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The Shah is fighting not only corruption and graft but the deadening hand of Iran's "thousand families" who are absentee owners of 70% of the land. The Shah himself, as the nation's biggest single landowner (2,500,000 acres), has shown the way by distributing his vast farm properties to the peasants of about 300 of his villages. But the thousand families are cool to land reform. Even worse, landlords seldom reinvest their profits in upgrading the soil. Tenants, who can usually be dispossessed at will with no compensation for any improvements they have made, are understandably reluctant to make any. The Shah has struck hard at one landlord privilege by ordering an end to the "gifts" of cattle and food traditionally taken by the landlords from their peasants on the eve of festivals.
The Shah's reforms have one thing in their favor: Iran has already been through the sort of violent upheaval now shaking most of its neighbors. The Mossadegh turmoil of 1953, with its hate-the-West nationalism and Communist coloring, had a cathartic effect on many young idealists.
And the Shah's security forces moved firmly against the remnants of Mossadegh's organization, pushed through the trial and execution of 30 army officers linked with the Communist-run Tudeh Party.
Discontent remains among white-collar workers squeezed by inflation, among peasants oppressed by landlords, among army officers frustrated by inefficient commanders who distribute promotions by bribery and special influence, among young intellectuals who resent police state controls. There is little evident organized opposition to the regime. Yet an esti mated 60% of Iranian students educated abroad never come home because they are grimly aware how few opportunities there are in Iran for young men without connections in high places.
Gold-Toothed Smile
The oil of the Persian Gulf pumps its steady stream of dollars, and new trade agreements, like the one with Italy which guarantees Iran the lion's share of a 25-75% split, will certainly affect the 50-50% deals that have been standard with British and most U.S. companies. Under Iran's $1.1 billion development program, made possible by oil revenues, regional schemes will supply irrigation, fertilizer, electric power and light industry. The ambitious Khuzistan project in southwestern Iran is under the able guidance of a U.S. firm headed by David E. Lilienthal and Gordon R. Clapp, who pioneered TVA. The development plans are good, but their allotted revenues have sometimes been borrowed for other purposes, and the Shah himself wishes that there were more "visual impact" schemes to give his poverty-stricken people a feeling of hope. Despite large oil revenues, the Iranian economy has been crucially dependent on more than $300 million in aid pumped in by the U.S. since 1951.