7 - Controlled Revolution

Summary

Economic and political unrest in 1960 brought American opinions of the shah’s government to their lowest ebb, pushing the shah to appoint ‘Ali Amini, a pro-American development advocate and modernizer, as prime minister. Reformers in the Kennedy administration hoped that Amini and Iran’s young economists would usher in a new program, the Third Plan, that would steady the country’s economy while moving the shah away from dominating the political scene. The shah, however, outmaneuvered Amini and sidelined the economists, launching his own reform program, the White Revolution. By 1964, the shah had consolidated his position while the influx of oil revenues resolved the economic crisis. At the same time, the US government abandoned the idea of foreign-backed development in Iran, surrendering to a new narrative of the shah as a “revolutionary monarch” who could stabilize the country.