🌊 Friends to Enemies: The Story of Iran

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By Max Frost

50 years ago the US, Israel, and Iran were among the closest allies. This weekend, we explain how that changed. The article is broken up into six brief parts, documenting how from 1925 to 2025, Iran went from close American ally to leading enemy.  

Part 1: Rise of a Shah

In 1925, a military officer named Reza Khan became king of Persia after overthrowing a dynasty that ruled for 130 years. Khan believed that his land had a rich past and deserved to be more than a third-rate power, manipulated by neighbors like the Russian and the British empires.

Among Khan’s first moves was renaming Persia from that, derived from Greek, to the traditional “Iran.” He then sought to use his country’s vast amounts of oil to power the country’s modernization and growth. 

Before he could do that, though, World War II erupted. Both Britain and the USSR occupied Iran, fearing that Germany otherwise would and could then seize control of Iranian oil, block Allied arms shipments to the USSR, and attack India. Under British pressure, Khan fled the country, leaving his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in charge. He took the Persian title for king: The Shah.

Pahlavi was a 21-year-old military officer who had studied at a Swiss boarding school and spoke fluent French, German, and English. As leader, he wanted to apply the lessons he learned in the West to his native country.

The plan could work. But for how long?

When World War II ended, a wave of unrest, activism, and nationalism swept Iran. 

Many Iranians wanted a greater say in politics or wanted the government to nationalize the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, the British oil company that controlled Iran’s oil. Caught between socialists, communists, nationalists, and Islamists, the Shah walked a tightrope.

The Shah, installed at age 21, wanted to modernize his country and have close ties with the West, but needed popular support. In 1951, hoping to cement his image as a reformer, he allowed Mohammad Mosaddegh to become Iran’s prime minister.

Mosaddegh – a well-known socialist and nationalist politician – was wildly popular. Upon assuming power, he introduced unemployment payments, required factories to provide benefits, and began the process of redistributing land.

That May, he nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, one of the world’s most powerful oil companies and a major British asset that had been guaranteed access to Iranian oil until 1993. 

The UK – and the CIA – wouldn’t let it stand, and their actions would help trigger a revolution.

Editor’s Note

Thank you all for reading today, we hope you enjoyed it. As always, please send in any thoughts or reactions here.

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We’ll be back tomorrow. Enjoy your Saturdays.

–Max and Max