Word: shahs
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...retired people reminisce about ourselves, not about the Chinese. It was a rather emotional conversation." At dinner Nixon sat across from Brzezinski, who asked him what leaders he admired most. "You won't catch me naming them," said Nixon, then could not resist citing Charles de Gaulle, the Shah of Iran and Chiang Kaishek...
...Ayatullah had been sending home a steady stream of Elamiehs, messages summoning the faithful to bring down the monarchy in favor of what he has somewhat vaguely termed an Islamic republic. Much of the population heeded Khomeini. It was popular uprisings in his name that forced the hated Shah to take a vacation that might well extend to exile, and left the government in the uncertain hands of Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiar. Iron-willed, giving little hint of compromise, Khomeini has rejected the Bakhtiar government and damned it as illegal because it was appointed by the Shah...
...faces far tougher tasks than rousing the people to fury against an unpopular autocrat. The Ayatullah has announced that he will set up a new revolutionary council for Iran. In so doing he risks a coup by an army whose generals, if not its soldiers, remain loyal to the Shah. He must pick up the numerous strands of opposition, united only in reverence for him and hatred of the monarch, and hold them together long enough to form a functioning government. It is a lot to expect from a spiritual leader wise in Koranic lore but woefully unskilled in Realpolitik...
Inside the terminal, the Ayatullah was instantly surrounded by 1,000 or so members of a welcoming committee shouting, "Allahu akbar!" (God is great). Praising all those who had suffered for the revolution, from the clergy to bazaar merchants to workers and students, Khomeini lashed out immediately at the Shah and his supporters, who "destroyed our culture and turned it into a colonial culture." Then came an ominous touch: "We are only victorious when we can cut the hands of the foreigners from our lands. The agents of the foreigners who are trying to cheat our interests must know that...
...only because the outcome of the coup is not wholly attributable to the US, America should not be held responsible for all the excesses of the Shah since that time. The Shah was dominated by the United States in the 1950s and early '60s but even at this time he was adept at balancing America against Russia, hinting that he might at any time sign treaties with the Soviets. As a secret CIA National Intelligence Estimate phrased it in 1961: "a continuing problem for the U.S. will be how to give the Shah sufficient support to preserve his present...