Rating: 
Summary: The birth of hate and terrorism against US in the MiddleEast
Review: Another evidence of arrogance, ignorance, stupidity, imperialism, and undermining peoples rights in other countries. The early chapters beautifully describe the slow but steady increase of Western influence in Iran during 18th and 19th Centuries. Later arrogance of British Imperialism by "draining" natural resources of their under influenced colonies (take a look at anywhere that Brits controlled and tell me what they left behind? i.e. tea parties, cricket, soccer, dictators, corruption, etc.). Many years ago, my father told me the story of the Coup in that hot Summer day in Isphahan (central city in Iran). Then he was a pro-Mossadegh student. He was telling me how in the morning people were pro Mossadegh and in the afternoon they were against him. Now I know, what my father saw were paid mobs organized to discredit Mossadegh's supporters in the morning and smash them in the afternoon. The book is well written, bitter but true historical fact that we all need to know. Mossadegh was the only true democratic leader Iran ever had. Thanks for the fantastic work.
Rating:
Summary: Great Read
Review: All the Shah's men is a brilliant narrative of rarely told story about how the CIA with the assistance from British government was responsible for the coup d'etat of popular and democratically elected prime minister of Iran Mohammad Mossadegh. This book is a real eye-opener to what led to the Islamic revolution of 1979 and the terrorist attacks on American citizens and installations, culminated in the embassy hostage crisis. The overthrow orchestrated by the CIA and the British is responsible for ascendance of fundamentalist clerics who espouse world wide support of Islamic fundamentalist causes (financing of Hezbollah and PIJ). The book is not only a great read it also presents a number of interesting lessons that US government should definitely heed. One of the interesting conclusions that could be implicitly drawn from the book is this: 9/11 could be an indirect result of the 1953 coup, here is the reasoning. 1953 coup led to the tyranny of the Shah which in turn led to the Islamic revolution. The revolution was a factor in Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which gave rise to Taliban and Osama bin Ladin's Al-Quida. The link is certainly a tenuous one nevertheless it deserves a careful consideration. I would suggest this book to anyone who wants to know more about the Iran, CIA involvement in the coup against Mossadegh, Islamic revolution and wide-spread anti-Americanism following the revolution.
Rating: 
Summary: Kinzer presents one side of the story very well
Review: Every story has two sides. Unfortunately, you won't find both sides in this book. After reading Mr. Kinzer's take on the the coup to remove Mossadegh, one can only conclude that the US and UK were a bunch of ignorant thugs with no good reason to do what they did. While the French might buy this, I certainly don't.
Here are some questions I would have liked to see addressed by Kinzer: What would Iran have been like had Mossadegh been allowed to remain in power? Did anything good happen under the Shah's reign--and if so, what? Why wouldn't the US want a communist dictator in power in Iraq during that time period? Was 9-11 a simple matter of action (an American coup) and reaction (terrorist attack on the US), or did human choice enter into the equation?
Kinzer polarizes his entire presentation, which damages its crediblity. I found myself too busy disecting his assertoins to feel embarrassed as an American for what happened--which I think is one of his aims. One positive thing the book did do for me is leave me wanting to hear the other side of the story.
Rating:
Summary: Full of good detail but also left-wing guilt trip
Review: The author does a good job in providing details about Operation Ajax, the political players involved, and the history of Iran's culture and politics. However, the author laces the entire book with the ususal left-wing, blame America guilt trip and than links our role in the coup of Mossadegh's government to why we where attacked on September 11th, 2001. He argues that our role in Mossadegh's overthrow, and our support of the Shah, allowed Islamic extremists to paint us as enemies of Islam and justice to the Arab street. We must not forget that terrorist groups hate us for who we are, NOT for what we have ever done. It is laughable that these blame America left-wingers actually teach that if America had never gotten involved in Iran, Iraq, Israel, or the rest of the Middle East in our history that the attacks against us would have never happened. It was in America's interest, for economic and security reasons, to support the Shah who gave women the vote and the right to go to school, and kept Iran as a pro-western and secular nation in a region full of the dangers of nationalism and religious extremism that was open to manipulation by the former Soviet Union. Iran would have gone over to religious extremism in the late 1970's if the coup against Mossagedh had failed and it had a democratic government all throughout the 1950s and 1960s. The extremist mullahs would have used their religious extremism on Iran's Arab street to infilitrate the Majlis and then set up the same theocracy that Iran has now. That is why the U.S. still supports the royal families in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and etc. because we fear the results that nationalism and religious extremism would have on any democratic institutions that might replace their monarchies.
Rating: 
Summary: The Shah has been underestimated
Review: The Shah of Iran is siad to be a ruthless viscous dictator who suppressed human rights and Islam. Now this book wants us to beleive this is all because we helped the Shah overtunr a brutal communist Muslim who was about to take over the country.Lets examine the facts. The Shah gave women the vote. The Shah wanted ot modernize his country. Ask Iranians if they prefer to go back to the 1970s rather then live in an Islamofascist society where women are crushed and everyone is poor and people were used like cattle in the war with Iraq. This book is wrong. The Shah helped his people and it was necceary for us to support his maintaining his throne. Moossedeq was a brutal monster who wanted to abuse human rights as much if not more so then the shah and steal the money foriegners ahd invested in the country. Which was worse the Shahs torture chambers or Khomeinis??? Lets compare torture cchamber to torture chamber, thats rediuculous. They were both brutal.
Rating:
Summary: whatever!
Review: This book doesn't mention the fact that if Mosadegh would have stayed in power, Iran would be more like Cuba because of Mosadegh's communist ties. All we hear in this book is shah bad, cia bad, mosadegh good. Look at the people of Cuba for instance, Castro always said he never had communist affiliation prior to the Cuban Revolution but look at cuba now lol. utter ignorance. The main clerical revolution of iran was that Khomeini was upset that the Shah granted the right to vote to women, he granted immunity to foreign diplomats, and the fact that the country was westernized and modern. As an Iranian I am clearly offended and upset by this book and how this author thinks he knows everything when in reality its a bunch of biased hearsay.
Rating:
Summary: An all too relevant book for us all to read right now!
Review: This is an all too relevant book for us to be reading right now. I am currently writing a book on the history of the Middle East for Carroll & Graf (and Constable & Robinson in the UK) and the story of the coup - very ably described in this vivid book, will be a pivot of where things started to go wrong for the West. Whatever Mossadeq's faults - and he was often seriously weird - he was a secular nationalist very different from the kind of extremists Islamicist that Khomeini and others turned out to be. Thankfully, as I show in my own CHRISTIANS, MUSLIMS AND ISLAMIC RAGE, President Khatami and the moderates in Iran today are doing their best (there were PRO-AMERICAN riots after 9/11!), but it is an uphill struggle, all going back to our support for the Shah in 1953. This is a must read book! Christopher Catherwood, Cambridge; author of CHRISTIANS, MUSLIMS AND ISLAMIC RAGE (Zondervan, 2003)
Rating:
Summary: An excellent book, packed with information
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: A sad tale
Review: Kinzer's is an instructive, gripping, and useful book (should anyone be paying attention), though the writing is often surprisingly amateurish.
Rating:
Summary: ALL THE SHAH'S MEN
Review: Awesome, clear, credible, well-researched, kept me reading right to the end of this book before putting it down! A non-biased presentation on the subject.
|
