IRAN: The Shah's Fight for Survival

He names a military government and promises reform鼂ǥbut is it all too late?

The tone was contrite. The words were conciliatory. The old imperial arrogance was gone. "Your revolutionary message has been heard," said Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. "I am aware of everything you have given your lives for. I commit myself to make up for past mistakes, to fight corruption and injustice, and to form a national government to carry out free elections."

The speech was unprecedented for Iran's proud autocrat. It reminded some history-conscious observers of the last days of Imperial Russia's Czar Nicholas II in...

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