Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Biography
Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (1919-80), king of Iran
(1941-1979), was born in Tehran on October 26, 1919, the eldest son of Reza
Shah. He completed his primary school in Switzerland. He returned to Iran in
1935, and enrolled in a Tehran military school, from which he graduated in
1938. In 1939 he married a sister of Faroq I, king of Egypt. The couple
divorced in 1949. Mohammad Reza married two more times, in 1950 with Soraya
Esfandiari and 1959 with Farah Diba.
He replaced his father, Reza Shah, on the throne on
September 16, 1941, shortly before his 22nd birthday. He continued the
reform policies of his father, but a contest for control of the government
soon erupted between the shah and an older professional politician, the
nationalistic Mohammad Mosaddeq.
During World War II, Britain and the USSR were
concerned by Reza Shah's friendly relations with Germany. In 1941 the two
countries invaded and occupied large areas of Iran. They forced Reza Shah to
abdicate, and in the absence of a viable alternative, permitted Mohammad
Reza to assume the throne. The new shah's reign began against a backdrop of
social and political disarray, economic problems, and food shortages.
Despite
his vow to act as a constitutional monarch who would defer to the power of
the parliamentary government, Mohammad Reza increasingly involved himself in
governmental affairs and opposed or thwarted strong prime ministers. Prone
to indecision, however, Mohammad Reza relied more on manipulation than on
leadership. He concentrated on reviving the army and ensuring that it would
remain under royal control as the monarchy's main power base. In 1949 an
assassination attempt on the Shah, attributed to the pro-Soviet Tudeh Party,
resulted in the banning of that party and the expansion of the Shah's
constitutional powers.
In the
context of regional turmoil and the Cold War, the Shah established himself
as an indispensable ally of the West. Domestically, he advocated reform
policies, culminating in the 1963 program known as the White Revolution,
which included land reform, the extension of voting rights to women, and the
elimination of illiteracy.
In 1967 he
crowned himself as King of the Kings (Emperor of Iran) and his wife, Farah
Diba, as Shahbanoo (Eperess), which caused discontentment amongst diffrent
levels of society. These measures and the increasing arbitrariness of the
Shah's rule provoked both religious leaders who feared losing their
traditional authority and students and intellectuals seeking democratic
reforms. These opponents criticized the Shah for violation of the
constitution, which placed limits on royal power and provided for a
representative government, and for subservience to the United States. The
Shah saw himself as heir to the kings of ancient Iran, and in 1971 he held
an extravagant celebration of 2,500 years of Persian monarchy. In 1976 he
replaced the Islamic calendar with an "imperial" calendar, which began with
the foundation of the Persian empire more than 25 centuries earlier. These
actions were viewed as anti-Islamic and resulted in religious opposition.
The shah's
regime suppressed and marginalized its opponents with the help of Iran's
security and intelligence organization, the SAVAK. Relying on oil revenues,
which sharply increased in late 1973, the Shah pursued his goal of
developing Iran as a mighty regional power dedicated to social reform and
economic development. Yet he continually sidestepped democratic arrangements
and refused to allow meaningful civic and political liberties, remaining
unresponsive to public opinion.
By the
mid-1970s the Shah reigned amidst widespread discontent caused by the
continuing repressiveness of his regime, socioeconomic changes that
benefited some classes at the expense of others, and the increasing gap
between the ruling elite and the disaffected populace. Islamic leaders,
particularly the exiled cleric Ayatollah Khomeini, were able to focus this
discontent with a populist ideology tied to Islamic principles and calls for
the overthrow of the shah. The Shah's government collapsed following
widespread uprisings in 1978 -1979 and consequently an Islamic Republic
succeeded his regime.
Beset by advanced cancer, the shah left Iran in
January 1979 to begin a life in exile. He lived in Egypt, Morocco, the
Bahamas, and Mexico before going to the United States for treatment of
lymphatic cancer. His arrival in New York City led to the Iranian takeover
of the American Embassy in Tehran by "Students of Imam's Line" and the
taking hostage of more than 50 Americans for 444 days.
Che' Guevara was born Ernesto Guevara de la Serna on 14 June 1928 in
Rosario, Argentina, into a relatively upper-middle class family. His father
was a construction engineer. He was the first of five children.
Develops a severe asthmatic condition at the age of two,
prompting his family to move to the drier climate of Alta Gracia, Cordoba.
Most of his early education was provided by his mother at
home. He is reported to have read widely and deeply from his father's
library, encountering Marx and Freud in his early teens.
In 1941, he attends the Colegio Nacional Dean Funes, a
secondary school in Cordoba.
Enrolled in the University of Buenos Aires in 1948,
studies medicine, becomes interested in leprosy. His asthma disqualifies him
for military service.
Makes a 4,000 mile long journey through Northern
Argentina alone on a moped, encountering many indigenous tribes and
experiencing firsthand the impoverished conditions of their lives.
In 1951, he takes off on a motorcycle journey with his
good friend, Alberto Granado. They travel from Buenos Aires, down the coast
of Argentina, through the Andes into Chile, and then north into Peru,
Columbia and Venezuela. The diary Che kept during this time has been
published as: The Motorcycle Diaries: A Journey Around South America.
He qualifies as a doctor in 1953, specializing in
dermatology. Around this time he was exposed to the attempted worker reforms
following the National Revolution of 1952 in Boliva.
Walks and hitchhikes to Guatemala, witnesses the
overthrow of the radical socialist government of Jacobo Arbenz by
USA-supported Castillo Armas. He could not help but note the vital role that
the CIA played in the counter-revolution. Establishes connections with
Peruvian Apristas and other Latin American radicals.
In September of 1954, he moves to Mexico City, finding
work in the General Hospital. Through Hilda Gadea, a Peruvian Marxist, he
meets Fidel Castro and involves himself in the planned invasion of Cuba. He
marries Gadea. They have a daughter, Hildita.
Under the influence of Castro, Alberto Bayo and the
writings of Mao Tse-tung, he begins to form the primary axioms of his
philosophy of guerrilla warfare. In this time he also began to be called
'Che', for his habit of ending his sentences and calling his friends 'Che'-
which is an Argentinian expression for buddy.
In 1956, the revolutionaries land in Cuba on the "yacht"
Granma, initating a three-year guerrilla war against the dictator, Fulgencio
Batista. Che is included at first for his medical expertise but soon rises
through the ranks to become the Commandante of the Revolutionary Army of
Barbutos. In this role, he is directly responsible for dozens of executions
of defectors and Batista loyalists.
The revolutionaries succeed in overthrowing the
Batista regime in January of 1959. Che is now considered second only to
Castro, who appoints him Governor of the National Bank.
He marries Aleida March de la Torre, with whom he
eventually has four children.
He is made Minister for Industry in 1961, becomes
increasingly hostile towards US interests in the Cuban economy, strengthens
relationship with USSR. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Che advocates
nuclear confrontation.
From 1961 to 1965, he travels with his wife around the
world as an ambassador for Cuba.
Becomes disillusioned with Soviet Communism, makes a
formal break in a speech delivered in February of 1965. Calls for
guerrilla-type revolutionary actions in Africa, Asia and South America.
Che goes underground, traveling through Africa,
eventually assembling a group of Cubans to fight in the Kinshasa rebellion
in the Congo. The rebellion fails and Che withdraws in August of 1965.
Castro informally removes Guevara from office, their
ideas for the future of Cuba having radically diverged.
He disguises himself as Uraguayan economist, shaving off
his beard and not wearing his famous beret, in order to travel incognito
through Latin America.
In November 1966, he leads a group of guerrillas through
southeastern Bolivia, hoping to inspire the peasants and workers into a
revolutionary movement that would spread all throughout Latin America,
sparking off "twenty new Vietnams". Dispirited by casualties, illness and
depression, the ragged group is cornered by a Bolivian battalion (which had
been trained by US Special Forces in anti-guerrilla warfare) in a gorge on
October 8. Two jets and a helicopter provide air support. Che is taken to
the nearby town of La Higuera.
He refuses all attempts at interrogation by CIA and
Bolivan officials. The Bolivian president, General Rene Barrientos, orders
the execution of Guevara as soon as possible.
9 October 1967. After a few false starts and Che's
telling them to get it over with, six or more shots are fired into Guevara's
torso. One version of his reported last words were: "I knew you were going
to shoot me; I should never have been taken alive. Tell Fidel that this
failure does not mean the end of the revolution, that it will triumph
elsewhere. Tell Aleida to forget this, remarry and be happy, and keep the
children studying. Ask the soldiers to aim well." Others have claimed his
last words to have been: "Shoot, coward! You are going to kill a man."
After his death, a death mask was made and his hands were
cut off to ensure identification. His body was buried in a secret grave.
Guevara was 39 years old.
In June of 1997, a team of Cuban and Argentinian
scientists recovered the skeleton, missing both hands, of Guevara in the
town of Vallegrande, Bolivia. The bones have since been "repatriated" to
Cuba.
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