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42
B.C., the Persians succumbed to the
armies of Alexander the Great. The
invaders quickly adopted Persian cus–
toms, habits, religious philosophies and
relied on Persian administrators - tes–
tifying to the redoubtable qualities of
Persian culture.
Arab armies, fired by their new Is–
lamic faith, swept over the land in the
mid 600's A.D. The Persian way of life
soon predominated once again, but was
nearly extinguished in the wanton
destruction wrought by Genghis Khan
and his Mongol hordes beginning in
1220.
From that time until the present
century, Persia played a strictly secon–
dary role in history. The 1900's opened
with the nation virtually dictated to
by any foreign power, notably the Rus–
sians and the British. When the present
Shah's father assumed power in 1925,
and began the Pahlavi dynasty, Persia
was totally backward and impoverished
- except for sorne ext remely wealthy
land-holding families. Only six facto–
rics cxisted in the whole country!
The Reza Shah began to bui ld an
industrial and transportation complex.
He accomplished a great deal - includ–
ing construction of tbe famous Trans–
Iranian Railway - before he abdicated
in favor of his son on the eve of World
War IJ.
During the ensuing conflict, British
and Russian troops once again occupied
portions of Iran. After hostilities ended,
and after protracted difficulties with the
Soviets, Iran slipped into political tur–
moil. The premiership of Mohammed
Mossadegh (1951 -1953), nearl y
destroyed the country. For two years
the fanatically anti-foreign Mossadegh
halted Iran's vital oil exports.
1
Few comprehend Iran's enormous size.
Her 628,000 square miles is more than twice
the size of Alaska and equivalent to the
combined area of Great Britain, Frlnce, Ger·
many, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, Jtaly,
Holland, and Austria. Because much of the
land is arid or semi-a rid, Iran's rather sparse
population totals approximately 30,000,000,
one tenth of whom live in the capital city
of Teheran.
In his modernization drive of the 1920's,
the present Shah's father, the Reza Shah,
decreed that the nation would
be
called lean
- land of the Aryan people- rather than
the ancient name of Persia. In response to a
petition from a group of Iranian statesmen
and scholars, however, permission has since
been granted for the use of both names
interchangeably.
The
PLAIN TRUTH
PLAIN TRUTH Associ4te Editors
Geue H. Hogberg tmd Euge11e
M.
W
alter, along with two photogra–
phers, were Í1l lran /ast October,
covering the 2,500th am1iversary cele–
bratiorl of the fomldirlg of the Persian
Empire. Impressed with the tremen–
dous progress made by this pivotal
Mid.dle Eastem country during the
past decade, and its prospects for the
future, they filed this report.
For the remainder of the decade, and
on into the 1960's, Iran slowly - very
slowly - picked itself up from the
Mossadegh fiasco. With the arrival of
1962, the year in which the 2,500th an–
niversary should have been held, Iran
was sti ll in desperate straits. The vast
majority of her people were impover–
ished, illiterate, landless serfs.
The nation's economy, barely in–
dustrialized except for the vast petro–
leum industry, was in disarray. The
government was hamstrung by ineffi–
ciency, corruption and waste. The coun–
try was almost overwhelmed by grave
and profound social and economic prob–
lems besetting all so-called developing
nations.
Clearly, Jran was hardly in a position
to celebrate the historie anniversary of
the oldest continua! civilization outside
of China.
As one Iranian put it:
"If
the cele–
brations had been held then, our people
would have had on ly the past to look
back to for their glory."
Unless something were done soon, a
bloody red - and
Red
- revolution
seemed inevitable. The Communist
Tr1deh
Party, a source of incessant
trouble since the Second World War,
was doing its best to take advantage of
the situation.
The White Revolution
Rising to the occasion, Iran's zealous
Shah
1
personally began to carry out a
revolution from within.
The goals of this "White Revolu–
tion," as it carne to be called, were
nothing less than an attempt to extricate
Iran from the ranks of the devel–
oping countries and place her squarely
arnong the developed ones in the short–
est possible time.
January
1972
Today, one decade later, th is lofty
goal is well on its way to being
achieved. The statistics thus far are in–
deed impressive. Per capita income - a
mere $180 ten years ago - has nearly
doubled to $350. A massive land re–
form program - one of the corner–
stones of the White Revolution - has
enabled more than balf of Iran's
peasants to own tbeir own land.
During the last half of the 1960's,
Jran maintained an average annual 10.3
percent growth in its Gross National
Product. The industrial sector alone has
been clipping along at a phenomenal
rate of 14 percent. Iranian economists
hope their nation will overtakc front–
running Japan in the GNP growth race
in 1971.
What has made it all possible is the
judicious use of the country's enormous
oil revenues -
l.
7 billion dollars alone
this past year and estimated to reach 2
billion dollars in 1972.
In May 1970, lean became the big–
gest oil-producing country in the
Middle East, (accounting for 25 percent
of the total Middle East production)
and the third largest in the world, sur–
passed only by the United States and
the Soviet Union.
Petroleum revenues - which account
for nearly three fourths of Iran's annual
foreign exchange earnings - have been
funneled into a crash modernization
program. Projects indude roads, rail–
ways, telecommunications systems, dams
and irrigation works, power generating
facilities, new and rnodernized refin–
eries, pipelines, harbors, schools and
hospitals.
The government is aJso using oil rev–
enues to build up non-existent or long–
neglected areas of industry. Growing
industries indude tire manufacturing,
pharmaceuticals, appliances, petrochemi–
cals and auto assembly. The country's
political stability has encouraged foreign
investment to the tune of 1.3 billion
dollars, 700 million of which is Ameri–
can.
Thus, the old image of Iran, as a
"land of oil and carpets" has been con–
signed to the myth-pile.
Sweeping Social Changes
In addition to the vast improvement
in Iran's economic picture, sweeping so-