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Straight from Persepolis. The man who stands between the West and such an alarming prospect is one of the few remaining monarchs who is more than merely decorative. At 41, Mohammed Reza Pahlevi, Shahanshah (King of Kings) of Iran, is undisputed boss of his nation. "His Imperial Majesty is above everything," a Teheran newspaper recently explained to its readers. "Constitutionally. he can appoint or dismiss a Premier as he sees fit. He can also dissolve parliament if he so chooses. He decides on which projects his country needs, bills that should be presented for passage by the legislature, and on the conduct generally of home and foreign policy."
A trim, broad-shouldered man, the Shah walks with the easy grace of the trained athlete and soldier, shows aware ness of his power with every toss of his silvery royal head. Though he is only the second ruler in the Pahlevi dynasty—which dates from 1926—his profile might have been lifted straight from one of the bas-reliefs in the ancient Persian capital of Persepolis that Alexander conquered. If the Shah has little sense of humor and a prevalent cast of melancholy, it is perhaps because his life has been a sobering affair.
Everyone Rises. The Shah's father, known to his subjects as Reza Shah, was an old-style, absolute monarch who rose from noncom to colonel to King, overthrowing Iran's slack-chinned, 130-year-old Qajar dynasty by force of arms. A wiry, hot-tempered martinet, the old Shah set out to manhandle Iran into the mod ern world, and he did not mind machine-gunning obstreperous peasants to do it. He abolished the veil, and when a Moslem imam criticized the Queen for not wearing one, roared up to the mosque in a convoy of armored cars, marched in, and kicked the priest in the stomach.
From the time Mohammed was a toddler, the old Shah paraded him about in gold-incrusted uniforms complete with shako, preaching dreams of dynasty and a rejuvenated Iran. "What is the use of leading a life of shame?" Shah Mohammed says today, recalling his father's struggles. "Our army was composed of a number of woodcutters and egg sellers. Civil servants' salaries were paid in bricks instead of money. Whenever the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wanted to give a banquet, it had to send someone to the bazaar to borrow 100 tomans ($172)."
To prepare young Mohammed for power, Reza Shah relentlessly pushed him into the "manly sports," in 1931 abruptly packed him off (aboard a Russian cruiser) to La Rosee school in Switzerland. A U.S. schoolmate recalls that the experience was something of a shock all around. Striding into the school lounge, the young prince announced: "When I enter a room, everyone rises." His fellow students merely stared at him in polite amazement. In time, Mohammed won a kind of plebiscite from them by getting himself elected captain of the school soccer team.
Back to Barracks. When Mohammed finally returned home, an attractive, smiling young man smartly clad in European clothes, Reza Shah took one disgusted look and slapped him back in uniform at the local military academy. His smiles gone, Mohammed went back to following Reza Shah to reviews and parades, and in 1939 just as obediently trekked off to Egypt and brought back the bride his father had selected, the pretty Princess Faw-zia, sister of King Farouk.