The Shah (review)

Reading Abbas Milani's compelling biography The Shah is a rewarding yet dispiriting journey, as it might be for its author. In an engaging narrative style, Milani offers a fair and objective portrait of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and his contradictions and complexities, which affected the fate and fortune of modern Iran. Milani writes: "For the Shah, character was destiny" (p. 4) — a tragic destiny that was inevitably tied to the political fortune of the country and affected Iran's future. The Shah is an insightful portrayal of a tragic king who appeared to have all the advantages but was ill-suited to the throne, unable to withstand challenges or act as an effective leader in times of crisis. He was a "modernizing monarch," who desired to make Iran a modern nation with a strong economy comparable to the West but ignored popular sovereignty and refused to share power.

At a young age, he was sent to an exclusive Swiss boarding school to get a European education. Milani describes telling anecdotes regarding the young prince's encounter with his fellow students on his arrival. He was timid and shy, yet arrogant with a façade of toughness: "A hare pretending to roar like a lion." He saw a group of students gathered in the school yard, and, expecting special treatment and reverence but unable to get their attention to respectfully notice him, the young Pahlavi became agitated and suddenly attacked the nearest boy, who in return forced him to the ground and beat him up. Not able to withstand pressure, he asked for mercy and once on his feet, quietly shook the boy's hand and walked away (p. 46). In later years, when faced with serious challenges, the Shah demonstrated the same characteristics of retreat and withdrawal.

In 1953, when the first coup attempt by US and British agents — to remove the nationalist prime minister Mossadegh — failed, the Shah fled the country, only to return after the second coup attempt succeeded. In 1963, when confronted with a clerical challenge after declaring land reform and women's enfranchisement, it was the Shah's close friend Alam, then Prime Minister, who acted forcefully to quell the unrest and save the monarchy. Finally, in 1978, his lack of resolve and indecisive leadership in the face of serious opposition led to the collapse of the entire system.

Using carefully documented accounts of published and unpublished materials, a plethora of declassified diplomatic reports, and extensive interviews with trusted advisers and close associates, Milani has written an excellent biography of the Shah in a thoughtful, scholarly way, focusing on the Shah's character in the context of historical events and political turmoil, interspersed with anecdotes from his private life. A thread of sympathy for the Shah runs throughout the book, with a touch of Shakespearean tragedy for a monarch who failed to transfer his personal power into a strong political base. As Milani tells us, "The Shah, in a sense, was a historical anomaly ... a man of contradictory affinities, a prince who had inherited his power but did little to legitimize it, a ruler who promoted social and economic policies that hurled Iran into the modern age, yet was insistent on ruling the country like a nineteenth century oriental despot" (p. 280).

The Shah depended on American and British support, which had once brought him back to power, and was always sensitive to their attitude toward him — but negligent to the democratic aspirations of his own people. He could not tolerate dissent, was fearful of the left and moderate oppositions, and believed the clerics were his reliable allies. He promoted socioeconomic changes that created a well-to-do and better educated middle class, but denied them political freedom. "Had the Shah remained a constitutional monarch ... instead of becoming a modernizing, albeit authoritarian, monarch ... he might have been able to save his throne, and the monarchy" (p. 265). Instead, in a major political miscalculation, the Shah allied himself with "the forces of faith" who were busy creating vast networks of groups and institutions from...