Nest of Spies: America's Journ

The Iranian fiasco stands out in the otherwise pretty nice list of American successes in the XX century. What makes it even more interesting is the fact than none other than Dr. Kissinger in his monumental volume `Diplomacy' (written in 1994) doesn't mention the Iranian revolution, Ayatolla Khomeini, or the Shah. Perhaps it doesn't blend in to his views of the world. In Amir Taheri's splendid book about Iran however Kissinger's name is mentioned almost on every page. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that Mr. Kissinger was an architect of the US Iranian policy prior to the revolution and trusted friend and advisor to the Shah. `Nest of Spies' helps to understand why Mr.Kissinger, and with him the whole US policy vis-à-vis Iran, had failed to my view in both short and long run. First, it was a story of love. Iran (Persia) was crazy about America. In the chapter `Bountiful Americans' Taheri explains how thousands of Americans who came to Iran in late XIXth and early XXth centuries swept away the Iranians with their kindness, hard work and adherence to new technology and education. They were like Thomas Jefferson - the best, the enlightenment people, XVIIIth century philosophers at heart. To the amazement of mullahs, even American Christian missionaries didn't convert the locals but were focused on setting up schools and hospitals, and other `good works'. In Nixon-Kissinger years this image, which started changing after WWII, was dramatically transformed. The country has become a US outpost in Middle East. The Iran was filled with influence peddlers, fixers, oil executives, and arms salesmen. Special personal relationships between the Shah and Nixon were emphasized. The strategic position of Iran on the Soviet border had insured Iran a role in `Cold War' as very important US ally. Meanwhile the influence of mullahs was underestimated and they were even encouraged, because of their anticommunism. The repressive actions by the Shah were focused on the Moscow-sponsored Marxists and followers of Dr. Mohammad Mossadeq - leader of the oil-nationalization movement (and actually quite pro-western). As usual (and it reminds me about the Russian Revolution) the revolution was started by moderates with liberal slogans but was carried out by more ruthless extremists who didn't want to stop where moderates would stop. The author shows intimate knowledge of Iran with its surprisingly complex political life. Despite everything, the US was probably a positive force in Iran, particularly in the beginning. In later years the US-Iran policy was managed by Dr. Kissinger and advocates of `cloak and dagger' operations (i.e. `gentlemen with noble intentions'). Also policy consistency was never an American strong point due to peculiarity of the US political system. To my view, the US committed two major sins in Iran. First, it utterly failed to recognize the danger of rising Islamic fundamentalism. It made a huge mistake by secretly helping mullahs as a pote

There are many high moments of black comedy in this very serious, and extremely well researched, history of relations between the United States and Iran.One scene that offered me special mirth is when a group of Iranian exiles, working as professional opposition activists,hire an actor to play the role of a leading ayatollah who has supposedly come to Europe from Tehran to make a secret deal with the Reagan administration. The scam is to persuade Reagan envoys ,who meet the actor, to provide millions of dollars to a group of exiles that is supposedly able to recruit agents from within the clerical establishment in Tehran.There are other no less comical scenes. We see Lt.Col, Oliver North acting as tour guide for the son of Hashemi Rafsanjani, a mullah who,later became President of the Islamic Republic, during a night visit to the White House in Washington.Before that we see CIA operative Kermit Roosevelt hiding behind a coal heater in Tehran,shaking with fear, as a coup plot that he was involved in seems to falter. (Later, once the coup has succeeded thanks to a popular uprising in Tehran, the same Roosevelt claims heroic deeds for himself!)The book , written by an Iranian author and journalist, provides three important lessons in diplomacy:1- Secret diplomacy almost always backfires.2- Despotic regimes and democratic societies can never achieve genuine understanding on any issue for any length of time.3- Anyone who thinks he can " write history" is a fool. History largely authors itself. Those who try to make it often end up flat on their faces.The book reveals the Shah, known in the West as a decisive despot, as a weakling afflicted by Hamlet-like doubts. This makes him more human but does not absolve him from responsibility in leading his people into an hisoric impasse that was broken only by a savage and exceptionally bloody revolution led by a group of reactionary and power-hungry mullahs. PB

This is easily the most accessible account of relations between the United States and Iran from the beginnings in the 19th century until the end of the 1980s.The author shows that American influence in Iran started with missionaries and do-gooders over 150 years ago and ended with military advisors and business wheeler-dealers in the late 1970s. The 1980s witnessed a period of high tension which has continued, albeit to a less intense degree, up to the present.A specially interesting segment of the book deals with secret negotiations between the mullahs of Tehran and the Reagan administration in 1985-86 with , believe it or not, Israel acting as mediator.While the Americans were talking to the mullahs, even inviting the son of one of them to a night tour of the White House, with Lt. Colonel Oliver North acting as guide, they were also organising Iranian exiles to fight the Khomeinist regime in Tehran.That segment includes narratives of scenes that read like chapters from a thriller with a good dose of irony. On one occasion, clever Iranian exiles hired a professional actor to play the role of a prominent mullah from Tehran in secret talks with North in Germany. The Lt-Colonel fell for the trick and the CIA organised financial support for the exile group. On another occasion a CIA operative with little knowledge of things Iranian tried to recruit the first elected President of the Islamic Republic , offering a monthly stipend of $1500!A must read for all those interested in international relations.A READER IN NICE, FRANCE

It is, perhaps, a truism that the United States was not designed to play the role of a major global power.Its domestic politics often prevent it from deciding and purusuing a long-term policy vis-a-vis other nations and/or regions.One example is Iran where trhe US appeared in the post World WarII era, as a force for Good as opposed to the two Evil forces of imperilaism, Britain and Russia that had martyrised Iran for almost a century.The first Americans to appear in Iran were missionaries who set up the country's first modern schools and colleges and introduced such ideas as individual freedom and constiutional rule. In the IRanian constitutional revolution of the early 20th century, American missionaries were firmly on the side of the reformers. ( One American was killed by the anti-constitution forces).The US, through President Harry S Truman, forced Stalin to take his troops out of northern Iran and abandon an old Russian pan to dismantle the Persian empire.In the 1950s the US, through the famous Point 4 aid program, helped Iran build a network of schools, clinics and rural roads that gave almost a fifth of the population a minimum of public services for the first time. Point 4 also trained the fist managerial elite of Iran, including many of tis future Cabvinet ministers, governors and senior civil servants.The US also backed Mossadeq, a fickle populist politician who came to symbolise the nationalisation of Iranian oil. When Mossadeq found himself unable to come up woith any enw ideas to take the country out of an impasse, the US abandoned him in favor of a pro-German former general Fazlollah Zahedi who had won the support of the Shah to become prime minister.Gradually, the US was sucked into Iran's irrational and dangerous domestic politics. That was a big mistake.In the 1970s the US encouraged Islamist groups in a bid to weaken the left, especially the Communist opposition. When the Shah was toppled and the Islamists took over in 1979 the US proposed a new alliance. This time, however, the mullahs, pressed on their left by the pro-Soviet left, had to adopt an anti-American stance. They approved the seizure of the American embassy,m initiated by the left, and made sure they sounded as anti-American as anyone.This book tells the full story of a stromy relationship. It is based on solid evidence, including 53 volumes of documents seized at the US embassy in Tehran and published by the revolutionaries. The author, a senior journalist befroe and shortly after the rervolution, also draws on his personal experience of events and the many interviews he conducted with both Iranian and American figures involved.This book shows how Americans can be easily duped by wily " orientals" who regard them as parvenus in the game of intenrnational politics. In one savory episode we see Iranian exiles hiring an actor to pay the role of a senior mullah in a meeting in Madrid with senior American officials. The hoax was aimed at getting money from the Ameri

Want to know why some people, especially in th Muslim countries, hate the Americans so much? Read this book. Had American leaders, and the public in general, read this book when it came out almost a decade ago, they would , perhaps, not be as surprised as they are today by the sudden realisation that there are so many people " out there" who seethe with hatred for the American " Great Satan".The book focuses on the experience of the Iran-US relatoionship. But its conclusions could be valid for many other Muslim countries. It shows how the US diplomatic machine, the CIA and the successive administrations failed to analyse and absorb information that was available to them, thus walking into one trap after another.The experience led to the seizure of the American Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and the holding of the American hosatges for 444 days. That event showed that the US could be attacked and humiliated with impunity. In the two decades that followed almost 1000 US citizens, including some 300 Marines, on peacekeeping mission in Beirut, were murdered by Islamic fundamentalists. The crescendo, of course, was reached with the attack by the bin Laden gang on New York and Washington on 11 September 2001.The book incldues astonishing secret documents seized from the US embassy in Tehran, showing how Washington knew everything but understood nothing.One episode narrated concerns a night tour, complete with red carpet reception, organised at the White House in Washington for the son of a senior Iranian cleric -cum-politician who had just organised the kidnaping of 20 Americans, and the murder of two of them, in Beirut. And that was during the Ronald Reagan administration when America supposedly walked tall and hit back when hit.It is a sad story. The US went to Iran with noble intentions, helped that country beat off a threat from Stalin, and financed the rebuilding of the Iranian economy. In the end, however, the reward for the US was hatred and murder.Americans must ask whether their leaders are not committing the same mistake in other countries today?