Opinion of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi

[MATTROSE94]

Massive HP. The Shah of Iran was little more the an incompetent and brutal dictator who mercilessly slaughtered his political opponents and sought to enrich himself at the expense of ordinary Iranians. According to a 1976 report by Amnesty International, Iran under the Shah had the highest number of political prisoners, the lowest level of press freedom, and the overall worst human rights record in the entire world. I would have enthusiastically supported his overthrow in 1978, but would have favored the secular democratic opposition led by Shapour Bakhtiar coming to power instead of Ayatollah Khomeini.

[MATTROSE94]

Keep in mind that although Mosaddegh was democratically elected, by the time of the coup democracy in Iran had basically ceased to exist.  Mosaddegh dissolved the Parliament in 1953 thanks to a rigged election in which 99% of the voters supposedly voted to make him a virtual dictator.  The coup only became a certainty after the dissolution of Parliament pushed the Shah over the edge.  

Of course, the direction that the Shah took Iran in the aftermath of the coup was bad in many ways, but the act of the coup itself is not something I have a problem with.

Did the Shah lead the initial efforts efforts behind the 1953 coup and convinced the US and the UK to support it, or was he pretty much co-opted by the US and the UK into supporting it? Either way, I feel that the coup was a bad decision and still believe that the Shah was one of the worst leaders in Iranian history and one of the most infamous dictators of the 20th Century. On a side note, I do like the Shah's father Reza Shah Pahlavi and feel that he was one of the better leaders in Iranian history despite his authoritarian nature.

[MATTROSE94]

HP. Besides the dictatorial stuff, spent his kingdom's entire budget on toys his army couldn't operate, and cockamamie development schemes that, combined with a total mismanagement of oil revenues, threw the country into economic chaos.

TL;DR: Talked a big game about enlightened monarchy. In the end was unenlightened and was a horrible monarch.

I agree with you 100%. The only policy initiated by the Shah of Iran that I would have supported was the "White Revolution," which gave Iranian women the right to vote, instituted some land reforms meant to help peasants, improved religious freedom for non-Muslims, and increased access to education for ordinary Iranians. As opposed to genuine concern for the plight of the Iranian people, the true motives behind the "White Revolution" were to further enrich the Iranian royal family and preserve the Shah's power however. Other than some efforts at reform during his reign, the Shah of Iran was little more than a brutal dictator who only cared about his own interests at the expense of everyday Iranians.