A double life

Roger Stevens

The Imperial Shah: An Informal Biography Gerard de Villiers (Weidenfeld and Nicolson £6.00) The Shah Margaret Laing (Sidgwick and Jackson £6.95) It is difficult to write a satisfactory popular biography of any reigning autocrat. Sources of information are constricted, and opinions are necessarily subjective. Overt criticism may offend the central character; uncritical adulation may irritate the reader. In the case of the Shahinshah of Iran, these difficulties are compounded by knowledge of his sensitivity to criticism, by the controversial nature of some of his policies and by a certain opacity about Iranian public life. Yet, as these two books testify, the temptation to attempt the task is strong; the Shah is by any standard a remarkable man, his career is one of the outstanding success stories of the century and much of it can be seen as high drama of a kind rare in the modern world.

The main features of the Shah's rise from birth to relative obscurity in 1919 to the commanding heights of power in world affairs are now, as they deserve to be, well known. The eldest son of a self-educated, powerful, intensely patriotic Colonel of Cossacks who staged a coup in 1921 from which he emerged first as Prime Minister and then, in 1926, as successor to the last monarch of the enfeebled Qajar dynasty, Mohammed Reza was given a liberal educa

tion in Switzerland and found himself at the age of twenty-two replacing a father whose policies had become unacceptable to the British and Russian allies—then controlling Persia for the better prosecution of the war against Nazi Germany. The young Shah survived, successively, the unhappy circumstances of his accession, the occupation of the northern provinces of his country by Russian troops and a puppet Communist government, an escape from assassination, and the oil dispute with the West.

Since 1953 his authority has not been seriously challenged; by a combination of moderate reformist policies, skilful public relations, massive military build-up and dramatic econom ic expansion based on hard bargaining over oil rights and revenues, the Shah has made himself, within and without, one of the most powerful monarchs in the world. In so doing he has raised the status and prestige of his country to heights of which few would have dreamed two decades ago.

To recount this much of his story presents few problems. But there remain unanswered questions. What have been the secrets of his phenomenal success? Has skill or luck played the major role? Is the large measure of popular support which he appears to enjoy the result of a carefully calculated policy ? Or is it due mainly to the traditional reverence for his office, of which an Italian traveller wrote in 1654: 'They hold their king in such great esteem that no one makes so bold as to speak against him or evade obeying his orders' ? With t he growi ngcomplexity of government in a rapidly expanding economy, has the Shah been able to keep himself informed of all that is going on and retain full personal control ? What is the purpose of the vast military expenditure? How necessary are the repressive internal security policies practised by the regime? And, finally, can the regime look forward to a secure future?

One cannot look to these two biographies for authoritative answers to these and similar key questions. Both authors, for understandable reasons, prefer narrative to analysis; both appear to rely heavily on similar sources of information; both have more to say about the Shah's private life, his three marriages, his relations with his parents, and with challenges to his authority by Dr Mossadeq and General Bakhtiar than about his methods of government or his relations with his subjects.

Of the two, M. de Villiers's 'informal biography' is the more drama0c and perhaps the more readable. He leaps boldly from one personal crisis to another, leaving much in between--such as the oil dispute and land reform—virtually uncharted and, for the unfamiliar reader, largely incomprehensible. The gossipy, somewhat salacious tone of the book is set in its first sentence: His Imperial Majesty, the Shahanshah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi was in good humour when he got out of bed at 6.30 a.m. On February 4 1949 even though he had been up late the night before with a female companion.

No sources are given for the many unsubstantiated statements; there are no notes, not even an index. The author plays fast and loose with time as when he says (on page 215) that no sooner had the Shah divorced Queen Soraya (in 1958) than a shower of dollars began to rain down upon Iran—and then proceeds to describe the launching of the Second Five Year Plan 'with these funds (sic) in March 1956.

Some of his allegations (many with an anti-British bias) do not stand up to scrutiny.

His statement that, when the British and the Russians secured the abdication of Reza Shah in 1941 they would have preferred a complete overthrow of the monarchy, and

were taken aback when the succession of the present Shah was engineered by the Iranians, is—given the state of British-Russian rela

tions in Iran at the time—frankly incredible. Elsewhere, referring to the post-Mossadecl period, he alleges that the Shah's Swiss secretary, Ernest Perron, was 'often delegated to make secret contacts with the British and American Ambassadors when the Shah wished to avoid official channels.

During the period 1954-1958 of which I have first-hand knowledge, I can unhesitatinglY assert that no such contacts were sought with me. One wonders how many of M. de Villiers's 'facts' are similarly suspect.

Margaret Laing sets about her task in a systematic way and, by contrast, meticulous

ly discloses her sources at every stage. in October 1975 she marched into the Saadabad Palace with a tape-recorder, and she seems since to have read most of the available literature about the Shah's career. This Is drawn upon liberally, particularly in the

early chapters, and the result is a somewhat

patchwork narrative. As for the tapes, theY are used extensively and in one sense skil fully; having posed interesting or relevant questions, Miss Laing deals with them hY quoting the Shah as recorded, complete

with hums and haws. This does not make for easy readings nor is it always clear what the Shah is trying to say. But it is an ingenious way of overcoming some of the difficulties inherent in this kind of biography.

In her concluding chapters, Miss Laing does attempt to give a coherent account of Iranian policies relating to land reform and

oil, and to describe how the Shah's personal rule has developed over the last fifteen years.

Nor does she shirk such delicate issues as the

activities of the Security Organisation (SAVAK). Her interview with Empress

Farah, largely verbatim from tape, reveals a sympathetic and sensitive personality, while at the same time disclosing much of the more

personal and human side of the Shah him self. With Miss Laing he was always, she says, agreeable, relaxed and forthcoming, but she adds: 'There are, however, few men with whom i should care less to be on very unfriendly terms.' In a few strokes such as these, she manages to convey something the complex, formidable, forceful and fascinating character of her subject.