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

by Stephen Kinzer

Book Overview

An account of the CIA's coup d etat in Iran in 1953. Written by a noted New York Times journalist, this book is based on documents about the coup (including some lengthy internal CIA reports) that have been declassified.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471678783
• ISBN13: 9780471678786
• Release Date: August 2004
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Length: 258 Pages
• Weight: 0.83 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Democracy USA coup on Democracy Iran 1953

All The Shah’s Men is a wonderful read to understand the history if British Imperialist in Iran, an ancient civilization with proud history, in its involvement. How it scares off the American government in a CIA coup in 1953 with a disaster root of Middle East terror even to this day. Stephen documented in this book with details how Iran from pro American to violent anti-American with the 1979 hostage crisis. The British Imperialist borrow American knife to kill Mossadegh for his nationalization of the Iran-British oil company. In their vain private case to International Court of Justice and United Nation lost in self-determination, democracy and freedom. A democracy kill off another democracy because of fake ideology. It led to 1979 hostage crisis and Persian Gulf is no longer peaceful. This book confirms western worry in Professor Huntington’s Clash of Civilization in the cooperation of Muslim and Confucius idea to dominate and challenge Christian West. Iran wants to restore his glory and respect in their nuclear ambition. He in the epilogue shared his visit to Mossadegh’s home town almost fifty years after the coup for the respect of this Iranian patriot. This book written decades ago is still relevant to this date for American politicians, climaxed in Bush proclamation of Axis of Evil. This book help understand the root cause of form the imperialist coup to foster the growth of Taliban and ISIS terrorism in the fireball of September 11 New York WTC twin towers. It helps to shape the world reality.

Essential reading for understanding US relations with Iran

This is a short and very readable account of the American sponsored coup that overthrew the Iranian government of Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953. I recommend this book for a variety of reasons. First, it briefly summarizes Iranian history in a way that readers without a lot of background can absorb. Secondly, Kinzer tells the story of the coup without loading the reader down with so much detail that the essentials of the story are obscured. Thirdly, while Kinzer clearly blames the British, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and the Eisenhower Administration for making a short-sighted decision, he acknowledges that there is no way to disprove the justification for the coup, i.e., that it was necessary to prevent a Soviet takeover of Iran. As an aside, Harry Truman comes off looking very wise in resisting pressure from Britain to support the coup; a decision the Eisenhower Administration reversed.

Please share this eye-opening book by gifting it to someone

This book is my favorite over the last 2 years, and I read more than 50 books every year (about one book per week). My only complaint is that the title of the book should have mentioned Mossadegh....something like, "The Story of Mossadegh: How the British and the CIA Destroyed a Great Soul and a Great Nation." All the Shah's Men are not important - history will forget them, at most in a few decades. Mossadegh's legend will grow with time, just like those of Socrates or Mother Teresa. Mossadegh was to the Iranians, what Gandhi was to Indians, or what Martin Luther King was to the African Americans. Its just a matter of time - the current Islamic govt. in Iran is too afraid of the democratic ideals that Mossadegh represented. Sooner or later Mossadegh will occupy the place in history that he rightfully deserves - there will be many more books, movies, and who knows even future revolutions inspired by him. 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!

An excellent book, packed with information

I recommend this book to every person interested in the modern history of the Midde East and wondering why are there only extremists rising from the region. The book examines recently declassified CIA documents and accurately pieces together the series of events that led to the 1953 coup that ousted the nationalist prime minister, Dr Mohammad Mossadegh. It is provides another example of the consequences of colonialism and emperialism and it is very pertinent considering the recent wave of occupation politics adopted by the US government.All the Shah's Men is written with the suspense of a mystery novel and very hard to put down once you pick it up. It is accessible, and provides sufficient background for the reader not familiar with the politics and history of Iran.

Informative book on Iranian history

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

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?