Lets have a debate on this guy purely on the facts, and u can even get a quote from madalene albright on mossadegh. Now if u disagree, please state why. From all i have read it looks like we took out a democracy in iran and helped to install a minority royal monarchy. Sorry about the breakup into 3 parts, but there was a limit on the amount of characters
part 1
http://www.moreorless.au.com/heroes/mossadegh.html
MOHAMMED MOSSADEGH
country
cause
background
mini biography
comment
more information
reflections on heroes Mohammed Mossadegh
Country: Iran.
Cause: Independence and democracy for Iran.
Background: Beginning in the 19th Century, Iran becomes subject to interference and land grabs by Britain and Russia. Local dissatisfaction with Iran's weak and corruption prone royal regime grows and becomes increasingly vocal until in August 1906 Shah (King) Muzaffar ad Din is forced to issue a decree promising the introduction of a new constitution. The constitution that is subsequently drafted places strict limitations on royal power and establishes a representative parliament, or Majlis. The shah signs the new constitution on 30 December 1906. He dies five days later. In 1908 oil is discovered in Iran. More background.
Mini biography: Born on 19 May 1882 into Iran's ruling elite. His father is finance minister to the Qajar Dynasty and his mother the granddaughter of the crown prince. Mossadegh marries Princess Zia Saltaneh in 1903. The couple will have five children.
1906 - Following the 'Constitutional Revolution', Mossadegh is elected to the first Majlis as a representative for Isfahan in central Iran. However, he refuses to take up the position, claiming that he is too young.
1907 - Britain and Russia sign the Anglo-Russian Agreement to divide Iran into spheres of influence, with the Russians taking exclusive right to the north, and the British the south and east. The neutral sphere in the centre is to be open to both powers.
1908 - In June Shah Muzaffar ad Din's successor, Mohammad Ali Shah, attempts to reassert royal power, ordering a brigade led by Russian officers to bomb the Majlis and close down the building. Mossadegh, a known liberal, goes into hiding to avoid execution or imprisonment.
Meanwhile, oil is discovered in Iran. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company (later renamed the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company) is formed soon after.
1909 - In July forces loyal to the constitution regroup and march on Tehran. The shah is deposed and the constitution reestablished. Mohammad Ali Shah goes into exile in Russia.
Mossadegh travel via Russia to France, where he studies at the Political Science Institute for two years. Illness forces him to return to Iran but after five months is back in Europe to study law at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, graduating in 1913 with a doctorate in law.
1911 - When the Majlis refuses to bow to a Russian ultimatum to dismiss an Iranian-employed administrator who has attempted to collect tax within the Russian sphere, Russian troops stationed within Iran move to occupy Tehran. However, local chiefs preempt the Russians. The Majlis is forced to accept the ultimatum before being once again shut down.
Meanwhile, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) commissions an oil refinery at Abadan on the Persian Gulf.
1914 - The First World War begins on 3 August. Iran declares its neutrality but is caught up in the conflict by the presence of Russian, Turkish and British troops.
Mossadegh returns to Iran to take up a professorship at the Political Science Institute of Tehran. He writes two books - 'Civil Legal Procedure' and the 'Capitulation'.
During the war the British Navy places a long-term contract with the AIOC for the supply of fuel oil for its fleet. The British Government also buys a majority of the company's stock.
1917 - Mossadegh is appointed deputy finance minister to the government.
1918 - The First World War ends on 11 November with the signing of a general armistice. With Russia still immersed in the Bolshevik Revolution of the previous year Britain is now the dominant foreign influence on Iran's affairs.
Britain soon attempts to establish a virtual protectorate over the country under the Anglo-Persian Agreement. Mossadegh, a fervent nationalist, strongly objects and travels to Europe to promote his views. Though supported by Iranian Prime Minister Vosuq od-Dowleh, the agreement will never be enacted as the now reassembled Majlis refuses to approve the deal.
Vosuq od-Dowleh is subsequently forced out of office, to be replaced by Moshir al-Doleh, who invites Mossadegh to join the Cabinet as minister of justice. He is also appointed governor of the Fars Province in the south of Iran.
1921 - In February the Iranian government is overthrown in a British-backed military coup d'état led by Persian Cossacks Brigade officer Reza Khan. Reza Khan will quickly take full control of the country, ruling in all but name. To protest against the legitimacy of the coup government, Mossadegh resigns from his post as governor of Fars.
1923 - Mossadegh serves as minister of finance and then briefly as governor of Azerbaijan Province. In May he is appointed minister of foreign affairs.
Reza Khan, meanwhile, secures the prime ministership. At the same time, Mossadegh is elected to the Majlis as a representative for Tehran.
1925 - In October Reza Khan deposes the royal Qajar Dynasty, and in April 1926 takes the crown for himself as His Imperial Majesty Reza Shah Pahlavi, beginning the so-called Pahlavi Dynasty.
Reza Khan's rule will bring a modernisation of the political and social systems and a substantial reduction in the power of the clergy and tribal leaders. However, along with the reforms will come increasing repression and social unrest.
Under Reza Khan the government will be centralised and the military strengthened, with between 30 to 50 percent of total yearly national expenditure being allocated to military projects. However, rather than becoming an effective defence force focussed on foreign threats, the military is used to uphold Reza Khan's increasingly dictatorial regime.
The education system is secularised and, in 1935, the country's first European-style university is established. Iran's transport infrastructure is expanded and industrial development is encouraged. The country's legal system is taken out of the hands of the clerics. Women are brought into the social mainstream. European dress codes are imposed on the population, and the wearing of the veil is banned.
At the same time, the Majlis is sidelined and freedom of speech curtailed. Opponents are arrested, with many being sent to jail or into exile. Many others are murdered. In the countryside peasant farmers find their lifestyles are deteriorating under Reza Khan's policies.
Iran's economy becomes more and more centred on the production of crude oil from the country's vast reserves, which by the end of the century are estimated at between 89.7 and 99.1 billion barrels, ranking them as the fourth or fifth largest in the world.
Mossadegh strongly objects to Reza Khan taking the title of shah. He retires from politics into private life.
Late in Reza Khan's reign Mossadegh will be arrested and exiled for several months before being placed under house arrest in his Ahmad-Abad country estate west of Tehran.
1933 - The Iranian Government cancels the AIOC oil concession and negotiates a new agreement that reduces the area covered and improves the returns to Iran. The term of the contract is also extended to the end of 1993, when all oil facilities, including the refinery at Abadan, are to revert to the Iranian Government.
1938 - Iran's Communist Party is banned.
1939 - On 1 September German troops invade Poland. Britain and France declare war on Germany two days later. The Second World War has begun.
Iran again attempts to remain neutral but is brought into the war when British and Soviet Union troops invade on 26 August 1941 in order to secure supply lines across the country and into the Soviet Union. Iran's military forces are decimated within three days.
Following the invasion, Reza Khan abdicates in favour of his son, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, who takes the throne on 16 September 1941.
1943 - In September Iran declares war on Germany. From 28 November to 1 December the country hosts the 'Tehran Conference' meeting between British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. The three leaders discuss the details of their joint campaign against Germany and reaffirm their joint policy of accepting nothing less than Germany's unconditional surrender. They also reaffirm their commitment to Iran's independence and territorial integrity and their willingness to provide Iran with economic aid.
However, during the war, Iran experiences economic hardship, assisting the rise of the communist Tudeh Party (tudeh means masses), which also receives patronage from the Soviet Union.
1944 - Following Reza Khan's abdication, Mossadegh returns to public life, regaining a seat in the Majlis as the first deputy for Tehran. He becomes a prominent advocate of Iranian nationalism and leader of the Jebhe-ye Melli (National Front), a coalition of secular and religious political groups.
Among his nationalist initiatives, Mossadegh introduces a bill to stop ministers negotiating oil concessions with a foreign party without the approval of the Majlis. The bill is passed in December.
1945 - The Second World War in Europe ends on 7 May when Germany surrenders unconditionally. In keeping with their wartime pledges, British and US forces withdraw from Iran.
However, Soviet troops remain in the country until the Majlis grants an oil concession to the Soviet Union. The concession is later revoked by a vote of 102 to two in a ballot spearheaded by Mossadegh. The Majlis also passes a bill forbidding any further foreign oil concessions and requiring the government to exploit oil resources directly.
1947 - Iran signs an agreement with the US providing for military aid and training.
The AIOC, meanwhile, reports an after-tax profit of US$112 million. Of this only US$19.6 million is returned to the Iranian government.
1949 - With the need for development funds growing, the Majlis becomes increasingly focussed on renegotiating the oil concession with the AIOC to achieve more equitable returns for Iran. (Under the existing agreement the British government derives more from tax on the AIOC than Iran does from royalties.) Again, Mossadegh leads the push to improve the returns to Iran from the concession.
Meanwhile, following an abortive attempt on the shah's life on 4 February, reputedly by Iranian communists, the Tudeh Party is banned.
1950 - Mossadegh is elected as chairman of the government's Oil Committee. In November the committee rejects a draft agreement with the AIOC that offers the government slightly improved terms but not the 50-50 profit-sharing split of other Persian Gulf oil concessions.
Mossadegh's position attracts growing popular support, and the National Front wins many new seats in elections held during the year.
1951 - In February the AIOC finally agrees on a 50-50 split in profits, but with nationalist sentiment on the rise it is now too late. On 8 March the Majlis votes to nationalise the oil industry.
In April Mossadegh is named prime minister. His first act after selecting his Cabinet is to enforce the Oil Nationalisation Bill. Soon after, Iran takes control of the AIOC's refinery at Abadan, which at the time is the largest in the world, supplying 43% of Europe's petroleum requirements.
Britain responds to the nationalisation by placing a worldwide embargo on the purchase of Iranian oil and pressuring its allies to do the same. In September Britain freezes Iran's sterling assets and bans export of goods to Iran.
In the US the administration refuses to lend Iran funds until the dispute is resolved, and works to ensure the oil embargo is enforced.
Britain also takes its case against Iran to United Nations (UN) Security Council in New York and the International Court of Justice at The Hague in the Netherlands. Mossadegh defends Iran's action in both forums. Ultimately, Britain's legal assault fails when the Court of Justice upholds Iran's argument that the oil dispute is outside its jurisdiction and cannot be heard.
Meanwhile, oil production in Iran comes to a virtual standstill and the economy begins to go into serious decline. Only Japan and Italy resist the pressure to join the embargo and continue to purchase Iranian oil.
Mossadegh is named 'Time' magazine's man of the year for 1951, "not that he was the best or the worst or the strongest, but because his rapid advance from obscurity was attended by the greatest stir."
"The stir was not only on the surface of events: in his strange way, this strange old man represented one of the most profound problems of his time. Around this dizzy old wizard swirled a crisis of human destiny," the magazine says.
"There were millions inside and outside of Iran whom Mossadegh symbolised and spoke for, and whose fanatical state of mind he had helped to create. They would rather see their own nations fall apart than continue their present relations with the West. ...
"Mossadegh does not promise his country a way out of this nearly hopeless situation. He would rather see the ruin of Iran than give in to the British, who, in his opinion, corrupted and exploited his country. He is not in any sense pro-Russian, but he intends to stick to his policies even though he knows they might lead to control of Iran by the Kremlin. ...
"The fact that Iranians accept Mossadegh's suicidal policy is a measure of the hatred of the West - and especially the hatred of Britain - in the Near and Middle East."
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