All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror

The irony of America overthrowing a democratically elected government and replacing it with a dictatorship is considerable given their current activities in "bringing democracy to the middle east".

Kinzer draws a line from the '53 coup through the '79 Iranian revoloution to Hamas, Hezbollah, and the destruction of the World Trade Centre that is probably a little tenuous. But his analysis does show why America has so many problems with trust and image in the Middle East.


Simply Superb   July 29, 2005
11 out of 11 found this review helpful

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Simply the best non-fiction I have ever read. If you want to understand the background to the geo-political climate of the world today, read this book. The credibility of the author represents an objective account of history if ever there was one within this subject. As an added benefit, the story itself is gripping.


How Iran started to see USA as "the great satan"   January 6, 2007
Siriam (London United Kingdom)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

The law of unexpected consequences is an exercise that retropsective history studies allows us to savour and see what lessons can be learnt for the future. This book is an exceptional example of that approach since while focussing on an event in the early 1950s, it allows an overview of the major outcomes some 50 years later.

Since the case involves Iran the more recent evolution into an Islamic Republic and its strong anti-US stance is well known. What this book covers in a very well written and structured overview benefitting from recent US government documents and increased academic research on the subject,is how the post WWII US (anti-communist) and UK (retention of control of oil production and supplies) national interests became embroiled in overthrowing another country's democratic government which had challenged the basis on which their national resources were being exploited and the re-installation of the more friendly Shah as supreme ruler. The ramifications of that policy 50 years later in terms of Iran's depiction of the USA as "the great satan" and the rise of Islamic fundementalism in the void of democratic regimes in the Middle East have many of their roots in this story.

The book succeeds on many levels and weaves together many strands including:

a good short analysis of Iran's history and why incompetent and corrupt rulers had created the exploitative situation of its national oil resources by a UK company that existed post WWII layered onto a society that in its legacy was very different from many other Middle East countries and in Mohammad Reza Shah had a young ruler whose indecisiveness and strong belief in his need to wholly control the armed forces to survive, set the seal on his whole future;

the role of how that UK company (Anglo-Persian Oil Company) by being totally intransigent in negotiating with the democratically elected Iranian government and following a stubborn old style imperial mindset stood to lose everything under the subsequent Iranian nationalisation;

how that error was compounded by incompetent UK government ministers and diplomats (such as the unworldly Herbert Morrison as Foreign Minister under Atlee) or devious tactics (Churchill and Eden exploiting on the election of Eisenhower the anti-communist card to propose a coup to largely serve UK financial interests);

the USA's move from the initial Truman government's strong support post WWII for strong new national governments being the best bulwark against communism and large effort being devoted to applying pressure on the UK, which then all dramatically shifted with the election of Eisenhower on an anti-communist ticket. His letting the Dulles brothers in their CIA and Secretary of State roles move to inserting a US operative (the resourceful Kermit Roosevelt) to assume control of and finance the long running UK founded Iranian network to overthrow the Iranian government by fostering street riots, led to a precedent which was to then be used by the CIA several times in many other less developed countries over the next two decades;and,

finally the star of the book Mohammad Mossadegh, a man from a high ranking Iranian family who by being well educated and an international legal background was able to not only garner the support of his people for his policies in a way that Iran had not experienced before but on the interntational stage proved more than a match for the UK, especially before the UN Assembly. However those same visionary qualities as is well shown also held the seeds of his destruction since his lack of pragmatism in negotiating a deal with the UK or exercising of realpolitik when fed information as to the tactics being applied by Iranian royalists and the UK and USA against his government and unwillingness to make some hard calls, let others quickly undermine his authority by creating a perception of anarchy and communist involvement (even though it took two attempts over a week!).

While it is easy with the gift of retrospect to see everything panning out as it did subsequently happen, what this book demonstrates is that the Truman government policy which was pursued with great effort at the time has been vindicated and the claimed communist threat was risible even at the time based on then known facts to the US (sadly one missing area as the author admits is any release of Soviet documents from that period).

While I think the book is finally light on its criticism of Eisenhower (whose ongoing lack of interest in CIA activities was fatal to later international developments) and Eden (who when he was UK Prime Minister after Churchill attempted a similar approach over the 1956 Suez Canal crisis but failed to get US support and had to resign), these are small points.

What this great book sadly teaches us is the key lesson of the folly of major powers trying to build nations that are friendly and subservient to their sponsoring government will always have limited lives due to national interests re-asserting themselves eventually - the publishing of this book as the USA (& to a lesser extent the UK) try and build a "friendly" Iraq from the current turmoil in 2006 indicate that lesson has not yet been wholly learnt.


History of 20th century Iran in light reading   January 8, 2008
Mr. Mark Twain (UK)
This book is an easy read for anybody (like myself) with little history knowledge of the 20th century Iran, with focus on the events in 1953.
It highlights from critical western perspective how following events like the 1979 revolution were the consequences of past colonial mistakes of the UK and the US, and (at least to some extent) explains the odd Iranian policies as the result of the western interferences of the past.
Very recommendable.


A good read   October 15, 2003
17 out of 17 found this review helpful

I found this book a very interesting read. This is particulary good for those who would like to have a crash course of Persian history. The facts presented in the book can certainly help to understand some of the problems of Middle East and inside Iran in a historic point of view. The only downside of the book I've found was the mistakes in Persian names and locations. Although they were few but perhaps a better review by some Persian speakers could have prevented them.