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Originally Posted by Charlatan
Seems to me that instead of setting up the authoritarian Shah they should have worked to become friends with Iran... a mutual customer. Oil for finished goods. Military support for their growning democracy in the face of Russian aquisitiveness...
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Therein lies the catch: the Shah didn't resort to authoritarian means until he ran into hardline Islamic fundamentalists opposed to his efforts to modernize Iran. Ataturk ran into the exact same thing in his attempts to modernize Turkey.
For a complex combination of reasons, the Shah was unable to achieve in Iran what Ataturk was able to achieve in Turkey, ie. the successful modernization of an Islamic society. He outlawed the caliphate, established women's rights, the country was at peace with its neigbors, and Islamic extremists were driven from seats of political authority. (Rightly so, imo.)
Today, Turkey is thriving, while Iran remains a troubled, stunted country yet to modernize, on the verge of nukes, with vast fields of oil. Can you hear that ticking sound?