My Green Bejeweled Land

[Jerseyrules]

Okay so this TL is one I've been wanting to do for a long time.  After extensive research, I present you with what I hope is a thought-provoking and optimistic "what if..."

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May 4, 1953

It was growing hot with the onset of summer, as well as the unrest growing in Iran.  Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh paced up and down the halls of his home at Ahmadabad, where in recent weeks he had taken refuge from the hustle and bustle (and political unrest) of Tehran.  He had worked closely with the young Shah, who was a splendid and even mildly popular figurehead, as well as easily influenced "when made to think he was in control."  Mossadegh knew that the Americans and British were working behind the scenes attempting to influence the Shah to overthrow him; it was only a matter of time before they could convince the naive King to attempt to seize control.  Yet it was not the Shah that concerned Mossadegh.  His confidant Hossein Fatemi convinced him that by driving a wedge between the Americans and British he could turn the tables and isolate the UK, which was trying every diplomatic trick in the book to isolate Iran in the international community.  Mossadegh resolved to travel to America and appeal to President MacArthur after his meeting with the Shah the next day.

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Dr. Mossadegh entered the Imperial Palace with his head held high; he towered over the Shah, and always courteously bowed, kissing the Shah's hand as was custom.  Though brief, the Prime Minister's message was blunt: We need not be enemies.  If you fire me, your whole ship of state will go down.  Our allies respect me, our people love me; if you attempt to depose me, or kill me, my people will rise up and your own soldiers will turn against you.  Maybe not now, or even in the next few years, but someday the nationalists will revolt against the institution of monarchy itself if you depose me.  And they will succeed.  This enemy will be far worse than I, and will destroy all you and your father have worked for to modernize, westernize, and civilize the Iranian People.  Our Kingdom will be thrown into the Dark Ages.  I will allow you to have all the glory of a monarch in Western nations.  You will be beloved by your people, and you will have only ceremonial power, as well as a massive government-funded bank account.  The Shah, terrified by the prospect of a threat greater then Mossadegh, conceded that perhaps some reform wasn't the worst thing that could happen.  The Shah officially ceded all command of the Iranian Armed Forces to Mossadegh that day by royal decree, and several royal perks were restored, including much of the royal property Mossadegh had seized and nationalized in recent months.

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The Chinese Civil War had dragged on for years with no end in sight.  The tide had begun to turn when America intervened on behalf of the Nationalists in 1949, but significant funding and soldiers did not arrive until President MacArthur took office in 1953, after defeating the highly unpopular incumbent President Truman in the 52 elections.  Mossadegh had repeatedly assured President MacArthur that he had no sympathies with communism, having enacted land reform to curb the influence of the pro-Soviet Tudeh Party.  He had also initiated crackdowns on Iranian Communist groups, and began a massive buildup of the Iranian military throughout his tenure as Iran's Head of Government in anticipation of a Soviet invasion.  MacArthur knew that Mossadegh was anti-Communist, but he questioned the Iranian's dedication to American and British interests in fighting communism in Asia and elsewhere outside Iran.  Mossadegh attempted to dispel such concerns.  He promised MacArthur that under the Oil Nationalization program, he would allow 50% to be owned by foreign companies, and, provided that $50 million were payed for damages by the British government, Iran would allow the British and Americans to hold substantial shares of Iranian oil, and provide both with economic and military support for the Chinese War.  MacArthur agreed to support Mossadegh publicly and privately, and agreed to persuade Churchill to lift sanctions on Iran.

Mossadegh was securely in power, and remained beloved by his people.

[Jerseyrules]

Fast forward.

The year is 1967.  It has been 12 years since Chiang Kai Shek and the Kuomintang won the Chinese Civil War.  President John F. Kennedy has presided over a massive buildup of NASA, culminating in a manned mission to the moon in 1964 and the first long term manned space station with the launch of Skylab in early 1963.  President MacArthur's buildup of the military around the world and successful invasion of Cuba in 1953 to quell the communist revolts there led to a brief period of backlash from the international community.  But Prime Ministers Mossadegh and Winston Churchill stood firmly with the Americans, and the situation quickly diffused, and President MacArthur's domestic popularity remained at an all-time high.

In Iran the situation was surprisingly stable after 1953.  Prime Minister Mossadegh and his National Front had swept all recent elections with landslide victories, and the Shah was often seen enjoying spending time with his family away from the politics and "hustle and bustle" of Tehran.  His popularity had increased exponentially, and he was well-known and well-liked internationally.  He enjoyed status as one of the most-beloved monarchs in the world, and in recent years a cult of personality has surrounded Iran's royal family  likened to that seen in the United Kingdom; the marriage of Farah Dibah to Mohammad Reza Shah in 1959 was international news.  It was an elaborate event, though more low-key than his previous weddings.  Among those in attendance was the aging but still-kicking Prime Minister Mossadegh, accompanied by his protégés Shapour Bakhtiar and Hossein Fatemi, both of whom sought Mossadegh's blessing when the ailing Premier stepped down.

Shah Pahlavi with his family, 1971

Mossadegh would continue on as Iran's Prime Minister until 1967.  He stepped down from a sixteen-year Premiership on August 19, 1967, endorsing Fatemi as his successor.  Fatemi was officially elected Prime Minister two days later, and thankfully had the charisma and intelligence to effectively fill the shoes of a leader who was truly larger-than-life.

Prime Minister Fatemi returns from his first foreign visit as Prime Minister, France 1967

Mohammad Mossadegh's career in public service concluded, he began to pen his memoirs, and would publish them in 1975 just months before his death on March 5, 1976.  Shah Pahlavi called a national week of mourning following Mossadegh's death, and Crown Prince Reza made his debut at the funeral, saying "Today we have lost a truly noble Iranian, one who led our people through a difficult time and executed his and my father's White Revolution.  Schools, hospitals, factories, housing, and universities were constructed.  Iran has taken her rightful place as one of the world's top ten economies.  We have worked in collaboration with the Americans to put a man on Mars, and a base on the moon, thanks to Doctor Mossadegh's work with Presidents Kennedy and MacArthur.  The standard of living in Iran is one of the highest in the world.  The nation and the world mourn the loss of Doctor Mossadegh, he was truly a giant and will be remembered for a thousand generations.  God Bless Doctor Mossadegh, and God Bless the People of Iran."

Doctor Mossadegh on his last foreign visit, a trip to the United States

[politicus]

Nice!

[Jerseyrules]

Crown Prince Reza's conversion to Zoroastrianism in 1979 was met with surprise and, among some, disgust.  However many Iranians praised his decision, as Zoroastrians were immensely beloved by nationalists, now the vast majority of Iranians.  The Crown Prince remained a beloved member of the royal family, and his conversion sparked a small but significant upsurge in Zoroastrian conversions by several prominent and many ordinary Iranians.  Zoroastrianism, a once-anonymous religion in the West, experienced a massive revival; many were curious to discover more about this religion, and perhaps find out why the Crown Prince of a Muslim nation had left Islam for it.  Some heralded Reza Pahlavi as a latter-day Constantine, but the Crown Prince insisted his conversion was not political in nature, and that it would not influence his future governance of Iran.  The Soviet Union worked discretely behind the scenes to use the revulsion of Islamic clerics to their advantage; they aligned themselves with a group of discontented clerics, called the Islamic Revolutionary Front, led by Rohullah Khomeini.  Khomeini became the public face of the movement, stirring up religious fervor and crusading against Western influence and modernization instituted by the Shah.  But he failed to gain any significant popularity, and was imprisoned in 1980.  The Soviets had miscalculated; they had hoped that the revolts could at least distract the Iranian government for a time so that they could execute their planned invasion of Afghanistan.  They would need to find a new ally, and they found one in Saddam Hussein.

The Soviets invaded Afghanistan in March 1980, sparking outrage in the American political community.  President Jimmy Carter was seen as weak and cowardly, not taking any direct action to intervene against the Soviet Union.  He lost popularity even in his own party, and Senator Ted Kennedy gained traction in his renegade primary challenge to the incumbent President.  Governor Ronald Reagan gained massive support for his denouncement of the Soviet Union as an "evil empire" and would go on to deliver a crushing defeat to President Carter in November, after the President barely managed clinch the nomination from an embittered Ted Kennedy, who publicly endorsed Independent candidate John Anderson.

But in Iran Prime Minister Fatemi took action immediately.  He gave the Afghanis a blank check, sending supplies, soldiers, and weapons into Afghanistan to help the stave off the USSR.  Shortly afterwards, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and Iraq, attempting to gain strategic oil fields.  His attempts were quickly thwarted, and Turkey and Saudi Arabia quickly sent troops to crush Saddam.  Israel and China also assisted the Iranians against Hussein, and Kuwait was quickly liberated.  Iraqi troops lost ground quickly, and within days were pushed back into Iraq.  Saddam stood no chance.  Iranian planes quickly established a no-fly zone in Iraq, and Coalition forces arrived in Baghdad within weeks.  Saddam Hussein was killed by Iranian troops, and Iraq was forced to cede valuable oil fields to Iran.  A new constitution was written for Iraq, and free elections for a parliament and ceremonial president were scheduled for December.  Prime Minister Fatemi became a war hero; he had defended Iran from the aggressors without needing to call in a great western power for help.  He had even gained some land and valuable oil wells for Iran in the process.  Prime Minister Fatemi had secured his place in Iran's history as a a leader as great, perhaps greater, than the beloved Dr. Mossadegh.