The July 23 revolution and pacts (26). The US and the Baghdad Pact I. Background: The United States had reacted with alarm as it watched developments in Iran, which had been in a state of instability since 1951. Through the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), the British had a monopoly on transporting pumping, refining oil in most of Iran. The company paid production royalties to the government of the Shah — placed on the throne by the British in 1941.But the royalties and salaries to Iranian employees were quite small, considering that the company's earnings were ten times greater than its expenses. Meanwhile, Iran suffered from abject poverty and half of all newborns died upon birth. Iranian nationalists demanded a higher share of the company's earnings. In response, the AIOC replied that it had binding agreement with the Shah until 1993, and collaborated with domestic political forces to draft a report opposing nationalisation. In February 1951, the Iranian prime minister, suspected of being involved with the report — was assassinated and replaced by nationalist Mohamed Mossadegh. Later that year, the new Prime Minister nationalised his nation's British-owned oil wells. Thus, the US reacted with alarm as it watched Mossadegh, the nationalist Prime Minister of Iran, begin to resist the neocolonial presence of Western corporations in his nation. As the Iranians moved toward seizing the reserves, the Truman administration tried to mediate. Interestingly enough, since the turn of the century the US had been trying to get into the Iranian oil fields only to be constantly repulsed by the British. Now, the breakthrough occurred by the grace of the Shah and under the guidance of State Department official Herbert Hoover Jr., who had gained a great deal of experience in the complexities of the international oil problem as a private businessman. Convinced that Iran was developing communist ties, the Eisenhower Administration used the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), joining forces with Iran's military leaders to overthrow Iran's government. To replace Mossadegh, the US favoured elevating the young Shah of Iran, Mohamed Reza Pahlevi, from his position as that of a constitutional monarch to that of an absolute ruler. In return, the Shah allowed US companies to share in the development of his nation's reserves. The US provided guns, trucks, armoured cars, and radio communications in the CIA-assisted 1953 coup, which subjected Iranians to over a generation of rule by the Shah's state of terror and secret police (Savak). [email protected]
