By Goudarz Eghtedari

On Jan. 7 1952, in introducing the Man of the Year for 1951, Time Magazine wrote, “Once upon a time, in a mountainous land between Baghdad and the Sea of Caviar, there lived a nobleman. This nobleman, after a lifetime of carping at the way the kingdom was run, became Chief Minister of the realm. In a few months he had the whole world hanging on his words and deeds, his jokes, his tears, his tantrums. Behind his grotesque antics lay great issues of peace or war, progress or decline, which would affect many lands far beyond his mountains.” Time’s editors went on to introduce their choice for the Man of the Year, who had competed against Dwight Eisenhower, Harry Truma, and Winston Churchill, among others. He was Mohammed Mossadegh, Premier of Iran in the year 1951. Among other accomplishlments, Mossadegh had put Scheherazade in the petroleum business and oiled the wheels of chaos. His acid tears dissolved one of the remaining pillars of a once-great empire. In his plaintive, singsong voice he gabbled a defiant challenge that sprang out of a hatred and envy almost incomprehensible to the West.

Dr. Mossadegh was the first elected prime minister in Iran to come to power on a platform that pioneered the nationalization of oil in the Middle East. In response to a long period of exploitation of Iran’s resources by Western countries, most importantly the United Kingdom, Iran’s stuggle for independence, nationalism and the fight for democracy and self-determination all came together in one goal: nationalizing the oil as the most important natural resource of the nation.

The West’s military strength to resist communism grew in 1951. Thus Iran as a buffer between the Soviets and the Middle East became more important than ever. But Mossadegh’s challenge could not be met by force. Despite all its power, the West failed to cope with a weeping, fainting leader of a helpless country; the West had not yet developed the moral muscle to define its own goals and responsibilities in the Middle East. Until the West did develop that moral muscle, it had no chance with the millions represented by Mossadegh in Iran, and others in Egypt and in a dozen other countries. Hence, British challenges to these national desires turned into conspiratorial efforts that eventually dragged the United States into its first international intervention after WWII, a beginning to many more. The CIA designed and executed a coup d’état that toppled Dr. Mossadegh’s government and brought back the Shah from his self-imposed exile. That coup, in fact ended years of aspirations for democracy and modernity in Iran, and consequently the rest of the Middle East. Many scholars believe that the 1953 coup and crash of the national bourgeois democracy in Iran is one of the causes for the fundamentalism and extremism that we face today in the region. Stephen Kinzer’s The Men of the Shah and the New York Times publication of CIA history of the coup brought back into the American public eyes the discussion of the Ajax operation that was known o the academic sphere and interested individuals.

One of the first scholars to have researched this topic two decades ago is Mark Gasiorowski, professor of political science at Louisiana State University. Gasiorowski, who earned his doctorate in political science from the University of North Carolina in 1984, specializes in Third World politics, Middle East politics, and comparative and international political economy. He became fascinated with Iran while he was in graduate school in the late 1970s, and watched the country’s revolution—with all of its anti-American elements—play out in the media.

He turned this fascination into a thesis on the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran and his downfall. His thesis, in turn, eventually became a book, U.S. Foreign Policy and the Shah: Building a Client State in Iran, which was published by Cornell University Press in 1991.

Through the years, Mark has gained respect for his knowledge of Iran and the surrounding region. He has been asked to provide information on Iran for a number of government agencies and non-government organizations. He has co-edited (with Nikki Keddie) Neither East Nor West: Iran, the Soviet Union, and the United States (Yale University Press, 1990) and has just published, with Malcolm Byrne, Mohammad Mosaddeq and the 1953 Coup in Iran (Syracuse University Press, 2004). Gasiorowski was a Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Law and Political Science, Tehran University, in 1994, 1996, and 1998 and has also been a Visiting Fellow at the Middle East Centre, St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford in the 2001-2002 academic year. He is a member of the editorial boards of Political Research Quarterly, International Political Economy Yearbook, and Discourse. He has served as Book Review Editor for International Journal of Middle East Studies and CIRA Bulletin.

Gasiorowski, who regularly travels to Iran, and is in contact with Iranians inside and outside the country, believes in the hospitable nature of Iran’s people and Middle-Eastern culture—something many Americans are not aware of, because they are exposed only to television images of the region’s strife, struggles, and violence.

“They are tremendously welcoming and warm,” he said of the Iranian people. “They like American people. They see us as open and friendly.” Gasiorowski explained that Iranians make a clear distinction between people and the government of the United States. They may not trust the U.S. government, but these feelings are not transferred to the country’s citizens.

Professor Gasiorowski is the keynote speaker of the Iran Forum that is organized annually in conjunction with the Iranian Festival at campus of Portland State University. This year’s festival will feature a full afternoon of presentations of socio-political views about Iran, modern Islam, and Iranian participation in 2004 elections. In addition Iran Forum 2004 is a showcase of Iranian arts, music, cuisine, and much more; overall a one-stop shop to test Iranian food and politics.

Goudarz Eghtedari hosts the “Voices of the Middle East” on KBOO 90.7 fm in Portland, OR every second Thursday from 6-7 pm. For previous interviews go to www.voicesofthemiddleeast.com Next Show Thursday June 10th 6-7 pm at KBOO 90.7 fm. My guests are Esther and Tom Nelson who have had several trips to Palestine this year and will talk about the Gaza pull out plan and present situation on the ground.