rowan would have upheld this longstanding policy on Iran. Mr. Rowan died a few months after writing the column.
In one of its wisest foreign-policy moves, the Clinton administration has made a genuine step toward reconciliation with Iran.
It might seem like small potatoes that the United States has removed the ban on imports of luxury items like caviar and rugs from Iran, decided to return assets frozen since Iran’s 1979 revolution and apologized for meddling improperly in Iran’s internal affairs throughout the 1950’s, ‘60s and ‘70s. [Recent speech by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, which contained no apology per se.]
But this is a big deal. It could bring an end to an estrangement, often violent, that has harmed both countries. It could end a rift that has undermined Iran’s economy and stopped the movement toward more personal liberty for Iranian citizens, especially its women. And it could end the unnecessary hostility that has harmed the United States by turning Islamic fundamentalists against it, causing a rise in international terrorism and creating a giant roadblock to peace in the Middle East.
It seems ages ago -- actually, 1962 -- that I went to Iran with Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson to find a marvelously friendly people and a staunchly allied government. There were not many overt signs that burning in the hearts and minds of many Iranians was a deep resentment that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had masterminded a 1953 coup in which the leftist prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, was overthrown and the monarchy was restored. [“Leftist” = vague innuendo]
It seems an eon ago -- really 1978 -- that I was in Tehran conducting the last television interview granted by the Shah of Iran before his overthrow. I remember how conflicted U.S. officials and the American people were in wanting the Shah to prevail but not wanting to make enemies of the revolutionaries who seemed destined to take over that country.
And it seems many nightmares ago that, after a stunning triumph by the Muslim clerics, the wildest of the insurrectionists seized the American embassy, captured American hostages and ushered in an era of intense hatreds.
Rowan’s ‘observation’ that Iranians seemed not to mind having had the Shah forcibly installed as their leader is, of course, absolutely ridiculous. Mossadegh’s name, image and memory was effectively banished from the country after the Shah took power, and many of his associates were either imprisoned or killed. It is unlikely that Rowan actually asked anyone if they resented the coup while in Iran during his trips abroad with LBJ, and even if he had, those questioned may not have felt safe enough to give an honest answer. It is even more unlikely that anyone Rowan was traveling with, or meeting with, would have brought up the subject. It would have benefited no one to do so.
September 18, 1979 column
The tumult in Iran just may be the most important of all the world’s frightening developments in terms of U.S. security.
Yes, more important than the upheaval Nicaragua, the madness in Rhodesia the rest and of southern Africa.
Even though Iranian forces have slain scores of right-wing dissidents, you aren’t hearing any “human rights” cries from President Carter or other U.S. officials. They know that what is happening in Iran is more a matter of super-power conflict than of human rights.
It has long been obvious that Iran has great strategic importance. During World War II, German spies stirred up various groups of Iranians but the U.S helped to create a gendarmerie to quiet the upheaval.
In 1946 the Russians tried to take over Iran directly but President Harry Truman told the Russians to get out or face U.S. nuclear weapons. The Russians left. [The U.S used diplomatic pressure while Iran took Russia to the UNSC]
Later, when Premier Mohammad Mossadegh tried to drag Iran into “national socialism”, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi tried to fire him. [sic — Mohammad Reza Pahlavi] The shah failed but backed off to let the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency overthrow Mossadegh. [A highly flawed account, ”socialism” and all!]
The U.S. was concerned then, as now, because of the strategic importance of Iran, a country we do not want to fall under the domination of the Soviet Union.
Superman of the New Iran
(Article & Interview with the Shah)
Then, in 1953, when Premier Mohammad Mossadeq seemed to be dragging Iran into “national socialism”, the Shah tried to fire the premier. Mossadeq refused to go. The Shah left Iran and holed up in the plush Hotel Excelsior in Rome, ostensibly to let the Iranian people “make their own choice”. Actually, he let the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency make the choice. Kermit Roosevelt, grandson of President “Teddy” Roosevelt, was sent in with at least $19 million to mastermind Mossadeq’s overthrow.
This put the Shah in double debt to the United States, and over the years he manifested his gratitude by being pro-Western in both policy and action.
Related links:
Secretary of State John Kerry’s Historic Iran Deal: Smart Diplomacy of Appeasement?
Russia on Iran National Front: Mossadegh Is Opponent of USSR (1949)
President Barack Obama on Iran, Mossadegh and the 1953 Coup
MOSSADEGH t-shirts — “If I sit silently, I have sinned”
