Iran: The Hundred Year War #history #military #warfare
May 22, 2025
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Over the course of a century, the images in this film narrate the thwarted destiny of a pivotal nation, caught between archaism and modernity, secularity and religion, submissiveness and independence, East and West.
A crossroad country, a nation divided, Iran is on the rise after a century of political upheaval. The nuclear crisis has revealed to the world its goal: to become a world power.
For the first time ever, this film looks back over 100 years of Iranian history to the veritable wellsprings of the confrontation between Iran and the West.
From 1908 to 2008, from the discovery of oil reserves to the nuclear crisis, we present a spectacular voyage to the heart of a country and a people, a colorful fresco focusing on real-life stories, unveiling archival images and authentic documents, and giving eyewitnesses – Iranian men and women – a chance to speak. A crisscrossing gaze, free of both prejudice and compromise, reveals how they see us and how we see them.
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Transcript
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(speaking in foreign language)
(ominous horns blaring)
(children shouting in play) (explosives cracking)
(distant voices singing)
- [Narrator] As darkness falls, and revelers take to the streets, a song of hope rises into the Tehran sky.
Tonight, Iranians are celebrating Nowruz, the ancient Persian New Year.
They are commemorating the sacred fire that was entrusted to them by Zoroaster, the first prophet of mankind, at the very dawn of time.
Yet today, Iran is accused of wanting to set the world on fire. Since 1979, Iran has fanned the flames of Islam,
and ignited the Middle East. It has defied America, threatened Europe, and challenged world order.
Ever since the Islamic Revolution, Iran has been feared. Yet, the great empires have been
at war with this land for the past hundred years. A war for control of the Earth's secret fire.
A war for oil that would lead to even higher stakes, nuclear power.
This is the story of a century of war. The story of an age-old people, still seeking
a course between religion and revolution, domination and independence, east and west.
A story of power unveiled. (hymnal singing)
(praying in foreign language)
(melancholy ney music)
Behind modern Iran lies the Qajar Civilization, all but forgotten today.
It was here, in the Golestan Palace, in the years following the French Revolution, that the Qajar Dynasty attempted to revive
the glory of Darius the Great, the Silk Roads, and Shiite Islam.
(mysterious ethnic music)
(thunder rumbles) (raindrops pattering)
But the storm clouds of progress were gathering. The colonial powers were at the gates.
These were the days of the Great Game, when England in the south and Russia in the north,
competed for control of the seas between Europe and Asia.
(thunder rumbles) Caught between Iraq, the Caucasus and Afghanistan,
Persia was already a powder keg. Persia, which would soon change its name to Iran,
was already having to bow to foreign power. (thunder rumbles) (raindrops patter)
An 11-year-old boy was the last of the Qajar Dynasty to accede to the throne.
The monarchy was flailing; its dying reign lasted two decades. (dramatic ethnic drumming)
In 1905, news of European revolutions and nationalisms echoed through the bazaars of Tehran.
Word was out on the streets, change was brewing. The intellectuals, middle classes,
and religious leaders rose up. In 1906, Iran was the first Middle Eastern country to adopt
a constitution, and a Western-style parliament. (speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
- There was a general consensus among the leaders, including the religious leaders, and the liberal leaders,
all laymen. (speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Narrator] But it was not the alliance between Islam and democracy that led the country towards modernization.
The 20th century would be revolutionized by the discovery of oil.
- Before 1908, the oil was known, seeping from the rocks in Iran, from antiquity,
and they were called the Burning Fires. (melancholy ney music)
(speaking in foreign language)
- In some respects, it's been a curse, but in others, it has been a great blessing because it was the first country to have developed oil, with the British in there,
and this has enabled the country to develop in many ways. - [Narrator] On April 14th, 1909,
the Anglo-Persian Oil Company was born; London established its power.
The main Imperialist regime during of those days, was bitter, and we can say that they were trying to have
good control on the politics of Iran, and through having this industry of the oil, for sure, they wanted to control the future of Iran,
economically, as well. The fact is that the wealth of the country is taken
by that contractor and it's taken out. They even did not have any kind of obligation
to train the Iranians that were working for them.
- [Narrator] As Europe became mired in the horror of the trenches, and Russia plunged towards Bolshevism,
Persia sank deeper into chaos. (fanfare trumpeting)
- [Historical Narrator] Out of the chaos of the World War, came a new leader, Reza Khan, colonel of an Iranian Cossack regiment.
In 1921, Reza Khan, with a handful of men, marched into Tehran and assumed direction of affairs.
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Narrator] Like Ataturk in Turkey, Reza Shah was a Westernizer. He, too, believed that the key to progress
was national revolution, armed forces, industry and secularism. (speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language) - [Historical Narrator] After 1,300 years,
the women of Iran have been emancipated. They may go about unveiled, free to mix with other men and women,
and to take part in the life of their country.
(speaking in foreign language)
(ethnic drumming)
- Reza Shah created educational system based on modern Western-type-like schools, universities,
and so forth, and this was something that the religious group in Iran did not appreciate.
(speaking in foreign language)
- He did it by force, but he brought the country together. - [Narrator] While forcing his country into the modern world, Reza Shah returned to its origins,
bringing back Darius, Zoroaster, and Persepolis, in order to oppose the Shiite clergy.
Persia became Iran, the land of Aryans. Islam was to be but a memory.
(speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
But democracy and Islam rebelled. Two parliamentarians, one secular, Mohammad Mosaddegh,
the other religious, Hassan Modarres, came forth as leaders of the Opposition. (speaking in foreign language)
- As far as Modarres was concerned, Reza Shah was a stanchion of British,
and he was not a nationalist as he tried to show themselves.
- [Narrator] Mosaddegh was exiled, Modarres imprisoned and then killed. Through his intransigence, Reza Shah had
resuscitated the founding myth of Shiite Islam, the Islam of the poor, that has upheld Persian identity,
by sublimating all ideas of resistance and martyrdom. Modarres's death turned him into
one of the legendary Imams, sacrificed in the name of God and the people.
In Iran today, the anniversary of his assassination is celebrated as Parliament Day.
- Reza Shah's period of governance was the period which brought Iran
into the beginning of a century, where most of the countries in the world
were developing and progressing. - [Historical Narrator] Abadan, refinery town and oil vault.
- The times were different then. Oil had been discovered in Iraq, in 1927, '28,
the huge Kirkuk Field. The interests were shifting towards Iraq.
Iran wasn't the single, the sole country with oil there.
- [Narrator] Now it was Reza Shah who rebelled. While totalitarianism was gaining ground across Europe,
for the first time in its history, Iran appealed to the Society of Nations. - And the fact is, in 1933, almost 32 years after
the contract, there was a dispute between Reza Khan regime and the British.
- The way that Anglo-Iranian Oil Company was cheating Iran out of its revenue, something had to be done.
(machinery rattles and thumps)
He managed to get certain terms and conditions changed, in that agreement.
- And the contract was, to start with, for 60 years, became to be for, altogether, 90 years.
(machinery rattles) so you can see that, by this way of correction,
and amending the contract, finally it was not to the Iranian benefit.
- And that is why, the event of nationalization
really developed within the political circles of Iran.
- [Narrator] The defeat was moral, political, and economic. Reza Shah thought he could lessen the strangle-hold of
Britain and the Soviet Union, by introducing a third partner, Germany. But with Hitler's rise to power,
the fever that was taking hold of Europe spread once again to Tehran. - He thought, if he actually collaborated,
somehow, with the Germans, and used their technology, the economic knowledge and so forth,
that he could bring Iran into a position of a neutral country. (imperious orchestral music)
- Well, to talk about Reza Shah in his relation with the Nazis, with the Germans, after all, he's not the only one there.
In Iraq and in the Arab world, many people were pro-German, because they were anti-British, and anti-Russian, and anti-Allies.
- [Narrator] On the eve of the Second World War, Reza Shah's protests of neutrality made no difference.
Oil made Iran a pivotal target. - The Russians invaded from the north, the British invaded from the south.
- It was very important to get to oil, secure it. - [Historical Narrator] The meeting was simple enough. The Soviet officer firing a Very light
to inform headquarters that an Allied Front had now been formed from the Arctic to Libya.
- They divided the country up, and kind of ran it. The war was all-important for them,
and there was no way, I think, Iran could escape this kind of division of the spoils and the country
for the time being. - And they forced Reza Shah to abdicate.
- [Narrator] 30 years later, his son, the reigning Shah of Iran, recalled this humiliation.
- What I reproach, although I have my paternal sentiments
forbidding me, what I reproach, eventually, my father is not to having mined the oilfields,
and tell you that if you come, I'm going to blow up everything. - [Historical Narrator] The swearing in of the new Shah,
who is well-disposed towards Britain, was a ceremonious event.
Inside, in the presence of the Cabinet and Army chiefs, he took the oath and signed his name for the first time,
as Shah of Persia. - [Narrator] In December, 1943, over a year before Yalta,
Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin arranged a meeting in Iran, to orchestrate the end of the war.
But the Tehran conference also heralded a new world order.
- [Historical Narrator] All three delegations paid their respects to the Shah, whose country, later in the proceedings, was the subject of a special declaration by the three
powers, of full economic assistance for the Kingdom of Iran.
(melancholy guitar strumming)
- [Narrator] After Yalta, the Cold War took over the globe. From Eastern Europe to Asia, and the Middle East,
the world became a stage for clashes between Washington and Moscow. Iran would be their first rehearsal.
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Historical Narrator] So the pipeline goes, over the hills and under the rivers, past ancient cities and modern pumping stations,
beside roads and caravan tracks, and sun-dried villages of mud, and down to the plains at last,
until with the hills and the deserts behind, and the wells far away, the pipelines of Khuzestan are drawn together and into the great oil city of Abadan.
Abadan, many people know the name now, in terms of argument and uncertainty, who never saw the place, nor really knew that
such a curious complex city stands there, in the delta of Tigris and Euphrates.
A great temple to the 20th century god of oil. A nerve center of the Middle East.
And yet, less than a lifetime ago, there was only the desolate, unpopulated desert
and an empty island.
- [Narrator] A global drama would be acted out, its players serving as both winners and losers.
A tragedy in which each believed they held the key.
Mohammad Mosaddegh, now back in power as prime minister. Ayatollah Kashani, leader of the Religious Party.
Averell Harriman, President Truman's special envoy, the Shah of Iran, of course,
Stalin, waiting in the shadows, and oil, the key protagonist on which
the plot unfurling from Tehran to the shores of the Persian Gulf hinged.
In the spring of 1951, in a great surge of patriotic fervor, the Iranian parliament voted to
nationalize the oil industry. Before Nasser or Nehru, Mosaddegh embodied the rebellion of the so-called Third World,
in the face of colonialism. Once again, Iran acted as a laboratory.
- He was a prominent politician, a person who had his education outside, he was a lawyer, had good education in law in Switzerland.
- And he was a real nationalist. He hated the British influence in Iran.
He came to the conclusion, that the only way to terminate that influence was to
nationalize the oil industry, and get rid of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. That period coincided with the time when
eight major oil companies actually exercised complete dominance of the world oil industry.
So they were in a very powerful position, to be able to fight against
Mosaddegh's idea of nationalization. - The Persians think that by nationalizing oil
they are going to get rich. Unfortunately, the reverse will be the case.
- [Narrator] The Iranians paid heavily for their restored pride. The British enforced a complete embargo,
intended to smother the Nationalist movement. Iran's leader was physically weak,
but his political will had not been quelled. (speaking in foreign language)
- Iranian economy was under sanction, oil sanction, the first oil sanction that you can see,
and this first oil sanction against Iran has stopped Iran from receiving any income out of the export of the oil.
- [Narrator] The embargo had the opposite effect, sparking a united front. Ayatollah Kashani, who had returned from exile
a few years earlier, would build the bridge between the Nationalist Party and the Religious Party.
- Everybody knows that his background was a pure, a pure, good Iranian, that was, for the sake of Iran,
saying what he believed and, because he was a top-ranking clergyman, he knew that whatever he's saying
should be based on his belief, and the belief of him was the belief of the common people. (speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
- This had to be looked after carefully. Influence had to be retained, but at the same time,
deny oil and influence over Iran to the Soviet Union.
So it worked well on both accounts, both for oil and for the Cold War.
- [Narrator] For another party, it, too, founded on the legacy of the revolutionary ideals of 1905, was at work.
Operating from Moscow, the Tudeh Communist Party was stirring up the streets. (drumming)
- [Archive Narrator] Demonstrations culminate in the tearing down of signs over company offices, and the raising of the Iranian flag over the installations.
Desperate mediation efforts are made, as Britain appeals to the International Court in The Hague and receives a temporary injunction against the seizure.
- [Narrator] The US chose this moment to enter the fray, once and for all. President Truman dispatched a Special Envoy to Iran,
Averell Harriman, whose official mission was to act as a mediator between the Iranians and the British.
- [Archive Narrator] Mr. Harriman undertakes a series of conferences with Prime Minister Mosaddegh. Out of these conferences, hope emerges, that the crisis
that threatens world peace may now be averted. (drumming)
- [Narrator] As it had done in Korea, and would soon do in Guatemala, Indonesia and Vietnam, the US chose to intervene in Iran.
Its first aim was to contain the Soviet threat, but that day in Abadan, Averell Harriman was above all
party to the compelling decline of the old European powers. Washington would fill the void left by London.
In Iran, the global oil drama was being taken over by a new director. (drumming)
In the fall of 1951, Mosaddegh gave the British staff one week to leave the site.
- [Archive Narrator] Evacuation of women and children by air is stepped up as tension rises. The last 300 British technicians are evacuated
a day before the deadline set for their expulsion by the Iranian government. And with their departure,
the whole free world faces two problems. That of a depleted oil supply, and a possibility of a war-provoking incident
in the Near East. (speaking in foreign language)
- [Narrator] Like Reza Shah before him, Mosaddegh appealed to the international institutions,
and flew to the United Nations in New York. - After we've heard them, after we've heard the
representative of the Iranian government, speaking for his government, if his statement
does not appeal to us, then we can postpone. But to postpone without giving them a chance to be heard
would be in violation of the spirit of the (audio skips).
- [Archive Narrator] The Iranian oil crisis comes to America's shores, as Premier Mohammad Mosaddegh
arrives in New York to plead his nation's case before the United Nations. (speaking in foreign language)
- [Narrator] The United Nations and the Hague court ruled that they were not competent to judge. The old warhorse won a duel victory.
But Washington feared the Iranian example would spread. Embroiled in anti-Communist McCarthyism,
America was torn between international law and controlling the oil.
- Americans were lying. Even when they were lying to Mr Mosaddegh, when they received him in Washington.
They were lying when they were trying to be nice to him. They were lying when they were saying that we are gonna just do sort of politics
in order to solve this problem. They wanted to solve the problem for their own sake, and they wanted just to have
their foot in the same footprints that the British had for a long time, in Iran.
- [Narrator] Mosaddegh wanted a democratic Iran. He held the communists at bay, and distanced himself
from Kashani, President of the Parliament. In the US, the newly elected President Eisenhower was keen to settle the Mosaddegh question.
(speaking in foreign language)
- He, forgetting that if he could not have the support of the religious leaders, and having the masses with him,
very soon those who were sneaking, like CIA, Intellegence Service, and USSR...
- I think what Mosaddegh was using the communists, the Tudeh Party against others, so that he was
balancing between them, playing one off against the other, but I don't think that he was very pro.
- Mosaddegh was a problem for the US and for the British. - And happen, the part of the history,
which is the saddest part for the contemporary history of Iran, which was the Coup d'Etat.
- The Coup was organized by the British and the Americans, I think the Americans had the lead role at the end.
- And what was the plan? Just toppling a Nationalistic government. Good or bad, having friction with
the religious leaders, or not. - It was part of the mystique of the agency at that time. It seemed that this was sort of a magic weapon,
covert action, run by the CIA. (drumming)
- [Narrator] The same scenario would be played out across the world, as far as Pinochet's Chile.
The putsch came from above. The Shah appointed an Army man, General Zaidi, as head of government,
but Mosaddegh discovered the plot during the night, thinking he's failed Mohammad Reza sought refuge in Europe.
- [Archive Narrator] The Shah and his Queen arrive in Rome, after an alleged attempt by the Imperial Guard, to arrest Dr Mosaddegh and a refusal by the Shah
to dissolve Parliament at Mosaddegh's request.
In Tehran, it looked as if Mosaddegh would soon be named President, and on his orders, troops occupied the Shah's palaces
and surrounded parliament. - [Narrator] On August 19th, 1953, utter confusion reigned.
Communists, the police, the army, loyalists paid by the US Embassy, and religious leaders, led by Ayatollah Kashani,
took to the streets. Symbolically, Mosaddegh's house was destroyed during the night. Operation Ajax, orchestrated by the CIA, was underway.
- Tudeh Party, very easily, by just taking their people out from the street, and even supporting those who were
against Mosaddegh, made the problem, that the coup d'etat could be done in half a day.
(speaking in foreign language)
- He never forgot, and actually resented because it reminded him of the time when he was so weak,
that he had to have the support of the CIA and the United States to bring him back.
(speaking in foreign language)
(melancholy ethnic flute music)
- Mohammad Reza, the son of Reza Shah, yes, well, you know, he started off, he started off as a rather weak person,
but somehow or other, he was given a, maybe it was the CIA, when they brought him back, said,
you gotta stiffen your back, and you've got to do something to make, as you say, a soft dictatorship,
which he did, and then you were controlled. You didn't have this under Mosaddegh.
You didn't have this at all, it was a complete change. So there was taking over, then, with the SAVAK and the like,
and you had a soft dictatorship. - [Narrator] Western opinion was relieved,
and joined the media bandwagon denouncing Mosaddegh. Iran went back into isolation.
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Narrator] Mosaddegh was condemned to exile. His minister of foreign affairs was executed.
Ayatollah Kashani was censored and dismissed. The SAVAK, the Shah's secret police,
organized harsh repression. A network of 500 communist officers was dismantled.
28 leaders were executed. There was a crackdown on students. On December 13th, 1954,
the same day that Vicepresident Nixon arrived in Tehran, three students were killed during a demonstration.
Navvab Safavi, a fundamentalist activist, who had been the first to call for an Islamic republic,
became the ultimate symbol when he was sentenced to death and executed for terrorist attacks committed by his followers.
Like countless others before him, he recited the Quran right up until his execution.
Shiite Iran had found its new martyrs.
Before his arrest, Safavi had traveled to Qom to meet a young Ayatollah, who refused armed action,
preferring a people's movement. His name was Ruhollah Khomeini.
The Shah of Iran believed he had wiped out all opposition. He was wrong. Shiism has replayed its grand gesture of popular sacrifice
for centuries, ever since the assassinations of Ali and Hussein, the prophet's son-in-law and grandson.
The holy city of Qom, with its religious schools and university, became the sanctuary for the Resistance movement.
In these desperate times, Islam was all the Iranians had left. (speaking in foreign language)
(melancholy ney music)
- I think the US really didn't realize how deeply offensive it was,
to have put the Shah back on the throne, how deeply offensive it was to the Iranian people. And this was something that festered
all during those 25 years. - We were looking for people to lead countries,
who would not be part of the expansion of the new Soviet Empire.
- [Archive Narrator] Iran rolls out the red carpet, the Persian carpet, that is, to hail Ike on his arrival, for the motorcade passed over costly Persian rugs,
spread on the street, as the President is cheered by 3/4 of a million along the route.
(triumphant marching band music) (crowd cheers)
At the Royal Palace, Shah Pahlavi adds to the presence Ike received in the course of his historic mission.
A portrait that will go to the Eisenhower Museum in Abeline. - I had a very real feeling at that time, that nuclear energy was an important source of energy
for the world. - [Archive Narrator] 72 countries are represented
at the Atomic Conference promoted by the United Nations. Oil, coal, and all other power sources,
except atomic energy, approached exhaustion, said Conference President Dr. Baba.
- It shows the absolute necessity of finding some new source of energy, if the light of our civilization
is not to be extinguished, because we have burned out our fuel reserves.
- [Narrator] The Atoms for Peace program was strategic. By placing Iran at the heart of the Baghdad Pact,
the Oriental version of NATO, the US wanted to hem the USSR in. Now more than ever, Tehran was the satellite of Washington.
America gave Iran its first nuclear reactor.
Through urbanization, industrialization, and militarization, the Shah of Iran was intent on establishing his country
as a great nation on the Western model. By the early 1960s, the young, inexperienced Shah,
whom the Allies had brought to power during the Great War, had turned into a steely autocrat.
He saw himself as an enlightened monarch, but did he realize that he appeared to be an all-out Third World dictator?
His iron rule was starting to worry even his own protector.
- You have to remember that when John Kennedy came to power, he considered it as a result of
non-modernization, or even non-westernization of the system,
politically, as well as economically. - Your Majesties, I speak on behalf
of all of my fellow Americans, in welcoming you to the United States.
The interest of both of us is the same, to maintain our freedom, to maintain our peace,
and to provide a better life for our people. - There should be some kind of movement,
in the Third World countries, otherwise all of them will be left,
will be falling into the Communist's hands. - [Archive Narrator] Iran is an important link
in the defense of the Free World. She shares a 1,400 mile border with neighboring Russia.
- We could not allow the Soviet Union to have these countries come into its orbit.
There was a Cold War going on and it was a Cold War that took place in the Third World, by proxis. (speaking in foreign language)
- Something had to be done. (speaking in foreign language)
- If we are attacked, you are bound
to come to our assistance with everything that is available.
- Military assistance and advice from the United States has many direct and obvious results, which are beneficial
to a nation such as Iran. Economic and technical aid represent a large American investment
over the past 10 years. Without it, Iran might not be the free, independent country she is today.
- [Narrator] Like his father, the Shah of Iran was fascinated by technology. By buying the most state-of-the-art equipment,
Iran funded the US military industry. The Shah became the West's military arm in the East.
(speaking in foreign language)
- And Iran began to be a center of much activity for Israel. Also, security activity, we had
security relations with Iran. We sold them military equipment, they were interested in common developments.
There developed a great interest between us and Iran, which were of great strategic impact, and there were meetings at high levels,
between the Shah of Iran and leaders of Israel. Many discussions used to take place,
as to how the Middle East would become a Middle East of peace, of security, of tranquility,
of hope, and not just an Arab, Sunnite,
extreme element in the area, which controlled the area.
(speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Narrator] But the Shah of Shahs had to adapt to Kennedy's new America, and make Iran a showcase for Liberalism.
He abolished martial law, privatized the press, gave women the vote, most of all, he launched
major land reform, the White Revolution had begun. (speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
- In order to put a lot of pressure upon the religious leaders,
especially in order to alienate them, and trying to bring a kind of system of
division between politics and religion, therefore the Revolution as they made it.
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Narrator] Just as his father had to contend with Modarres, the Shah had to face opposition from Ayatollah Khomeini.
The Qom cleric propounded violent sermons against America, reform, and the monarchy itself.
For the Shah, there was only one option. Khomeini had to go. In October 1964, an airliner took off from Iranian soil,
with Ruhollah Khomeini on board, deported first to Turkey, then to Iraq.
Iran was replaying the fateful cycle of assassinations, coups, and exile. Mohammad Reza Pahlavi thought he had
attained absolute power. In reality, he had opened Pandora's Box.
(melancholy ney music)
In 1967, in a move resembling a latter day Napoleon, the Shah of Shah's crowned himself Light of the Aryans.
(shouting in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
- He built a number of dams in Iran, hydraulic electric stations.
(speaking in foreign language)
- But we want to couple modern technology with the spirit of our old civilization.
We are 3,000 years old. (horns blaring)
- [Narrator] Being a reformer was not enough for the absolute ruler. Brushing aside the centuries, the Shah of Iran
decided to directly address Cyrus, the King who unified the Persian Empire, two-and-a-half thousand years before.
Guests from around the world were invited to the megalomaniac celebrations in Persepolis.
But there was one notable absence, the Iranian people. (bell chiming) (cannon firing)
In a voice charged with emotion, the Shah addressed the spirit of the long-dead king.
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Translator] Oh Cyrus, Great King, King of Kings.
Hakemanian King, King of the Land of Iran. I, the Shah and Shah of Iran, offer thee salutations
from myself and from my nation. (staccato drumming)
- [Narrator] The time had come to settle old scores. Iran had retrieved its glory. Emulating his father once again,
the Shah rebelled against foreign influence. The oil crisis of 1973 would be the trigger he was looking for,
to demonstrate his power. (drumming)
(speaking in foreign language) - The National Iranian Oil Corporation, along with its sister companies in,
state-owned companies in the whole of the Middle East, began to run the show.
(energetic drumming)
It was the first major shock, oil shock, in the world. The price went up 400% within two, three months.
- [Narrator] Pugnacious, determined, even arrogant, Mohammad Pahlavi was ready to fight.
He stood up to the world, effecting multiple interventions, declarations and interviews.
Global economies teetered. The King of Oil dreamed he was Master of the World.
(speaking in foreign language)
- When OPEC was created, the main purpose of that organization
was to be able to have a say in determination of prices in oil,
and the Shah of Iran, actually was in favor of a strengthening OPEC.
(speaking in foreign language)
- So he was increasing Iranian output, but at the same time, denouncing the West
for not paying enough and calling for ever higher prices.
(speaking in foreign language)
- There were lots of these kind of deals, if you like, secret deals, but they were all-powerful,
the cartel, if you like. (speaking in foreign language)
(regal symphonic music) (speaking in foreign language)
- He went after the idea of bringing the nuclear technology to Iran.
(speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Interviewer] Iran would not have made progress, obviously, in a truly democratic-- - [Shah] What is democracy, anyway?
- [Interviewer] Democracy? - [Shah] Yes. - [Interviewer] How do you define democracy? Don't we have democracy in the United States?
- Well, not according to what the Greeks used to say in the public places.
- [Interviewer] We elect our leaders, you are not elected. - Yes, but how to do you elect your leaders?
According to Watergate, it's a special kind. - You will acknowledge that the United States is a
much more democratic society than in Iran. - Than?
- Than your own, than Iran. - Yes, but what do you mean by democracy, again? - [Interviewer] I mean freedom of thought,
I mean freedom of expression, I mean freedom of the press. - To what extent, to what extent? - [Interviewer] I mean electing leaders,
I mean opposition. - To what extent? - [Interviewer] To what extent, you-- - Yes, to what extent?
If it is a self-destructive, masochist, kind of thing
that will permit you all kind of fraud and corruption, you have it.
The permissive democracy. (speaking in foreign language)
- So I think we had a false sense of security and stability. Can you imagine that in January 1st, 1978,
Jimmy Carter made the famous speech. - Iran, because of the great leadership of the Shah,
is an island of stability, in one of the more troubled areas of the world.
- And then, by the end of '78 it was all over. (speaking in foreign language)
(dramatic Persian music)
(carts clattering)
(market vendors calling out)
(speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
(melancholy ney music)
- [Narrator] During his 14 years in exile, Imam Khomeini had ample time to meditate on Iran's destiny over the past hundred years.
After being forced to watch from the sidelines, he would finally become a player again.
It was not as an opponent that he would return to Iran, but as a revolutionary. Soon, he would represent Islamism to the world.
(speaking in foreign language)
- The first revolution was led by students and the like. It was not a revolution led by the mullahs,
they took it over. (chanting in foreign language)
(shouting in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Interviewer] Are you satisfied with the methods which SAVAK uses, to get confessions, and to get convictions?
Because they're also getting much criticism. - They are improving more and more, every day.
You have been accused of torturing people, too, in the UK. - We're not proud of it.
- Well... (speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Narrator] Blinded by the power play between Washington and Moscow, the Shah did not see that the world had changed.
In Iran, and the Middle East as a whole, revolution was now religious.
(speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language)
- Imam Khomeini, contrary to the all these kinds of methods of movement,
he believed in the fundamental and radical movement as Islamic movement.
- Religious people, they fought violent, as you know, against the students. - Other groups had no choice
other than joining the movement. (speaking in foreign language)
(car horns beeping) (chanting in foreign language)
- [Narrator] September 7th, 1978. For the first time, demonstrators demanded the Shah's departure and the return of Imam Khomeini.
That evening, martial law was declared. The next day, Friday, September 8th, the army opened fire
on the crowd gathered in Zhaleh Square. (chanting in foreign language)
(hymnal singing)
It was a blood bath. Hundreds died. The blood of the people became the blood of the martyr.
Ritual Shiite signs mixed seamlessly with revolutionary symbols.
For the Shah, it was already too late. (traffic rumbling)
(speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
- Which was really quite effective, it became apparent that, he was the opposition.
- Khomeini, obviously, used religion to stir up the masses,
and give them a voice. He articulated their resentment in religious terms,
and also, incidentally, in anti-Western terms. - [Narrator] Now it was Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's
turn for exile. Since the start of the 20th century, Iran has been rocked by repeated earthquakes.
The Shah was following the fate of those who went before him, the last Qajars, the Ayatollah Kashani and Mosaddegh.
(male choir singing in foreign language)
As he departed, did he remember standing on that self-same airport tarmac when he repatriated his father's remains from Egypt?
The Shah of Shahs left Darius' nation for the last time, making way for the return of Shiite Islam
that he had sought to erase. - There might have been tears in the eyes of the Shah, as he left Iran for what could be the last time.
But there was nothing but sheer delight on the faces of the demonstrators, who took to the streets of the capital in their thousands,
to celebrate the departure of the man they have hated for so long. (chanting in foreign language)
(riotous shouting and whistling)
(speaking in foreign language)
(crowd shouting) (helicopter blades whirring)
(melancholy ney music) (crowd shouting)
- Well there can be no doubt, who the one single man in Iran is, who has more following than anybody else, and therefore more power.
It is Ayatollah Khomeini. John Suchet, News at 10, in Tehran.
(crowd shouting)
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Narrator] The Imam Khomeini's return marked the onset of a cycle of revolutionary violence.
In the name of the most hard-line factions, the Ayatollah Khalkhali organized purges.
Reza Shah's tomb was destroyed by the revolutionary guards. Dignitaries from the former regime were sentenced by
summary courts and executed. The year was Year Zero. (singing in foreign language)
Then came the establishment of the Islamic Republic. The consecration of the Supreme Leader, and the amalgamation of civil and religious law.
Once again, Iran was inventing, again choosing extremes. Again, holding itself up to global disgrace.
- The contemporary issues that we have in today's world are overshadowed by the events of the Islamic Revolution,
and particularly by the takeover of the American Embassy. - The hostage crisis began on November 4th, 1979.
(voices shouting angrily) - The students decided to take action, on their own,
as a revolutionary movement, as a student movement, and to take an action, which would prevent
any sort of plot against the Islamic Republic, and that would keep and ensure
the integrity of the revolution. (siren howling) - I got a call about six o'clock in the morning
from my regional deputy. I was Chief of Near East and South Asia Division in the Operations Directorate.
His words were, "They're coming over the wall." These activists were coming into the Embassy.
(sirens howling) (shouting in foreign language)
- One of the voices that rings most clear in my mind, was her saying, at a certain point,
"They've broken through the door, we're going down now." And then the phone was open for a while
and you could hear some noise in the background and then it went dead. (melancholy ney music) (shouting in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
- We have to go back to the context in which the students took that decision.
Those were the early months after the Islamic revolution. The country was practically in shambles.
(speaking in foreign language)
- The coup d'etat of 1953 against Dr. Mohammad Mosaddegh was a very, very dark moment of our history.
It had taken the country into years of foreign domination,
colonialism and dictatorship. - We were deeply conscious of the fact, right from the start, that the resentment
of the 1953 coup and the American role in that
was deeply seered on the souls of the Iranians. - The students felt that, once again,
the revolution is under constant threats, foreign threats, and that there might be
a repetition of history.
(speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
- So finally, after months of this, an operation was conceived that would be short of all-out war, and yet,
would get the hostages out. - The so-called rescue mission, did turn out to be a disaster for the administration.
- The whole episode was very humiliating to the US.
- [Narrator] The American commandos were wiped out in a sandstorm. As the ultimate humiliation,
Khomeini's move to finally free the hostages favored Ronald Reagan's election to the White House,
but these burned-out helicopter wrecks portended other wars on the horizon. (speaking in foreign language)
- [Narrator] Today, the walls of Tehran still display the image of a benevolent Imam Khomeini,
but the capital's icons also portray the wounds of a nation at war, the memory of which holds faster than the pious images.
(mortar fire thundering)
- The Iran-Iraq war was one of the more brutal wars around at the time.
It brought into opposition, too, the big oil producing countries.
Iranian oil suffered because of it,
and so did Iraqi oil, because the war was fought largely
around the oil fields of the Northern Gulf.
(melancholy kamancheh music) (helicopter blades whirring)
- This question, whether the Iraq and Iranian war, Saddam Hussein's war against Iran,
whether this was something of a combination of the West against the Islamic Republic of Iran,
it certainly was. (speaking in foreign language)
- The United States didn't wish to see a victorious Iran dominate its region.
(speaking in foreign language)
- The US began to help Saddam Hussein with intelligence information,
particularly technical intelligence on order of battle. - Saddam Hussein was fighting the war against the spread of
the Iranian Shiite revolution into the Middle East. This was a battle to prevent the Shiites
from breaking out and beginning to infest
the Middle East with its religious and its extreme fervor.
(speaking in foreign language)
- The feeling in the US, perhaps mistakenly, I think, was that the Iranians were more trouble than the Iraqis.
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Narrator] Iran and Iraq plunged into an eight-year war, that caused the death of over one million Iranians.
Like the Great War in Europe, it was fought in the trenches, with gas and massacres, but it mobilized the people.
Millions of volunteers joined the Revolutionary Army. This was the national glue.
Iran was its own religion. (sad kamancheh music)
(sad kamancheh music)
- What happened during what we call the eight-year imposed war, or the holy defense that we had,
this was a matter of free will, a decision to fight for freedom, for independence,
for dignity, like many freedom fighters in the world.
Most of these young people are educated, and brought up during the regime of the Shah, with a very westernized,
Western-oriented educational system, so they're not brought up as religious,
what they call zealots or fanatics, no. (praying in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
(Persian folk music) (speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Narrator] How many of those present at the Martyr's Cemetery on this day of memory lost a father, son, or friend?
- How was it that they could actually relate themselves to a leader who is much older than them?
Imam Khomeini was about 75 years old at that time. These people are 19, 20, how do they make this connection,
this spiritual connection? (sad kamancheh music)
- [Narrator] As the Iran-Iraq war came to an end, Imam Khomeini died.
(helicopter blades whirring) (melancholy ney music)
On the death of its leader, the nation, orphaned but at last united, wept for a century
of dashed and deluded hopes. As the people of Iran stood there crying and lamenting,
how could they imagine that their mourning, like their revolution, was terrifying the world?
Since 1979, Iran has sunk deeper into isolation. Outside its borders, it has waged open and secret wars.
The hostages in Lebanon, the terrorist attacks in Paris, the Rushdie fatwa, the Eurodif affair,
and the Gordji affair, international opinion has put Iran in the dock. The return of the nuclear question has further
fueled the confrontation. (speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
(shutters clattering) (journalists chattering) - [Narrator] The international powers
beat a path back to Tehran, as they had done in Reza Shah and Mosaddegh's day. Europe, Russia, and China all intervened.
Discord reigned. (speaking in foreign language)
The big global authorities came too, as they had done a half century before, starting with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
All with the same question, what does Iran really want? (speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language)
- Iran has pledged in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, not to develop a nuclear weapon.
Do we think they are developing a nuclear weapon, or they intend to? Of course they are. - [Narrator] A battle of words and images raged.
Iran blew hot and cold, and war, real war, settled in the region, everywhere, relentless and obsessive.
(flames roaring) The first Gulf War broke out.
The missiles launched on Israel by Saddam Hussein announced the post-Communist era.
(speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
- Our second goal is to prevent regimes that sponsor terror, from threatening America or our friends and allies,
with weapons of mass destruction. Some of these regimes have been pretty quiet since September the 11th,
but we know their true nature. (speaking in foreign language)
Iran aggressively pursues these weapons and exports terror, while an unelected few
repress the Iranian people's hope for freedom. (speaking in foreign language)
States like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil.
- [Narrator] Yet America had in fact been struck by Arab and Sunni radicalism from Saudi Arabia. - On my orders, the United States military
has begun strikes against Al-Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime
in Afghanistan. - And Afghanistan is very famous
as the graveyard of the Empires, the Mongols, the British, the Soviets,
and right now, the American and NATOs. Therefore, they make mistake, mistake.
(speaking in foreign language)
(mortar fire booms) - [Narrator] After Afghanistan, America continued its
preventive war in Iraq. - My fellow citizens, this hour,
American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people
and to defend the world from grave danger. (speaking in foreign language)
- This is George W. Bush, the president of the United States. At this moment, the regime of Saddam Hussein
is being removed from power, and a long era of fear and cruelty is ending.
American and coalition forces are now operating inside Baghdad, and we will not stop.
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Narrator] Protect Israel, secure oil resources, ensure democracy. George Bush's Middle East policy involved putting an end
to Islamic Iran. - If Iran gets a nuclear weapon, then certainly, Saudi Arabia, Egypt,
maybe even Jordan will try to get it. This will
create a lot of chaos in the region. - Their leader is a danger to his own people,
to the region, to the world. He is a disgrace to
the ancient Iranian people and tradition. He is a disgrace to the values of Islam and all religions.
(speaking in foreign language)
- I think the one thing the Iranians must have learned by now, and that is
that you can expect from Israel the unexpected. - The rhetoric has many participants.
Of course Israel is part of it, but the Iranians are the ones who have really stepped it up,
and have injected into it both wording and ideas,
which are just historically and morally unacceptable. - [Narrator] But Israel must also face the shifting
tides in the East. In Lebanon, the Caucasus, the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq, Shiites are rising to the fore.
- I think the rise of Shiism, as exemplified by Iran, is a phenomenon
that really comes out of the decision to invade Iraq.
(speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
- Both the Iranian leadership and also the American leadership have to look beyond
the atmospherics of the relationship today, evaluate the due political and strategic stakes involved,
and try to pursue a rational policy, which I think it still possible,
with a little more determination and with a little more rationality,
on both sides, with a little less of rhetoric and particularly insulting or threatening rhetoric.
(speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
(calling to prayer in foreign language)
- [Narrator] Over the past hundred years, Iran had tested the main experiments of the 20th century.
It was the first Middle Eastern country to adopt a parliament, nationalize its resources, spark an Islamic revolution.
Tomorrow, it will no doubt again serve as a laboratory for the future. (people praying out loud)
It had possessed oil and craved nuclear power, for better or for worse.
Throughout their long march toward modernization, the Iranian people have fought, often bitterly, to keep their identity.
The question is not, will we have to contend with Iran tomorrow, but, what kind of Iran will we have to contend with?
This question is key, for Iranians, for Muslims everywhere, and for the world.
(calling to prayer in foreign language)
===
Needs a better transcript.
===
ChatGPT 4o
나의 말:
Iran_ The Hundred Year War.pdf
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ChatGPT 4o
나의 말:
Iran_ The Hundred Year War.pdf
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