The BBC's new documentary on the Shah of Iran's 1971 celebrations of the 2500th anniversary of the Persian Empire is now online. I do not, of course, endorse the BBC's evident anti-Shah bias, but there
is some terrific footage in this, and some eloquent pro-Shah
interviewees as well. Grand spectacle has been a part of all great
monarchies, but in Iran too many people were seduced by evil
revolutionaries like Khomeini while the naive Carter administration put
pressure on the Shah that only emboldened his enemies, paving the way
for the Revolution (in my estimation one of history's three worst, the
other two being the French and Russian)
that destroyed nearly everything he had achieved for Iran. Implicitly
blaming the 1971 Persepolis festivities for all Islamic terrorism since
1979 is unfair and myopic. As for SAVAK, well, when I see what
republicans in today's considerably gentler constitutional monarchies do
with their Freedom, I have a hard time feeling sorry for the Shah's
opponents. In the end he was if anything too indulgent. But I wish I
could have called such a king mine.
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