Economic Crisis, Political Instability and Power Struggles, 1961-3: Preludes to Petrolic Despotism

Abstract

In 1960 the economic crisis, the growing American awareness of the corruption and incompetence of the Shah’s régime, and the open hostility of the Soviet Union forced the Shah to resort to his habitual tactic of ‘liberalisation’. With the approach of the general elections, he said in a public speech that elections would be completely free, implicitly admitting that the previous elections had been controlled. This gave the signal to various shades of political opposition to surface once again. The Shah was hoping to ride over the events with a few empty promises, until economic recovery would help return the situation to the status quo ante. This might have been the case, had the Americans agreed to co-operate. But they did not: with the impending American presidential elections, a definite commitment could not be made, especially as leading Democrats, such as Senators John Kennedy and William Fulbright, were critical of the Republican attitude towards corrupt régimes in underdeveloped countries in general, and Iran in particular. The triumph of the Cuban Revolution had, at that time, been helpful to such critical views, even though its later developments helped harden the attitude of the future Kennedy administration. Eisenhower could no longer stand for the presidency, and his Republican heir-apparent, Vice-President Richard Nixon, may have thought it wiser to wait until after the elections before going to the assistance of a close friend.