If only the Shah had held it together.

If he just didn't mess around with land reform he possibly could have done it.

But because he fucked that up and angered both the peasants and the nobles It allowed extremeists of a crazy religion to gain support of self interested nobles and ignorant peasants to there side.

I also blame the fair portion of the Western world and their treatment of Iran back then.

"But he was a bad man with his own police force!"

So the fuck what, he was basically a classical emperor,  Empires require an iron hand, at least an Empire or a Rebublic is a functioning long term government unlike Democracies and Dictatorships that so many think tank know it all know nothings insist on.

And just look what kind of government took over in his place, Fucking totalitarian theocracy that is hostile to basically the entire world.

Also feel sorry for the average Joe there because after he was ousted their economy has slowly gone more and more downhill the past 40 years and are now borderline getting close to 3rd world status, if things kept going on the original path that he set they would have an economy that would rival Germany at this point.

Just such a big opportunity wasted and flushed down the drain.

They won't ever be the land of Mazda anymore but at least they would have been far better than what they are now.

Oh well that's history for you.

Indeed

For those interested - check out these 25 photos show what Iran looked like before the 1979 revolution turned the nation into an Islamic republic

FPNI once again. First thing I thought when seeing OPs post was those pics. SMH every time I see them.

I remember when the revolution started, some of them escaped and moved in my area.  I had the “Death to Iran” attitude, then I started seeing some of the girls.  Some of them were smoking hot.

Empress Soraya was a beautiful woman



plus the title 'Empress' has to be worth at least a +2 bonus on the hotness scale.

He's a lot like Czar Nicholas II, someone who had a strong father in a country that needed a strong leader to hold it together, and both were weak and unprepared in face of changing time and revolutions.

But he did throw one hell of a party.

I don't know anything about Iran, but I watched the TV series Tehran and when I saw the mountains over the city I thought "could that be real?". Yep, it's real.

As to the emperor ruling with an iron fist, I think I know what you're saying. I think the average American doesn't give enough thought to conditions in other countries. A weak leader would literally be torn to shreds.

The company I work for was doing business in Iran when the Shah fell.  It damn near bankrupted the company.  You can read about it in the Congressional hearings on Iran and the company was eventually awarded some of the money through a series of hearings.

We had an old crew of engineers and field guys who all had to hide out when the Shah fell.  From a coworker's obituary:



Apparently they hid out with some Brits and through some negotiations they were taken to the airport and told to not stop and get on a plane.  They had a Chevy K2 Blazer and I can't remember the other vehicle (a GM car, but the model escapes me) they had to abandon because the Iranians were looking for them.

Jimmah thought some of "Dat Ole Time Religion" would be good for Iran.  
He didn't know that Southern Baptist  was quite different from Islam.  

Our nation (and the world) still suffers from Carter's legacy over 4 decades after he left office.  So much of Clinton's legacy is beginning to hurt us now, especially WRT China.  Imagine how long were are going to be hurting from 0bama and whatever horrors Biden sets us up for...  

this
the shit doesn't just stop after 4-8 years the repercussions of stupidity are long lasting

Here are some photos of 1970s Iran before the Fall of the Shah in 1979.
Many of these people would identify as "Persian", not Iranian.
They are not Arabs (Arabic speaking). Persians speak Farsi.
There were a couple of Persian girls who lived in our apartment building in San Franscisco circa 1977.
They were extremely attractive.