August 20, 1953


Royalists Oust Mossadegh; Army Seizes Helm

By KENNETT LOVE
TEHERAN, Iran, Aug. 19--Iranians loyal to Shah Mohammed Riza Pahlevi, including Teheran civilians, soldiers and rural tribesmen, swept Premier Mohammed Mossadegh out of power today in a revolution and apparently had seized at least temporary control of the country.

More than 300 persons were killed and 100 wounded during the fighting, which raged at key Government buildings. Two hundred were estimated to have died in the fierce last-stand battle at Dr. Mossadegh's heavily fortified home.

The nine-hour uprising placed Maj. Gen. Fazollah Zahedi at the helm of the nation after a twenty-eight-month rule by Dr. Mossadegh. General Zahedi, who had been in hiding for months, was appointed Premier Thursday by a royal decree but the Shah left the country Sunday when Premier Mossadegh thwarted delivery of a second decree dismissing him.

The end came for the Mossadegh Government after a pitched tank and rifle battle in Kokh Avenue, where the former Premier's home stands, 100 yards from the Shah's Winter Palace. When the Premier's household guard was overwhelmed in the final rush of Royalist troops the home was found vacant. Dr. Mossadegh's personal bodyguard was dead.

Tanks Duel in Streets

The report in the streets was that Dr. Mossadegh himself had escaped. Dr. Mossadegh's defenders put up a stubborn battle during which Sherman tanks mounting 75-mm. cannon dueled at close quarters for nearly two hours.

The Army, which appeared to have been won for Dr. Mossadegh's side Sunday, turned on its top officers today. Dr. Mossadegh's Chief of Staff, Taghi Riahi, and other top officers fled long before the day was over.

General Zahedi broadcast his triumph in a tumultuous scene at Radio Teheran, which had been captured by Royalist forces at 2:20 P.M.

With the radio building swarming with yelling soldiers, General Zahedi broadcast the program he said his Government intended to follow. Points in the program included:

  • Re-establishment of a rule of law and re-establishment of public security.

  • Elevation of the standard of living and a reduction in the cost of living.

  • Mechanization of agriculture and formation of cooperative societies for the peasants.

  • Raising workers' wages.

  • Provision of free medical treatment.

  • An extensive asphalt road-building program.

  • Restoration of individual freedom and freedom of assembly.

    He declared that he would rule until the Majlis (Parliament) had resumed its legislative functions.

    The troops and police that took part in the overthrow were led by huge mobs shouting for the return of the Shah. They attacked key Government establishments in the city, burned the office of the pro-Government newspaper, Bakhtar-e-Emruz and of two Communist newspapers, of several pro-Government party offices and shouted for the death of Dr. Mossadegh. They also besieged the Foreign Ministry, Police Headquarters and Army General Staff Headquarters.

    Virtually all armed forces in the city, except a few units defending Government buildings and Dr. Mossadegh's own household guards, joined the mobs in the attacks.

    The first rush of Royalist troops and civilians was beaten off by heavy small-arms fire from the windows of the Police Headquarters. Casualties among the attackers, who arrived in six Army trucks, were reported to have been heavy there. Similar scenes were repeated at the other vital Government centers.

    Eight truckloads of soldiers and five tanks rumbling into the city, presumably under command of officers loyal to the Government, gave their equipment to the first mob they encountered. The tanks came from the Abbas Abad garrison north of the city, a few miles from where General Zahedi may have been hiding in the foothills of the Elburz Mountains.

    In the streets, the soldiers centered their attacks on civilians wearing white shirts, considered a trademark of Tudeh (Communist) party members.

    Two thousand yelling partisans of the Shah demonstrated before the Soviet Embassy in Churchill Avenue. They were accompanied by a tank, but departed without attacking the Russians, who had slammed shut the heavy iron gates. The Embassy occupies an eight-square-block compound surrounded by a twelve-foot-high wall.

    The street revolution began last night when police and soldiers shouting "Long live the Shah" and "Death to Mossadegh" smashed into pro-Government rioters. The rioters were Tudeh partisans and Pan-Iranists, who had often fought each other though both at this time were supporting Dr. Mossadegh. The troops beat the rioters unmercifully, forcing them to repeat their slogans at bayonet point.

    Troops' Action Was the Spark

    After the last night's fighting, the soldiers and police returned to their barracks only to join the pro-Shah crowds this morning. Apparently the boldness of the troops in shouting for the Shah last night had given courage to the populace. Except for one small pro-Shah demonstration yesterday morning no voice previously had been raised in his behalf.

    Anti-Shah mobs on Monday battered, sawed and threw down all the statues in the city of the Shah and of his late father, Riza Shah.

    A declaration signed by General Zahedi had been circulated among army cadres ordering the troops not to obey the illegal Mossadegh Government on pain of severe punishment. The declaration reproduced the general's signed commands in his own hand.

    Gen. Mohammed Daftari, who is a nephew of Dr. Mossadegh, was reported at 1:30 P. M. to have taken over as chief of police in Teheran and military governor of the area by appointment of General Zahedi.

    Immediately after capturing the telegraph office at 1:30 P. M. the rebels sent messages throughout Iran reporting the government overturn. They then captured the offices of the Press and Propaganda Department and marched on Radio Teheran which had been playing only recorded music in place of its customary news broadcasts. It was taken at 2:20 P. M.

    Mossadegh's Furniture Sold

    After Dr. Mossadegh's home finally had been stormed, the victorious mob hauled his furniture into the street and auctioned it to passers-by at low prices. A new electric refrigerator was offered for 300 tomans (about $36).

    Dr. Mossadegh's home had been fortified with machine-gun nests on the roof and a high defensive wall outside his bedroom window.

    Dr. Mossadegh's Cabinet was meeting at his home before the attack and at least some of them escaped with him.

    In the assault on the Mossadegh home, the attackers captured Col. Ezatollah Mumtaz, who had betrayed the Royalists to Dr. Mossadegh Saturday night. They literally tore him to pieces.

    General Zahedi moved swiftly to nail down the victory against counterblows. A curfew was imposed, beginning at 8 P. M., to last until 5 A. M. All stores except grocery, butcher and bakery shops were ordered to remain closed until further notice and assembly in the streets was forbidden.

    General Zahedi also released all political prisoners, including at least thirty-one arrested by Dr. Mossadegh since the attempt to remove him Saturday, and about twenty arrested in connection with the kidnap murder in April of the national police chief, Mahmoud Afshartous. Dr. Mossadegh had attempted to use the Afshartous affair to discredit all opposition.

    Fatemi Reported Killed

    By THE NEW YORK TIMES

    BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 19--Broadcasts from Teheran indicated today that the dead in the Iranian revolution included Foreign Minister Hossein Fatemi, who was "torn to pieces" in the office of his newspaper Bakhtar-e-Emruz.

    It appeared from the broadcasts that the Shah's supporters had established full control of the northern province of Azerbaijan, on the borders of the Soviet Union. At 6 P. M., Baghdad time, a station believed to be that of Azerbaijan, was picked up here, announcing in Persian, Azerbaijani and Turkish.

    "On this, the twenty-eighth day (of the current Persian month) the heroic people of Teheran have been able to overthrow the traitor Government of Mossadegh and uphold the Shah's rights--the Shah who is the real protector of the country against any violation of popular rights. We request all the people of Azerbaijan, Tabriz and other centers, to support the movement."

    Baghdad radio monitors said Radio Teheran went off the air at 4:45 P. M. amid sounds of shots and a siren. The station was heard again at 7:15 P. M., with supporters of General Zahedi in control.

    Wage Rises Promised

    General Zahedi himself was reported to have broadcast from Teheran a promise to raise wages and living standards. Late this afternoon only Radio Isfahan in South Central Iran still was broadcasting statements of loyalty to Dr. Mossadegh.

    Dr. Mossadegh was reported to have escaped, but there was no indication here of his whereabouts. There was a possibility that he might have left the capital for Isfahan and that he might take a plane from there to a place of refuge outside Iran.

    The Azerbaijan radio broadcast that the garrison there had declared its loyalty to the Shah and had set up a committee to take over administration of the province.

    New Iran Premier Lifelong Royalist

    Maj. Gen. Fazollah Zahedi, leader in yesterday's uprising in Iran against the Government of Premier Mohammed Mossadegh, will have reached the peak of an impressive military and political career if the pro-Shah forces consolidate their victory.

    His ascendancy will probably be met with mixed feelings by the Western world. The British would have little reason to greet with jubilation his entrenchment in his office. He has a long record of Anglophobia which, during World War II, contributed largely to his arrest and internment by British forces.

    While he was not directly responsible for the nationalization of British oil interests in Iran, he was Minister of the Interior in the Cabinet under which the nationalization took place.

    Washington's attitude toward General Zahedi is not known. He is a strong nationalist. As such he might not be particularly warm toward any foreign interests and that would apply to the Americans, as well as to the British and the Russians. Washington sources said yesterday they had no record of any friendship on the part of the new Premier with the Communists.

    Always a Loyal Royalist

    Through the general's entire career there is a strong thread of loyalty to the monarchy, beginning with Mohammed Riza Shah and continuing with that ruler's successor and son, the present Shah Mohammed Riza Pahlevi.

    General Zahedi was born in 1897. At the age of 23, as a company commander, he led his command successfully against Bolshevik-supported forces in the northern provinces. Two years later, in 1922, he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General.

    In that year he was captured by Kudish outlaws, apparently escaped and received a high award from the Shah. In the same year he directed a military campaign against Sheikh Kazal.

    In 1926 he was named by Riza Shah to be military governor of Khuzistan, the province in which Abadan, hub of the nation's present oil industry, is located. In 1932, he was appointed chief of police of Teheran, one of the nation's top internal posts. He left this position in 1941 to become commanding general of the Isfahan Division.

    He was arrested in 1942 by British forces and placed in internment in Palestine. The formal charge was that he dealt with the Nazis. He returned home after the war and in 1946 appeared back in his military role as divisional commander of Fars Province in Southern Iran. He was retired from the Army in May, 1949, but in November he was again named chief of police of Teheran.

    He was appointed by the Shah as a Senator in February, 1950, a post he resigned in 1951 when he was made Minister of the Interior.

    While he is fervently nationalistic, little is known of his political temper other than that of a moderate leaning toward conservatism.

    Known as a Ladies' Man

    General Zahedi's home community is Resht, in the northern part of the country, where he occupied himself as landlord of his extensive properties.

    General Zahedi has been married twice, but it is not known here whether his second wife is living. By his first wife he had two sons, one of whom, an air force officer, was killed in a crash. The other had been employed until some months ago by the United States Point Four Administration in Iran.

    In his home country, these sources said, his reputation is that of a boulevardier with a penchant for gambling and for beautiful women, one of whom committed suicide just after the news of his exile became public during the last war.

    Mohammed Mossadegh

    Of a wealthy family, Dr. Mossadegh is reputed to be one of Iran's largest landowners, but he has consistently backed liberal reforms. Although he served as a financial agent of the Crown in Iranian provinces in his early years, he has been a consistent critic of Iranian Governments of recent years.

    Dr. Mossadegh is known as a deeply religious man. Despite his wealth, he led a simple, almost ascetic life. He was highly emotional. In Parliament and other public places he frequently broke into tears and more than once punctuated political orations with fainting spells.

    He was educated in France, Belgium and Switzerland and is the holder of a Doctor of Laws Degree from the University of Neuchatel, in Switzerland. Dr. Mossadegh was married to Princess Zia Saltaneh in 1903 and they had five children.

    Dr. Mossadegh's age is his own secret. In 1951 it was given officially as 69 years, but people who knew him said then that he was at least 74, possibly 76 years old.

    Moscow Says U. S. Aided Shah's Coup

    By THE NEW YORK TIMES

    MOSCOW, Thursday, Aug. 20--Premier Mohammed Mossadegh's overthrow came at a moment when Soviet policy was strongly oriented toward rapprochement with Teheran and coincided with Soviet charges that United States intrigues and finances had lain behind the earlier stages of the Shah's coup.

    There was little doubt, in view of Pravda's open charges that the United States was implicated in the first stages of the coup, that it would be linked by the Russians with the later stages.

    Yesterday Pravda, in a lengthy commentary on Iran, asserted that orders for the Shah's coup were brought to Iran by Brig. Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, former New Jersey police official and one-time trainer of the Iranian Gendarmerie.

    The charges against the United States have had wide dissemination in connection with a series of private and public diplomatic moves designed to demonstrate the Soviet's desire to make relations between Moscow and Teheran the model of "good neighborliness."

    A Soviet-Iranian mixed commission, which was set up in Teheran to negotiate the settlement of outstanding territorial and financial questions as well as other matters affecting relations between the two nations, already has met twice in the Iranian capital.

    Talks Widely Publicized

    The Soviet press and radio have publicized meetings of the mixed commission, which is termed the model of correct relations between states. Simultaneously, through all propaganda media, the United States has been pictured as actively intervening in Iranian affairs and as the inspirer of the attempted coup by the Shah.

    Pravda, in a special editorial today, signed "Observer," which was given the dominant position on the foreign news page, charged that the plot was financed out of funds that Congress had appropriated for what was called subversive work in other countries.

    "This time the weapon of subversive activity was directed against Iran, which did not wish to become the submissive slave of American monopolies, said Pravda.

    Pravda charged also that the United States had applied economic pressure to Iran and cited President Eisenhower's letter of June 29 refusing economic aid unless, according to the newspaper, Iran "agreed to accept proposals of foreign monopolies on the oil question."

    [In his letter to Premier Mossadegh, President Eisenhower said: "The failure of Iran and the United Kingdom to reach an agreement with regard to compensation has handicapped the Government of the United States in its efforts to help Iran."]

    When Iran refused, said Pravda, "American agents who operated within Iran hatched new diversionary plans directed toward the overthrow of the Government."

    Foreign diplomats in Moscow, evaluating the current evolution of Soviet-Iranian relations, believe Moscow's moves have not been without result. They noted that the Soviet effort appeared to be timed at the moment when Iranian relations with the United States definitely were on the down grade and when the Iranians themselves were making charges of the United States' connections with the Shah's plot.

    Visit Stirred Interest in U. S.

    By THE NEW YORK TIMES

    WASHINGTON, Aug. 19--There has been considerable speculation here over General Schwarzkopf's recent visit to Iran. He returned to the United States last week after a trip to Lebanon, Syria, Pakistan and Iran.

    State Department officials said the department had arranged for General Schwarzkopf's visits to Lebanon, Syria and Pakistan, but that he had made the Iranian visit on his own initiative "to meet old friends" there.

    Schwarzkopf Declines Comment

    By THE NEW YORK TIMES

    TRENTON, Aug. 19--General Schwarzkopf, reached by telephone at his home in Maplewood, N. J., tonight, declined to comment on Moscow reports linking him with the present turmoil in Iran.

    His visit to Iran was purely a personal one, he explained, adding:

    "I went there to call on some friends whom I had struck up an acquaintance with during the years I was in Iran reorganizing the National Gendarmerie. I was not there this time in an official capacity and I conducted no business there."

    Asked to comment on the present Iranian political situation, he explained that he preferred not to since he had been out of touch "for too long a period." He reorganized the Gendarmerie between 1942 and 1948 at the direction of the United States War Department.