All the Shah’s Men Read Online Free PDF Page A

however, Nasiri was not thinking clearly enough. It was well after eleven o’clock when he arrived at General Riahi’s home and found it abandoned. He was untroubled and simply ordered his men to proceed toward Mossadegh’s residence. Unbeknownst to him, another military column was also on its way there. General Riahi had learned of the coup and sent troops to foil it.
    The precise identity of the informant has never been established. Most guesses center on a military officer who belonged to a secret communist cell. There may have been more than one informant. In the end, what happened was precisely what Roosevelt feared. Too many people knew about the plot for too long. A leak was all but inevitable.
    In the confusing hours around midnight, Tehran was bursting with plots and counterplots. Some rebellious officers learned of the betrayal in time to abort their missions. Others, not realizing that they were compromised, went ahead. One seized the telephone office at the bazaar. Another roused Foreign Minister Hussein Fatemi from bed and dragged him away barefoot and shouting.
    The future of constitutional rule in Iran depended on which column of soldiers reached Mossadegh’s house first. Shortly before one o’clock in the morning, the rebel column drove up Kakh Street, passed the corner of Heshmatdowleh, and stopped. Here Mossadegh lived with his wife in a small apartment, part of a larger complex that his family had owned for many years. The gate was closed. Colonel Nasiri stepped out to demand entry. In his hand he held the firman dismissing Mossadegh from office. Behind him stood several files of soldiers.
    Colonel Nasiri had arrived too late. Moments after he appeared at the gate, several loyal commanders stepped from the shadows. They escorted him into a jeep and drove him to general staff headquarters. There General Riahi denounced him as a traitor, ordered him stripped of his uniform, and sent him to a cell. The man who was to have arrested Mossadegh was now himself a prisoner.
    Roosevelt, who had no way of knowing that any of this was happening, was at his embassy command post, waiting for Colonel Nasiri to call. Tanks clattered by several times, but the telephone never rang. Roosevelt’s apprehensions deepened as dawn broke. Radio Tehran did not begin its transmissions at six o’clock as normal. Then, an hour later, it crackled to life with a burst of military music, followed by the reading of an official communiqué. Roosevelt did not speak Persian but feared the worst when he heard the announcer use the word Mossadegh . Then Mossadegh himself came on the air, announcing victory over a coup attempt organized by the Shah and “foreign elements.”
    The Shah, cowering at his seaside villa, was also listening. As soon as he grasped what had happened, he roused his wife and told her it was time to run. They quickly packed two small briefcases, grabbed what clothes they could carry in their arms, and walked briskly out toward their twin-engine Beechcraft. The Shah, a trained pilot, took the controls and set a course for Baghdad. After arriving there, he told the American ambassador that he “would be looking for work shortly as he has a large family and very small means outside of Iran.”
    While the Shah was fleeing, military units loyal to the government were fanning out through Tehran. City life quickly returned to normal. Several conspirators were arrested and others went into hiding. A reward was offered for the capture of General Zahedi. CIA operatives made mad dashes back to the security of the American embassy or safe houses. Jubilant crowds took to the streets chanting, “Victory to the Nation!” and “Mossadegh Has Won!”
    Inside his embassy compound, Roosevelt felt himself “close to despair.” He had no choice but to send a cable to Washington saying that things had gone terribly wrong. John Waller, the head of the CIA’s Iran desk, read it with great disappointment. Waller feared for the lives