The Iranian Revolution of 1978: The Islamic Fatherland Revisited

Compilation Copyright M, As told to and edited by John Rubens (July 07, 1980)(1981)(2002)(2014)

We will begin by recalling some of the major political events that took place prior to the insurgent Iranian Revolution of 1978. The popular government of the Iranian People in 1953 was led by a man named Dr. Mohammed Mossadeq. His administration’s policy was directed toward supporting the masses, or a “Populist“. However, the populist stance of the Iranian leader became increasingly unpopular in the eyes of Mossadeq’s opposition: the huge oil companies of the West. To upbraid the troublesome politician, a coup was organized to topple the Mossadeq government.

The United States supported the coup because a new leader would allow them greater voice in Iranian foreign policy and greater control of their vast oil assets under the jurisdiction of Iran. Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, hereinafter referred to as “Shah” or “the Shah” was re-installed as this leader of “renewal”. The coup d’etat was spear-headed by the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States, hereinafter referred to as “CIA” or “the CIA” in conjunction with an angry Iranian mob (sound familiar?). The CIA paid commissions to the instigators of a riot in the streets of Tehran who used taunts, degrading the name of Mossadeq, and giving praises to the Shah. This mob was successful in capturing Dr. Mossadeq during the demonstration, a pre-requisite to the toppling of his democratically-elected Office and instrumental to the collapse of his Administration. The immediately ensuing result of the coup was the return of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi from his hiding place in Italy to the Imperial Throne of Iran.

The Problem’s Inception

The Mossedeq government gave people a sense of freedom and liberty that they had been denied for many years under previous leaders of Iran. The Mossedeq Administration was modeled after North American and West European (at the time) democratized nation-states. Citizens were allowed certain inalienable rights that allowed them to think and act on their own initiative and to speak out for what they believed in. These freedoms were upheld as rights protected the Iranian Constitution in force during his Administration which ended in 1953.

The Communist (Toudeh) Party

The numerous political parties which existed in Iran during Mossedeq’s rule were not interfered with or suppressed by his Administration. This laissez-faire attitude of democratic government created an “in” for the Communist Party, hereinafter referred to as the Toudeh Party, to gain a powerful foothold as members of the Constitutional Government of Iran. The CIA as one might expect, did not like Mossedeq’s lax attitude toward the Toudeh Party, as Toudeh became emboldened to distribute pro-Soviet propaganda aimed primarily against the United States. The literature lambasted American foreign policy and the “imperialistic” motivation of its vital interests not only in the Middle East, but throughout the Third World.

The Toudeh Party continued to gain popularity under Mossadeq until the United States took action to counteract their propaganda drive. The purpose for the Toudeh Party dissolution was two-fold: 1) to diminish Soviet influence in Iran and 2) once Soviet influence had waned, the United States would be able to regain access to Iranian oilfields without public unrest [the West was shut out of the Iranian oil industry at the time by the Mossadeq Administration].

Many Iranians were very sensitive to oil-interested politics in the early 1950’s. Between 1951 and 1953 for instance, oil production in Iran was at a standstill because the service contracts between Great Britain and Iran to extract and distribute the petroleum were seen by most Iranians as unconscionable. For instance, it was widely publicized that the British only paid royalties of 16% of the profits it made on Iranian Oil and that American interests were driving inflation higher.

In response to Iran’s embargo of the early 1950’s, Great Britain gave the Mossedeq Administration an ultimatum: either relent and end the embargo or suffer a naval occupation of the Persian Gulf (with implications of “blockade”). With the ball in Iran’s court, the Iraninan populace responded. Oil businessmen and technicians that had been exploiting Iran’s natural petroleum resources since the turn of the 20^th Century were expelled, tout suite . The Western oil interests expelled, Mossedeq set out to nationalize oil. Once the oil sector in Iran had stabilized, foreigners could come to work in Iran,but solely for the nationalized program, not for oil companies under British jurisdiction. [See Venezuelian President Hugo Chavez’ attempts to nationalize oil in his country during the George W. Bush Administration in the United States circa 2007]. Subsequently, British worker’s, primarily engineers, did not like working for the Iranian oil company and came disgruntled. Persuaded by the British government, they abandoned their positions in the Iranian petroleum industry and left the country. Iranian engineers and technicians did not have the expertise to run the petroleum industry in their country without outside help and the industry fell into disarray. If that was not enough, no one was buying Iranian oil due to political pressure from Great Britain. Furthermore, England made a spectacle of the breach of their contract with Iran, and took them to the International Court in The Hague, Netherlands. It was perceived by this author that the British relied too much on their loudspoken political persuasiveness and economic clout than the law of contracts. As it was, the International Court ruled in favor of the Iranian Government. The ruling was based on the fact that Britain began exploiting Iran’s petroleum resources under alleged contracts that were not produced at trial by the British, and the Iranians allegedly did not have copies. The Court went on to point out that Iran was currently a sovereign nation, no longer a colony of the British Empire. As such, a sovereign nation not only has the right of self-determination, but the means to ensure that right. As a result, the decision of the Court was that Iran had the sole right to all mineral resources located beneath the ground of its territories. [The language of The World Court’s precepts have certainly evolved since the early 1950’s, as has the Court(s) themselves]. Although the Iranian government could not prove theft of its sovereign natural resources over the preceding sixty years because it did not produce copies of the contracts with the British petroleum companies at trial, they were able to nullify any “agreements” the countries were working under since Iran separated from the British Empire in the late 19^th Century.

As Great Britain Recedes from the Iranian Oil Picture in the mid-1950’s, U.S. Oil Companies Step Up Their Efforts to Negotiate With Iran and Win Contracts in Petroleum Interests

[See also: Accounts by Principal for Occidental Petroleum from Wikipedia: Occidental Petroleum Corporation (Oxy) is a California-based oil and gas exploration and production company with operations in the United States, the Middle East, North Africa, and South America. Its headquarters is in Westwood, Los Angeles California^[4][5] but the company has announced it will move to Houston in 2014 or 2015.^{[6] online 2014]}