Word: shahs
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...summer palace outside Teheran, tough old Reza Shah Pahlavi of Iran listened intently to his radio. In London a BBC announcer was reading a famous Persian ballad, and through the spitting of static the Shah could hear an old story: how in the Middle Ages a heroic blacksmith named Kahveh killed a Persian tyrant. The poem ended, the announcer asked: "Where is Kahveh today...
After the broadcast the Shah sent a messenger to Britain's whip-smart Minister Sir Reader William Bullard. The gist of his message: "What do I do now?" The answer, polite but inflexible, was what the Shah expected. Getting into his limousine, he drove to town. There he left a letter with his brand-new Prime Minister Ali Feroughi. Then he drove south, 200 miles to Isfahan...
Next day a special session of Iran's pliant Parliament cheered at the news that Boss Reza had abdicated "for reasons of health." Parliament promptly sat his eldest son, 21-year-old Mohammed Shah Pahlavi, on the throne...
...Mohammed Shah. As Iran's young Shah came to power 20,000 Russian troops were camped outside Teheran, redding up their tanks for a triumphal entry into the city. Fraternizing with them in sign language were the men of a British brigade, also ready to march...
Departing in Iranian Army trucks and carriages of the Trans Iranian Railway were the men whose presence had set off the brief Iranian war: Axis diplomats en route to Berlin and Rome, and Axis technicians en route to internment camps in India. The new Shah would have new international friends...