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

Many thanks to Stephen Kinzer for publishing an accurate account of how Churchill's and Eisenhower's short term oil interests and communophobia ruined a budding democracy in a great historical land. Note that the book was just published in 2003 and a lot of material was inaccessible until very recently.

Iran or Persia was home to Rumi, the great sufi mystic, and Zoroaster, the great spiritual teacher. Iranians are moderate people, representing the best values of Islam. Yet, a typical American's assessment of Iranians is that they are fanatic zealots and hate the whole western culture. And may be there is some truth to that. But have you ever wondered why Iranians became so disgusted and suspicious of the Americans and the British. Read this book. Whatever you may think of America or Britain, it will forever change you assessment of the evil roles played by the governments of these two countries (only the governments, not the people of these countries, of course).

Also, if your heart has ever cried thinking about the 9/11 tragedies, then your answers will be forever incomplete if you do not begin to understand the powerful forces of hate unleashed by CIA and Churchill in the 1953 coup when they removed a democratically elected, liberal minded leader named Mossadegh in favor of British oil interests. Mossadegh inspired millions of Iranians, just like Thomas Jefferson inspired millions of Americans. By implanting Shah as the cruel dictator and removing Mossadegh (the democratically elected Prime Minister), the CIA operative Kermit Roosevelt forever changed Middle eastern politics. Consider for a moment what would have happnened if the British had implanted a cruel dictator like Fidel Castro in the U.S. in 1776 and imprisoned the founding fathers of U.S.

If you have taken the trouble to read some of these reviews - buy this book, its the most important book on why we are where we are today. A sobering realization of who is really behind the world that we have inherited today. You decide that after reading the book!


Informative book on Iranian history   July 31, 2003
19 out of 20 found this review helpful

I would recommend this book to anyone who is either interested in the contemporary history of Iran, or wants to find out why the Iranian revolution took place / the reasons behind the hostage taking of the US embassy.

I bought this book for my uncle who was a young man when Mossadegh was Prime Minister. My uncle told me that the book covered many of the things that he had observed at the time which reassured me of the book's accuracy.


Thought-provoking, and scarily relevant to current events   July 24, 2003
24 out of 27 found this review helpful

Turmoil in the Middle East? Check. US- and British-led regime change? Check. Unexpected consequences? Check. Stephen Kinzer is writing about the 1953 IRANIAN coup - but it might as well be today. As Kinzer says, you can draw a straight line from that intervention to today's upheaval and anti-American sentiment. Where will we be in another 50 years?