One hot and breezeless afternoon last week, Mohammed Mossadegh's advisers sat around the boss's iron cot on the balcony of his yellow brick house in Teheran. They had gathered to face the facts: the country was disintegrating economically and politically. Husky Firebrand Hussein Makki spoke up: "My dear Pishva [leader], unless you control the army, you will have no security." The group agreed that the Pishva should ask the Shah for control of the army.
A few days later, 7 2-year-old Mossadegh faced 32-year-old Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi, Iran's well-meaning but weak monarch. He began naming the ministers for his...
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