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

Every Iranian New Year, we'd drive through Abadan, and I'd watch the flames shooting from the tops of those massive stacks—the oil refinery burning off excess natural gas like some kind of industrial volcano. The infrastructure stretched for acres, a sprawling testament to British engineering and ambition, built back when Persia was just another piece on the colonial chessboard. I didn't understand then what I was really looking at: the physical manifestation of why Iran doesn't trust us. Any of us. Since living in Iran, I've been fascinated—maybe obsessed is more accurate—with the role foreign governments and companies have played in the Middle East, particularly in the petroleum industry. It's one thing to read about resource extraction and geopolitical maneuvering in a textbook. It's another thing entirely to live in a country where the national memory is scarred by it. Stephen Kinzer's All the Shah's Men is the book I wish I'd read before I ever set foot in Iran. Hell, it's the book I wish every American would read before we collectively decide to have opinions about the Middle East. Here's what happens when you live in Iran: you sit around tables with educated, sophisticated people who will, with complete sincerity, spin conspiracy theories that sound absolutely bananas to Western ears. And I used to find it funny, this cultural tendency toward seeing plots within plots, secret hands pulling strings behind every curtain. Then I read Ryan Holiday's Conspiracy, which chronicles how Peter Thiel quietly, methodically, and very successfully destroyed Gawker because they outed him as gay against his will. Turns out conspiracy theories aren't quite so ridiculous when you realize that powerful people actually do engineer elaborate, patient, multi-year schemes to achieve their ends. We Americans just aren't used to fearing such things, thanks to our relatively stable history. Iranians, on the other hand, have every reason to believe in conspiracies. Because they've lived through them. Because their popular prime minister—Mohammad Mosadegh, wildly beloved by his people—was actually, genuinely, factually overthrown in a CIA-orchestrated coup in 1953. That's not a theory. That's history. And that's where All the Shah's Men comes in. Kinzer's book does something remarkable: it explains not just what happened, but why it matters. It's not just a recounting of events (though it is that, and brilliantly so). It's a window into the Iranian national psyche, into why a country with such a long, proud history has so little patience for foreign meddling. Iran isn't some backwards outpost that just appeared on the map. It's Persia, for God's sake—one of the world's great civilizations, with a history stretching back millennia. They've watched foreign powers trade in their resources for what amounts to glass beads. They've seen their own corrupt leaders sell them out again and again. They know what happens behind closed doors because it's happened to them. When the British Petroleum's predecessor effectively owned Iran's oil and gave the country a pittance in return, Mosadegh tried to nationalize it. He wanted Iran's oil wealth to benefit Iranians. Radical concept, right? The British didn't much care for that idea, and they convinced the Americans that Mosadegh was a communist threat. So we—the United States of America, land of democracy and freedom—orchestrated a coup to remove a democratically elected leader and install the Shah, who would be far more amenable to Western interests. That moment? That's the nadir of US-Iran relations. That's where the hostilities that eventually led to the 1979 revolution and the hostage crisis actually began. Not with religious extremism appearing out of nowhere, but with us deciding that Iranian democracy was fine as long as it served our purposes. All the Shah's Men is a fabulous read, not just because Kinzer teaches the history of Iran in a clear, concise way—though he does that masterfully—but because he shows you the folly of toying with a nation that has a strong identity and a long memory. He explains what was at stake then and what remains at stake now: access to oil, regional influence, the strategic geography of the Middle East. He makes clear why nations vie for power there and why, despite all evidence to the contrary, we keep making the same mistakes. Most importantly, he illuminates why invading or attempting to control Iran is probably the stupidest thing any foreign power could do. You can't bomb a proud people into submission, and you can't expect them to forget what you've done. What struck me most about the book is how it reveals the chess game happening behind the scenes—the back-channeling, the quiet machinations, the deals struck in rooms the average citizen never sees. We like to think of foreign policy as this noble, principled endeavor. All the Shah's Men shows you the grubby reality: it's often about resources, leverage, and maintaining the upper hand, regardless of the human cost. If you want to understand why the Middle East is the way it is, why Iran views the West with such suspicion, why our attempts at influence so often backfire spectacularly—read this book. If you want to understand how we got here and why our "here" involves so much mutual hostility and mistrust—read this book. And if you just want to read a damn good piece of non-fiction that reads like a thriller but happens to be true—definitely read this book. Because the thing about history is this: if you don't understand it, you're doomed to keep repeating it. And God knows we've repeated this particular pattern enough times already.

All the Shah,a Men is by far the best book I have read in a number of years. It is a must reading for everyone even if not particularly concerned with history or politics. The book reads like a suspenseful intrigue spy novel making it hard to stop reading. As an Egyptian it made it clear why Britain and Fran e got so mad when Egypt,s Naser nationalized the Suez Canal only five years after Mosadeq nationalized the Iranian oil and how succeeding in removing him may ha e emboldened them to militarily attack Egypt. Even more importantly the Book increased my appreciation to President Truman vision and integrity but not so much for Eisenhower. Finally, the fact that Iran was on it's way to Democracy and instead of supporting it the effort was thwarted resulting in the current severe suffering of the Iranian people. I cannot recommend the book more for E vereone

FTC NOTICE: Library Book REVIEW: “All the Shah’s Men” serves as the second book I have read by Stephen Kinzer, and it was full of intrigue, micro-histories, and biographies that left me with the desire to research and read more about the Middle East as well as additional books by this author. It is not unusual for history books to discuss timelines and people; but, what I appreciated most in this text was Kinzer’s differing approach to historical data. He was generous with details about a significant array of people that were involved with multiple coups. There were names of people in his book that I did not recall seeing in other compendiums pertaining to Middle East history and/or Iran. Kinzer shared what their individual philosophies were and how they affected their decisions and the resulting behaviors. One challenge I experienced while reading this book, and that which prevented me from giving it five stars in lieu of four of them, was that there was too much going back and forth in history. A political leader’s history and interactions with others was/were very well described; but, at the end of that history, the reader was then re-introduced to a character at the beginning or middle of the previous history and all within the same chapter. Segmentation via a few extra and short chapters would have helped. Despite the back-and-forth of histories, Stephen Kinzer has a great way of making a reader take a look at a situation and evaluate what could have been done differently. Unfortunately, he waited until over 200 pages into the book for any analysis or extrapolation to occur. This was coupled with a whole series of “if” and “if” and “if-then” and “if.” In doing so, Kinzer inadvertently de-valued what he was trying to accomplish, and the history could no longer be evaluated as a reality. Thankfully I had already read another book called " Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America's Future " by Kinzer, so I knew what he was trying to accomplish, and I didn’t want him to think that this was lost on me. He wanted the reader to imagine how things could have been done differently; what would have happened if one or all of these things did not occur? The author is also quite talented when it comes to creating imagery. He does this thoughtfully, purposely, and respectfully. Kinzer shares the details of his trip to Iran and his visit to Mossadegh’s final home. There are descriptions of colors, flowers, and buildings, and he places them in the context of what they experienced and looked like in history and how they had changed by the time of his visit. There is a certain romanticism about how he goes about interviewing people who were employees, villagers/neighbors, friends and family of Mossadegh. Stephen Kinzer makes it clear that with the Mossadegh name, there is a legacy, and there is a responsibility to keep the name pure. Purity and the instability of relationships were prevalent themes in this book. The intelligence that the American government received was not consistently pure. There were people who wanted to make a name for themselves and leveraged “The Cold War” and its threat of spreading communism as a way to convince an American president that it was time to start supporting the British government in its efforts to take back Iran’s newly-nationalized oil company. Kinzer did a good job of “calling out” these people, namely The Dulles Brothers. There were good people on all sides who had good intentions, and they were coupled with individuals or groups filled with mal-intent, which ultimately led to a surpise coup of Mohammed Reza Shah and the promotion to leadership and ultimate power of and for the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran. There were well-described changes in alliances that ultimately put the United States in an unsavory position with countries in the Middle East…definitely an unfortunate stance and one that can hopefully be corrected.

Came as promised. Was a used, good copy. Inside cover page was scribbled on by a child, but otherwise the remainder of the book was fine. Came quickly and priced well.

Well written a master piece of History!

Un libro muy bien documentado que se lee más bien como una fabula. No se si se puede trazar la linea entre los hechos del `53 y 9/11 pero seguro que la participación de la CIA en la caída del gobierno de Mossadegh ha marcado las relaciones entre Irán y Estados Unidos e igual también en las relaciones internacionales en el mundo moderno.

As a Persian I was extremely sad and angry at politicians who changed the history of my country in a way that was beneficial for them. Reading the history that I didn't know much about was eye opening and bitter which means the writer did a good job! I offered this book to my sister to read and she had the same feeling of bitterness after reading the book.

1953年に起こったイランのモサデク政権転覆クーデターは、CIA主導の秘密工作のうち最も有名な事件の一つであり、現在に至るもその悪影響を引きずっている。本書はモサデクの人物像を中心に、19世紀以来のイラン現代史、とりわけクーデターに至る経緯を描き出した歴史ノンフィクションである。 首相に就任したモサデクはイギリス資本の石油会社国有化を宣言、交渉が行き詰る中、英米側は彼の存在そのものが邪魔だと判断。CIAの工作員カーミット・ローズヴェルトの暗躍により、軍事クーデターでモサデクは逮捕された。アメリカはシャーの専制政治に肩入れした結果、イラン国民の反米感情を高めてイスラム革命を招き、さらには中東全体を不安定化させてしまったという歴史の連鎖が指摘される。

What an excellent read. This book gives an excellent account of the events of week in 1953 when coup managed by British and American politicians ,removed the prime Minister of Iran which affected the world around and has carried on the repercussions till now. It tells us how Britishers with their imperialistic mind set exploited Iran for its oil . It gives an intriguing account of propaganda that worked against the loyal and democratic leader of Iran who wanted to benefit and uplift his countryman by its own natural resources ie oil . Book wonderfully explains how Britishers ruled by looting the world thus uplifting their own country. Iran being the legitimate owners of their oil were given shoddy treatment and pennies in return which created hatred against western powers in people . Also corruption among its own people and exploitation by Britishers changed the course of world history which is felt even in new world.