Reacting to Iran’s Descent into Chaos

Ali, Luman

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-94406-7_4

Luman Ali⁴

Part of the book series: Security, Conflict and Cooperation in the Contemporary World ((SCCCW))

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Abstract

Ali provides a comprehensive survey of the British diplomatic experience in relation to Iran through 1978 as the Shah was deposed through a revolution which was a culmination of a prolonged period of violence that saw riots, protests, and tragedies such as the Cinema Rex fire and Jaleh Square massacre. The reaction of the embassy, ambassador Parsons, and Foreign Secretary David Owen amongst others, to the unfolding unrest, is scrutinised by Ali in addition to British ministerial visits to Iran, the role of the BBC Persian Service, the activities of Ayatollah Khomeini in Paris, the attack on the British embassy in Tehran and the comparative reaction of the Americans to events.

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Notes

1.
Parsons, Sir Anthony, Interview—British Diplomatic Oral History Project (BDOHP), Churchill Archive Centre, Cambridge, 14–18.
2.
Young, John W., David Bruce and Diplomatic Practice: An American Ambassador in London, 1961–69 (London, 2014), 67.
3.
Ibid., 93.
4.
Berridge, Geoff, Diplomacy: Theory and Practice (5th ed.) (Basingstoke and New York, 2015), 123.
5.
Parsons, The Pride and the Fall, 63.
6.
Ibid., 64–65.
7.
Owen, David, A Time to Declare, 387.
8.
BT241/2928, MO25/2/77/1.
9.
DEFE13/1320. HDS/PO/1248. 20 July 1978.
10.
Thatcher, Margaret, The Path to Power (London, 1995), 381.
11.
Ibid., 380.
12.
Ibid., 381.
13.
On the Soviet presence in Iran, see: Yodfat, Aryeh Y., The Soviet Union and Revolutionary Iran (London, 1984) and Zabih, Sephr, The Left in Contemporary Iran: Ideology, Organisation and the Soviet Connection (London, 1986).
14.
Thatcher, The Path to Power, 382.
15.
Ibid., 382.
16.
http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/103667. Accessed 19 February 2017.
17.
http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/103489. Accessed 19 February 2017.
18.
Hennessy, Peter, Whitehall (London, 2001), 402.
19.
Owen, A Time to Declare, 322–323.
20.
Ibid., 395.
21.
Ibid., 323.
22.
FCO8/3199, Visit to Iran by Members of Parliament (29 June 1978).
23.
The National Archives (TNA) at Kew Gardens, PREM16/1719, Parsons to Owen (10 May 1978).
24.
FCO8/3194 (6 July 1978).
25.
Carter Library: NSC Brzezinksi Tab 27 Box 4.
26.
Amuzegar, Jahangir, The Dynamics of the Iranian Revolution: The Pahlavis’ Triumph and Tragedy (New York, 1991) 87.
27.
Sreberny, Annabelle and Torfeh, Mossoumeh, Persian Service: The BBC and British Interests in Iran (London, 2014), 78.
28.
Ibid., 83.
29.
Radji, Parviz C., In the Service of the Peacock Throne: The Diaries of the Shah’s Last Ambassador to London (London, 1983).
30.
Sreberny and Torfeh, Persian Service, 80.
31.
Ibid., 81.
32.
Ibid., 79.
33.
Ibid., 94–95.
34.
TNA CAB129/202/3, CP(78)73 (7 July 1978).
35.
Parsons, The Pride and the Fall, 66–67.
36.
PREM16/1719, TELNO505 (14 August 1978).
37.
Arjomand, Said Amir, The Turban for the Crown: The Islamic Revolution in Iran (New York, 1988), 103.
38.
FCO8/3220 (9 August 1978).
39.
Parsons, The Pride and the Fall, 68.
40.
PREM16/1719 (31 August 1978).
41.
Amuzegar, The Dynamics of the Iranian Revolution, 87–88.
42.
Owen, Time to Declare, 396.
43.
Ibid., 397.
44.
TNA CAB128/64, CM(78)31 (14 September 1978).
45.
Sullivan, William, Mission to Iran (New York, 1981), 167.
46.
Ibid., 168.
47.
Parsons, The Pride and the Fall, 71.
48.
PREM16/1719, TELNO618 (25 September 1978).
49.
Parsons, The Pride and the Fall, 77.
50.
PREM16/1719, Callaghan to the Shah (14 September 1978).
51.
PREM16/1719—Iran. Memo by David Owen.
52.
Pahlavi, Mohammad Reza, Answer To History, 169.
53.
Ibid., 170.
54.
PREM16/1719, TELNO616 (25 September 1978).
55.
BT241/2928, TELNO 675 (11 October 1978).
56.
Parsons, Pride and the Fall, 81.
57.
Ibid., 84.
58.
Bakhash, Shaul, The Reign of the Ayatollahs: Iran and the Islamic Revolution (London, 1985), 49.
59.
Ibid., 49.
60.
Ibid., 80.
61.
Owen, Time to Declare, 398.
62.
PREM16/1719, TELNO637 (3 October 1978).
63.
PREM16/1719, TELNO662 (11 October 1978).
64.
PREM16/1719, TELNO669 (12 October 1978).
65.
PREM16/1719, TELNO684 (19 October 1978).
66.
PREM16/1719, TELNO707 (30 October 1978).
67.
PREM16/1719 (1 November 1978).
68.
PREM16/1719, Parsons to Owen (9 October 1978).
69.
Owen, Time to Declare, 398.
70.
PREM16/1719 (27 October 1978).
71.
FCO8/3377 (September/October 1978).
72.
PREM16/1719, TELNO726 (1 November 1978).
73.
PREM16/1719, CAB002/04 (4 November 1978).
74.
Sullivan, Mission to Iran, 168.
75.
TNA CAB/128/64/17, CM(78)37 (2 November 1978).
76.
TNA CAB/128/64/17, CM(78)37 (2 November 1978).
77.
TNA PREM16/1720, TELNO944 (6 November 1978).
78.
PREM16/1720, TELNO904 (4 December 1978).
79.
FCO8/3208, Islam in Iran (5 November 1978).
80.
Ibid.
81.
PREM16/1719, Prendergast to Cartledge.
82.
PREM16/1719, ‘Iran: Commercial Contingency Planning’ Report on British trade in Iran.
83.
TNA, CAB130/1060, GEN149(78)1st Meeting (2 November 1978).
84.
CAB130/1060, GEN149(78)6 (9 November 1978).
85.
BT241/3045, EY(78)45 (13 November 1978).
86.
DEFE13/1320, MO26/9/15 (21 November 1978).
87.
DEFE13/1320, D/HDS/1/23 (30 November 1978).
88.
Beck, Peter, Using History, Making British Policy: The Treasury and the Foreign Office, 1950–76 (Basingstoke, 2006).
89.
Ibid., 241.
90.
Ibid., 242.
91.
PREM16/1720, Duty Clerk to the Prime Minister (5 November 1978).
92.
PREM16/1720, TELNO744 (6 November 1978).
93.
FCO8/3219, TELNO785 (9 November 1978).
94.
Ibid.
95.
Parsons, The Pride and the Fall, 97.
96.
Sullivan, Mission to Iran, 191.
97.
TNA, CAB128/64, CM(78)38 (9 November 1978).
98.
PREM16/1720, TELNO772 (7 November 1978).
99.
FCO8/3219, TELNO800 (12 November 1978).
100.
PREM16/1720, TELNO2663 (8 November 1978).
101.
PREM16/1720, Secretary of State’s Parliamentary Statement (6 November 1978).
102.
FCO8/3195 (24 October 1978–24 November 1978).
103.
PREM16/1720, TELNO783 (9 November 1978).
104.
PREM16/1720, TELNO871 (2 December 1978).
105.
PREM16/1720, TELNO949 (8 December 1978).
106.
PREM16/1720, TELNO4909 (12 December 1978).
107.
Memorandum from Brzezinski to Carter, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977–1980, Volume I, Foundations of Foreign Policy (Washington, 2014), 514.
108.
FCO8/3200, Owen and Afshar (14 December 1978).
109.
PREM16/1720, TELNO998 (19 December 1978).
110.
PREM16/1720, TELNO1006 (21 December 1978).
111.
PREM16/1720, TELNO1025 (28 December 1978).
112.
Parsons, The Pride and the Fall, 122.
113.
PREM16/1720, TELNO1037 (31 December 1978).
114.
PREM16/1720, Message No. 3 from Middle East Dept of FCO in answer to questions from Callaghan (30 December 1978).
115.
PREM16/1720, TELNO1035 (31 December 1978).
116.
TNA PREM 16/2131, TELNO13 (2 January 1979).
117.
Pahlavi, Answer To History, 171.
118.
Afkhami, Gholam Reza, The Life and Times of the Shah (Berkeley, CA, 2009), 501.
119.
Ibid., 543.
120.
PREM16/2131, TELNO14 (2 January 1979).
121.
Owen, A Time to Declare, 399.
122.
Sullivan, Mission to Iran, 204.
123.
PREM 16/1720, TELNO938 (7 December 1978).
124.
Sick, Gary, All Fall Down: America’s Fateful Encounter with Iran (London, 1985), 137.
125.
Yodfat, Aryeh Y., The Soviet Union and Revolutionary Iran (London, 1984), 47.
126.
Ullman, Richard, Anglo-Soviet relations, 1917–1921. Vol. 1, Intervention and the War (Princeton, 1961), 9.
127.
Parsons, The Pride and the Fall, 125.
128.
PREM16/2131, TELNO96 (10 January 1979).
129.
Amuzegar, Dynamics of the Iranian Revolution, 94.

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Ali, L. (2018). Reacting to Iran’s Descent into Chaos. In: British Diplomacy and the Iranian Revolution, 1978-1981. Security, Conflict and Cooperation in the Contemporary World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94406-7_4

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94406-7_4
Published: 20 July 2018
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-94405-0
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