Inside the Iranian Revolution
Rustam
the corrosive power of rationalization. Traditional patterns of thought and feeling have much more staying power than Weber realized; they are continually modified but rarely do they disappear....
...No clear explanation of the secular historical forces at work--such as the emergence for the first time in Iran of a centralized state--or of the sudden and peculiar coalescence of a social, economic, and political crisis is pre-sented...
...But one searches in vain for an integration of these factors in this book...
...Back to Bach...
...If not prior to arrival, at least shortly thereafter, diplomats must come to understand the politics, culture, and history of the assigned nation...
...There are second acts, and third acts, and fourth acts...
...According to the embassy papers, Sullivan's reports to Washington remained upbeat up to November 1978...
...Norton & Co...
...More telling is the absence of any insights into the rich cast of personalities involved...
...Magic Mitchell S. Ross is author o f The Literary Politicians and An Invitation to Our Times...
...Why, yes, of course...
...Stempel's book unfortunately reveals neither his actions nor his thoughts at the time, and his discussion of the protracted negotiations sounds secondhand...
...Shortly thereafter, Priscilla left Elvis for a karate instructor...
...Stempel's rendition of Sullivan's performance would win an award for diplomatic verbiage...
...Given the close relations between Washington and Tehran, the Iranian leadership was anxious to know the American government's attitude...
...Nearly all analysts, including the two authors reviewed here, have noted that the simultaneous attempt at repression and politi34 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JULY 1982 cal reform was inherently flawed...
...His movements were awkward...
...And that partly, but only partly, explains the replacement of the penguins by crows, who incidentally thrive in deserts...
...These two books alongside the embassy papers released in Iran do provide some...
...it ceased e n t i r e l y to exist...
...A look at modern Russian literature--from Solzhenitsyn to Sinyavsky--reveals that such is the case...
...Martial law was declared, bloodshed did ensue, but no national crackdown comparable to recent measures in Poland followed, only a hemorrhaging of concessions which quickly undermined the basis of martial law...
...Well, why not...
...The tradition of emancipation from traditions is also among the precious achievements of our civilization...
...It is clear, however, that Sullivan, along with many others, was slow in appreciating the continually accelerating tempo of events...
...This virtually guaranteed that Elvis would exist in circumstances of unrelieved depravity, and so it was...
...The best diplomatic writing is done by the British, who, even if at times wrong and patronizing, always exhibit a remarkable ability for penetrating a local culture, folklore, and language...
...Curiosity caught me...
...With his control established, Colonel Parker proceeded to swing a long series of deals which, however lucrative they may have been for Elvis and the Colonel, were absolutely ruinous to the integrity of Elvis as a man and as an artist...
...There is one clue to his thinking and actions in a political capacity, but for that one will have to look elsewhere...
...J. ],JLYJ" ESSEX...
...When the situation deteriorated further by December 1978, Sullivan's solution was to strike an accord between the military and moderate elements in the opposition, which he reiterates at length in the book...
...Once their child was born, Elvis and Priscilla P~esley ceased sleeping together...
...He suggested that Washington begin "thinking the unthinkable," namely a post-Shah Iran...
...You mean," he asked plaintively, ' 'Life ISN'T a Circle ?" You've heard the joke, now read the book...
...14.95 Rustam Can penguins live in a desert...
...Such characters are as common in this country as hugely successful messes...
...Essential Products Co., Inc...
...In this long book, exhaustively researched and execrably written, Albert Goldman exhumes the corpse for public inspection...
...My arrival at the game was delayed...
...Why...
...Did the American diplomats fail to comprehend the situation and in fact, by their actions, undermine an ally...
...A really f i r s t - r a t e psychiatrist might have helped Elvis...
...Alas, he dropped the baton before the overture...
...Are there any answers, then, to our questions concerning the information American diplomats possessed and the actions they took during the Iranian Revolution...
...not even a Paganini...
...Sullivan, however, not only had constantly to seek clearance from Washington, but also to carry out the often conflicting sets of orders issued by the State Department and the National Security Council during the Carter Administration...
...The game was good...
...he only attended secondary school there...
...The book is too long, often repetitive, and ultimately unsatisfying...
...Did the American representatives in Iran concur on its wisdom...
...Imperial Court protocol required participants to wear formal morning suits...
...To cite only two: Cooperation between the clerical and secular opposition did not, as he states, begin in 1963...
...One function is to provide information and facilitate communications between their home and host governments...
...Hence, books written by diplomats can either provide general information or shed light on the political role, Rustam is a writer in Cambridge...
...So why did it take the Islamic fundamentalist road...
...Traditions always need to be modified and sometimes need to be overthrown, but Shils is certainly right when he says that "a mistake of great historical significance has been made in modern times in the construction of a doctrine which treated traditions as the detritus of the forward movement of society...
...In early November, Sullivan's reports to Washington suddenly shifted, because of the information forwarded by American diplomats in different parts of Iran...
...His book is more appealing than S t e m p e l ' s . It is s h o r t e r , without scholarly pretensions, and full of revealing details on the months prior to the S h a h ' s d e p a r t u r e . His account also illustrates the drawback modern communications pose for diplomats caught in a revolutionary situation...
...Send for free sample and fragrance list...
...But somewhere along the way Elvis developed an honest and original girl for song...
...He was obese--not after the fashion of Santa Claus or Luciano Pavarotti, in whom f a t n e s s of body encloses largeness of spirit, but in the manner of one who has lost all self-control, and is beyond caring...
...Back to Elvis...
...I had a short time earlier read the biography in question here, and so was familiar with the swinish maneuvers of Colonel Thomas Parker, who moved Elvis into movies a f t e r he had attained early success as a singer...
...The Colonel knew all too well that he himself lacked the polish to handle the Hollywoodians, and so he took care to arrange respectable alliances...
...Here was a man utterly out of place...
...Such is popular culture in the Republic that we are blessed with many talents both unique and marketable...
...First, it was credulous to expect the mainstream religious opposition--particularly Khomeini and those around him in P a r i s - - t o accept a deal which left the military largely intact...
...Men's colognes too...
...The Great Guru sat silent, then slowly framed his reply: "Life," he intoned, "is a Circle...
...The President rejected the Sullivan thesis that the U.S...
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...New authors welcomed...
...rather, it had a long lineage going back to 1905...
...His credential for the post, he was told, was his ability to get along with strong men...
...The traditions of rationalization or-liberation are embraced by very few people...
...ELVIS Albert Goldman / McGraw-Hill / $14.95 Mitchell S. Ross Not long ago, in search of a basketball game, I flipped the television dial and found myself facing a celluloid image of the late Elvis...
...he said...
...That Life is a Goddamned Circle ?" The Great Guru was much perplexed...
...That be said, and nothing more...
...Those political leaders and intellectuals engaged in a promethean project to bring instant modernization to their countries, Shils says, have been sorely disappointed, unable to "reconcile themselves to the obduracy of the human beings whom they would treat as malleable materials...
...He emerges as a shrewd man of wry humor...
...Elvis was a hugely successful mess...
...It did not help, of course, that the various sharks of the e n t e i t a i n m e n t industry picked up where Colonel Parker left off...
...Colonel Parker had the power to freeze Elvis with a s t a r e , and he did not h e s i t a t e to exercise this power...
...The Colonel made of Elvis a great success, and Elvis made o f h i m s e l f a phenomenal failure: a sad story, thoroughly American...
...An artist...
...Such people proliferate in the United States of America, where success is more highly valued than character...
...Second, the clergy had in any case pre-empted Sullivan, by wooing certain key military leaders individually...
...indeed, any authoritative male who could have rivaled Colonel Parker might have helped Elvis...
...Presley was doped from head to toe...
...He blandly remarks, " . . . as the months of September and October unfolded, things in Iran went from bad to worse," and leaves it at that...
...10001 if any, played by the author or his colleagues...
...These ceremonies lasted all morning and, given Tehran's climate, often occurred on very hot days...
...Ceremonies, regardless of their formats, are only part of a diplomat's routine...
...should take advantage of its historical position and mediate the turmoil, orchestrating an outcome more consistent with American interests in regional stability . . . . ") If Stempel fails to provide an adequate interpretation of events in Iran, what about the political role he as an American diplomat undoubtedly played during 1978 in Iran...
...Which, for the most part, is a good thing...
...1000, L'Air du Temps, Chloe, Shalimar, Norell, Halston Night, etc...
...Here a series of answers is offered: the Shah's short-sightedness, the military's indecision, the establishment's overconfidence, etc...
...Allow 6 weeks...
...In the past an ambassador relied on his own judgment, and did not await instructions from home...
...If Sullivan was to " o r c h e s t r a t e " the turmoil as his colleague Stempel envisaged, the only baton he held as conductor was the armed forces...
...the failure, personal...
...It was E l v i s ' s fortune to fall into the hands of Colonel Parker, a very fat, Mephistophelean fellow with a bit of the air of Barnum about him...
...I n the first week of September 1978, the Iranian government, in response to rising civil unrest, weighed the deeision to impose martial law...
...His most ardent admirers may indeed be mere hinds recently graduated from hookworm...
...There are factual mistakes...
...It is impossible to determine the origins of this policy, but clearly the Shah" and his Prime Minister believed in its efficacy...
...Even the controversial role of Stempel's superior in Tehran, American Ambassador William Sullivan, is glazed over...
...the Shah did not receive an undergraduate education in Switzerland...
...This proposal suffered from three deficiencies...
...Unfortunately, most American diplomatic memoirs read as if written after a long stay not abroad, but in Washington...
...Naturally, the Seeker of Ultimate Truth, having wandered the Earth to find the Great Guru, was nonplussed," not to mention, a trifle angry...
...Money back if not pleased...
...Stempel is of course correct to point out the missed opportunities, the foolishness of officials, and the alternative policies not pursued...
...On official holidays, high-ranking Iranian government functionaries and foreign diplomats attended audiences with the late Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi...
...A New York, NY 10005 212-344-4288 Serving Wall Street area since 1895 INSIDE THE IRANIAN REVOLUTION John D. Stempel / Indiana Ulaiversity Press / $17.50 MISSION TO IRAN William H. Sullivan / W.W...
...But there are two other functions diplomats fulfill...
...I believe it was James Thurber who, asked why so many great American authors have been ruined by alcohol, answered that once the authors become great they can afford to buy whiskey by the case...
...On the one hand, human rights and reduced arms sales were central tenets of the Administration's foreign policy...
...On the other hand, the President had quite clearly backtracked on pressing these issues in his two meetings with the Shah...
...This requires diplomats to acquaint themselves with all aspects of their host country...
...Was the American embassy illinformed about the political currents in Iran during 1978...
...The problem was not a lack of information...
...THE FATE OF THE EARTH Jonathan Schell / Alfred A. Knopf/$11.95 Vic Gold "Tell me," the Seeker of Ultimate Truth asked the Great Guru, "what is the Meaning of Life...
...Elvis...
...My thoughts avoided Elvis for several minutes...
...They may, after all, provide answers to the two questions being posed about the performance of the American diplomats in Iran...
...Such was the order of the day, and the parade continued...
...Iranian officials felt uneasy about official American opinion, since imposition of martial law would mean bloodshed and far more draconian measures than previous policies involved...
...Although substantive traditions have been shaken, they have not been obliterated...
...From time to time he would show signs of some interest in the world beyond drugs, sex, and rock 'n' roll...
...Inside the Iranian Revolution is by John D. Stempel, who served as deputy chief of the Political Section of the American Embassy in Tehran from 1975 to 1979...
...and THAT's your answer...
...According to the l i t e r a r y legend that accompanies this Sublime Tract, its author, an ec]itor for the New Yorker, invested no less than half-adecade in contemplation of our post36 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JULY 1982...
...For unknown reasons, Stempel's book makes no reference to this document or to any private reservation he might have had about this policy, so in tune with Carter crisis diplomacy...
...Married life was for Elvis an impossibility, as the King of Rock 'n' Roll could not stand the idea of sexual relations with a married woman, let alone with a mother...
...In certain instances, depending on bilateral relations and the political circumstances, this function may expand...
...They include a memorandum describing Stempel's own meeting with an Iranian official on %ptember...
...But things did not work out that way...
...Sullivan a p p a r e n t l y did not realize that the opposition leaders who attached themselves closely to the American embassy did so out of weakness, not strength...
...And yet, I was unprepared for the sheer awfulness of Elvis the actor...
...I cross the Seven Seas to ask you, the Great Guru, the Meaning of Life, Vic Gold, author o f PR as in President, lives in Washington...
...But if modernization generally has been unsuccessful, aggravating disorder in nearly every country, the fact that people rarely abandon traditional patterns of thought ought to be good news for the human race...
...But Sullivan states that upon arrival in Tehran he realized that "the man to whom I had presented my credentials certainly did not fit into that category...
...Stempel's main point is that the revolution in Iran was not preordained, and it could have taken a variety of different routes...
...Here is his wishful prognosis of the turmoil on October 19: " . . . while it is too early to make definitive predictions, there are encouraging indications that the Iranian crisis may have passed a fever p o i n t . . . " and that " . . . the Khomeini star seems to be waning...
...Switch stations...
...It is with all this in mind that the recent testimonies of two top American diplomats in Iran need to be judged...
...or $8.50 (elsewhere) for a one-year I subscription, starting with the current issue...
...In Mission To lran he acknowledges having been a novice to the country...
...Orwell, it seems, was much too pessimistic in 1984...
...Similarly, a military force IFtt: AMIIRI( .\N SPI'CIA'IOR It!LY 1082 ~5 which revolved around the Shah's figure was unlikely to remain intact after his departure and negotiate as an institution with the opposition...
...As far as is known, American diplomats in Iran acquitted themselves well in this respect...
...that his movies were never highly esteemed by any intelligent person...
...plus $2.0,0 delivery charge first bottle, 50 cents each additional one...
...But in the case of messes such as Elvis and the author of this famous, erroneous observation, F. Scott Fitzgerald, there are often only two acts--wild success followed by abysmal failure~ The success is professional...
...I say " f o r the most p a r t " because, as Shils himself makes clear, it would be foolish to endorse the traditionalist point of view totally...
...that Elvis had never displayed the slightest aptitude for dramatic or film acting...
...I watched for a few minutes, and then I could not stand it any longer, t switched the dial, found my game, and settled down...
...Given the Shah's glumness and his depiction as insecure and vacillatory, Sullivan's reliance on him up to November 1978 seems extraordinary...
...The other function, which may be called the political one, is to advise, cajole, persuade, and, if necessary, threaten the host government...
...He has attempted to provide a general history of recent Iranian politics and describe the role played by the American participants during the revolution...
...Although tile Sullivan plan required not only the Shah but also most of the senior Iranian military officers to leave lran, it still retained the military as an institution, and the mullahs could do without a Napoleon, at least at that point...
...This meant a stiff white shirt and bow tie, dark trousers, and long black morning coats...
...you'll love VERBATIM, The Language Ouarter~' ly, dealing with all aspects of language...
...Officials nevertheless stood stiffly erect, perspiring but never protesting, even though the penguin-like outfits did not have a long Iranian pedigree...
...A superstar is selling soda pop...
...at $16.00 per oz...
...The Carter Administration was a puzzle to the Shah'and his advisers...
...Back to the dreadful diction, the awesome idiocy...
...He falls short of both goals...
...A foreign diplomat may find himself a central actor in the domestic politics of the host nation...
...I hear a snicker...
...Aided by sensitive, intelligent management, he might well have crooned his way into old age, with wrinkled beauties from Biloxi swooning at his every warble, much as grandmas from Hoboken now sit dreamily beside the slot machines in contemplation of Frank Sinatra...
...By the end of his 42-year stay on this p l a n e t , the late Mr...
...The American embassy papers (parts of which were recently divulged in the Washington Post) published after the hostage seizure suggest that they did...
...Are there no second acts in American lives...
...Traditions, especially religious traditions, are alive and well...
...Individuals of course will break down under torture, others will completely swallow the reigning ideology, but many will resist the ideology of the state, preferring to remain attached to more traditional patterns of thought...
...When I went to see Zahedi (the Iranian ambassador to Washington who was then, October 1978, temporarily in Tehran), he took me into his study and in his most conspiratorial tone told me that 'Brzezinski has taken over Iran policy.'" Sullivan informs us that he saw the Shah every other day from September 1978 to January 16, 1979, the date of the Shah's d e p a r t u r e . The Shah's mood during this time apparently alternated between periods of moroseness and b r i e f moments of hope...
...A woman here, a swami there: These t h r e a t e n e d to make a new man of Elvis, but soon the iron hand of Colonel Parker would reach out and seize back the controls...
...The trouble is that those who are unique tend to get marketed, and, once marketed, they cease to be unique...
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...A 1976 CIA study found among the embassy papers is in fact remarkably p r e s c i e n t about the Shah's f a t e . What the American diplomats posted to Iran failed to do was grasp the trend of events until it was too l a t e , develop a coherent strategy in response, or remember the role that accidents and personalities play in any revolution...
...90 Water St., Dept...
...Back to Elvis...
...By contrast with Stempel, William Sullivan, American Ambassador to Iran from 1977 to 1979, limits himself to an account of his own political role...
...mere burps would have been as eloquent as speech from such a source...
...Finally, it failed to account for the fragile standing of the moderate elements in the opposition and the lranian armed forces...
...Instead he became a m o n s t e r - - spendthrift, drug-crazed, orgiastic, incapable of love...
...Send I $7.50 (U.S...
...In the case of Elvis, not only did the talent cease to be unique...
...I switched off the television set...
...Indeed, it can fairly be argued that not only the talent ceased to exist, but the human being, too...
...3, 1978, four days before martial law was declared, in which Stempel quotes himself advising that " t h e [U.S.] government would be sympathetic towards efforts to establish public order tJ taken within the conlext of a system which offered ample opportunity for political participation" (italics mine...
...He was no Beethoven...
...CT 06426 U S A .~B J o h n s o n ' s turning Seven-Up...
...Also remarkable is Sullivan's assessment of the Shah's future in the critical months of SeptemberOctober 1978...
...I knew that this had been done for reasons of greed...
...Send for free, illustrated 40-page brochure H-S0 Vantage Press, 516 W. 34 St., New York, N.Y...
...Then t h e r e was a timeout, a commercial, a n d . . , behold...
...Indeed, at times it was Iranians who informed Sullivan of the latest Washington power struggle...
Vol. 15 • July 1982 • No. 7
