Word: shahs
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Whether the Shah retires to St. Moritz or tries to stay on in Iran, there is no question that an era of imperial aspirations has come to an end. As the protests against him spread, gathering momentum with every strike and riot, the Shah's personal power has been completely eroded. Even those in the middle classes who still backed him, partly out of fear of what might follow, knew his cause was lost. His chief support remained high-ranking officers in the military. Several hard-lining generals urged the Shah to stay and pleaded with him for permission...
Western diplomats were skeptical about how long a Bakhtiar government may last, but they saw the Premier-designate as a moderate who just might be able to win the support of the Shah's opponents on both left and right. The French-educated Bakhtiar is a disciple of the late Premier Mohammed Mossadegh, in whose Cabinet he served as deputy Labor Minister before Mossadegh was overthrown in a 1953 CIA-backed coup that restored the Shah to his throne. Bakhtiar has long been an outspoken opponent of the Shah. He spent two years in prison for his activities with...
...chaos, the violence and murder, the loss of life of our countrymen. With your support, I sincerely hope to lead Iran to a genuine social democracy." One subject of that appeal was Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, the exiled Shi'ite mullah who has become the spearhead of the anti-Shah revolution. At week's end. speaking from his headquarters in a suburb of Paris, Khomeini jeopardized Bakhtiar's chances by declaring that "obedience to this administration is obedience to Satan." Khomeini is adamantly against the new government because it still has links to the Shah...
Faced with the growing strength of anti-American and antiforeign feelings, the U.S. and other Western embassies began a hectic and confused evacuation of families and nonessential personnel from Iran. U.S. Ambassador William Sullivan, who had been in frequent communication with the Shah, called a meeting of the American business community and "recommended" that families leave the country...
Tanks and troops continued to patrol city streets at night, but thousands of protesters defied the 9 o'clock curfew to go to rooftops and shout their chilling chant: "The Shah must die." Even whispering that slogan would once have provoked a visit by a SAVAK agent. Names, addresses and phone numbers of secret police agents are now posted on city walls. Some parents have taken their children to grisly museums of past horrors: two houses in the capital that were allegedly used by SAVAK to torture victims. Along with the fighting that has now touched virtually every corner...