Abstract
In the immediate aftermath of the Shah’s departure, the impending return of Khomeini was a looming challenge for Prime Minister Bakhtiar, who combined a defiant public attitude with discreet efforts to establish direct dialogue with Khomeini. He was prepared to abolish the monarchy as long as remolding the constitution could be done through democratic means. This posture was unpopular among the military leaders whom Bakhtiar hoped to use as a tool vis-à-vis the opposition. In this, the prime minister was systematically undercut by Sullivan, who enjoyed the benign complicity of Huyser. General Gharabaghi was ambivalent, even in his loyalty to what remained of the dying regime. Bakhtiar failed to meet Khomeini and to prevent him from returning to Tehran, which set the stage for the final curtain as of February 1, 1979.
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Notes
- 1.
New York Times, January 21, 1979.
- 2.
Iran SITREP, January 22, 1979STATE017119, DSWL.
- 3.
Sullivan to DOS, 01118, January 23, 1979, DSWL; for Bazargan praising Bakhtiar, see, New York Times, January 25, 1979.
- 4.
Sullivan to DOS, 01118, January 23, 1979, DSWL.
- 5.
Ibid.
- 6.
See title “Confusion Compounds” in Chap. 17; see also, Sullivan, Mission to Iran, 236.
- 7.
Sullivan to Vance, secret, 01225, January 25, 1979, DSWL.
- 8.
Ibid.
- 9.
Sullivan, Mission to Iran, 236.
- 10.
Ibid., 237.
- 11.
Ibid, 221–2.
- 12.
Bakhtiar, sy’o haft rooz, 95.
- 13.
Sullivan to Vance, 01047, January 22, 1979, DSWL.
- 14.
Bakhtiar, Ma Fidélité, 130.
- 15.
Apple, New York Times, January 20, 1979; US Embassy SITREP, January 21, 1979, 017104; Huyser, Mission to Tehran, 172–3.
- 16.
Sullivan to DOS, 00954, January 20, 1979, DSWL.
- 17.
Bakhtiar, Ma Fidélité, 169; Si’o haft rooz, 18–19.
- 18.
Bakhtiar, Si’o haft rooz, 51.
- 19.
Bakhtiar, Ma Fidélité, 144–5.
- 20.
Text of letter of resignation dated January 21 in Agheli, Roozshomar, 2.394.
- 21.
See Kayhan, Bahman 8 (January 28) in Shokat, parvaz dar zolmat, 373. An English translation has been reprinted in full in Huyser, Mission to Tehran, 214–6.
- 22.
Bakhtiar, Ma fidélité, 154.
- 23.
Sullivan to DOS, 01379, January 28, 1979, DSWL; Shokat, parvaz dar zolmat, 373–4.
- 24.
Bazargan, engelab dar do harak, 31.
- 25.
The text reproduced in Shokat, parvaz dar zolmat, 374.
- 26.
Bakhtiar, si’o haft rooz, 19; Ma Fidélité, 155–6.
- 27.
Yazdi memoirs, 3.397, 3.414.
- 28.
Huyser, Mission to Tehran, 164.
- 29.
Ibid., 167.
- 30.
Meeting of Sullivan with Bakhtiar, Sullivan to Vance, 01118, January 23, 1979, DSWL.
- 31.
New York Times, January 24, 1979.
- 32.
Apple, New York Times, January 24, 1979; US Embassy SITREP, 01200, January 24, 1979, DSWL.
- 33.
Apple, New York Times, January 25, 1979; US Embassy SITREP, 01260, January 25, 1979, DSWL; Huyser, Mission to Tehran, 201.
- 34.
Huyser, Mission to Tehran, 242; Apple, New York Times, February 1, 1979.
- 35.
Department of State SITREP, 021916, January 26, 1979; Huyser, Mission to Tehran, 201; Eric Pace in New York Times, January 27, 1979.
- 36.
Embassy SITREP, 01446, January 29, 1979, DSWL.
- 37.
Agheli, Roozshomar, 2.399.
- 38.
Sanjabi memoirs, 349.
- 39.
Sullivan to DOS, 01408, January 29, 1979, DSWL.
- 40.
This reasoning was the alibi used by the high command when, on February 11, they opted to abandon Bakhtiar, see, “The High Council of the Commanders” in Chap. 19.
- 41.
Gharabaghi, Vérité, 158–60.
- 42.
Huyser, Mission to Tehran, 160; Sick, All Fall Down, 140.
- 43.
US Consulate Shiraz to DOS, 00163, November 2, 1978, DSWL.
- 44.
Sullivan’s conversation with the Shah, STATE313792, December 13, 1978, DSWL; Parsons, The Pride and the Fall, 111.
- 45.
Sullivan to DOS, 11922, December 6, 1978, DSWL.
- 46.
On prevalence of militant religiosity among non-commissioned officers, see US Consulate Shiraz to DOS 00163, November 2, 1978, DSWL; Sullivan to DOS, Navy non-commissioned officers in Bandar Abbas, December 2, 1978, DSWL.
- 47.
Interview with ex-revolutionary officer, Colonel (Rt.) Mohammad-Ali Sharafalnasab in Mashreq News, 20 Bahman 1393/February 11, 2014.
- 48.
Biography of Major-General Mohammad Salimi in Wikipedia, Persian.
- 49.
Sharafalnasab in Mashreq News.
- 50.
Sick, All Fall Down, 140.
- 51.
Other than those named were the future generals: Ali Shahbazi; Hossein Hasani-Saadi; Hassan Aqarebparast; Ata’ullah Salehi; Ali Syad-Shirazi; and Abdollah Najafi; see, “farmandehan artesh pas az enqelab chegouneh entkhb mishodand”, Mashreq News online, February 9, 2015, https://www.mashreghnews.ir/news/388214/.
- 52.
Yazdi memoirs, 3.402.
- 53.
On this point, also see Stemple, Inside the Iranian Revolution, 161; Sullivan to Vance, 01225 January 25, 1979, DSWL.
- 54.
Yazdi memoirs, 3.403–4. The timing must coincide with the second half of January 1979 as Azhari Oveissi did not figure in the list. The name of the youth group is not mentioned by Yazdi; the top generals named were Fardoust, Gharabaghi, Hashemi-Nezhad, Shafaght, Badrehei, Rabii, Habibollahi, Rahimi, Jahanbani, Neshat, Khosrowdad and Afshar.
- 55.
Kayhan: 20 Farvardin 1358/April 9, 1979; Pahlavi, Réponse à l’histoire, 247.
- 56.
Among the top ranking in this caterory figure, Ovessi and Gharabaghi, both four-star generals, and the Shah’s chief military aide-de-camps, Lt. Gen Hashemi-Nezhad.
- 57.
Sullivan to DOS, 1978STATE324033, December 24, 1978 DSWL; conversation between MAAG Chief General Gast and J-5 chief General Bakhshi-Azar, 11,877, December 5, 1978 DSWL.
- 58.
Fardoust, memoirs, 2.624.
- 59.
Bazargan told Sullivan that he personally knew Gharabaghi and could directly pursue contacts with him; Sullivan, Mission to Iran, 238.
- 60.
Sullivan, Mission to Iran, 222; Sick, All Fall Down, 136.
- 61.
Other than Gen. Taqi Riahi, Mosaddeq’s chief of the general staff, the circle included Brigadier Masudi, colonels Gholam-Reza Nejati, Manouchehr Zarrabi, Azizollah Amir-Rahimi (close to Ayatollah Taleghani), Gholam-Reza Mosaver-Rahmani, Javad Fakuri, Ezatollah Momtaz and Nasrollah Tavakoli.
- 62.
A case in point was Colonel Tavakoli-Neyshapouri, Rt. (a close aide to Bazargan), who was in liaison with J-5 chief at Supreme commander’s staff; see memoirs of Tavakoli-Neyshapouri, akharin soqut’e aryaha, 646–7.
- 63.
The then US Ambassador Chapin characterized the scheme as “fuzzy, amounted to little”, Doc. 229, February 28, 1958, FRUS (1958–60), vol. 12, pp. 537–8.
- 64.
Montazeri memoirs, 1.244.
- 65.
Gharani, in conversation with Lambrakis, Sullivan to DOS, 01563, January 31, 1979, DSWL.
- 66.
Chapin to Dulles, doc. 229, February 28, 1958, FRUS (1958–60), vol. 12, pp. 541–2.
- 67.
Gharani, in conversation with Lambrakis, Sullivan to DOS, 01631, February 1, 1979, Sullivan to DOS, 01563, January 31, 1979, DSWL.
- 68.
Conversation with MAAG chief General Gast, in Sullivan to DOS, 11877, December 5, 1978, Sullivan to DOS, 01563, January 31, 1979, DSWL; Tavakoli-Neyshapouri, akharin soqout’e Aryaha, 646–7.
- 69.
Sullivan to DOS, 01890, February 7, 1979, DSWL; after the victory of the revolution Azarbarzin was appointed as air force chief while Najimi was among the inner circle of Bazargan military advisors; see also Tavakoli-Neyshapouri, akharin soqout’e Aryaha, 737–8; see also, Sepehr Zabih, The Iranian Military in Revolution and War (New York: Routledge, 1988), 36–37.
- 70.
Gharabaghi, Vérité, 95.
- 71.
Ibid., 239–40.
- 72.
Vance, Hard Choices, 338; Huyser, Mission to Tehran, 141, 160.
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Bayandor, D. (2019). Swansongs. In: The Shah, the Islamic Revolution and the United States. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96119-4_18
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