Memoirs of Shapour Bakhtiar [Persian Language]

DESCRIPTION

Shapour Bakhtiar, son of Mohammad-Reza (Sardar-e Fateh) and Naz-Baygom was born in 1915 in the Bakhtiari region of Iran. Bakhtiar's maternal grandfather, Najaf-Gholi Samsam al-Saltaneh, was elected prime minister twice: in 1912 and 1918.

Bakhtiar's mother died when he was seven years old. He attended elementary school in Shahr-e Kord and then attended secondary school in Esfahan and Beirut, Lebanon where he received his high school diploma from a French school.

On his way to France to continue his studies in 1934, Bakhtiar learned that his father had been executed by order of Reza Shah. He returned to Iran and remained there for two years.

He then left for France in 1936, where he earned degrees in political science, philosophy and law in 1939. In the same year, Bakhtiar married a French woman and in 1940 he volunteered for the French army. After the war, Bakhtiar registered at the Sorbonne where received a doctorate.

In the winter of 1946, Bakhtiar returned to Iran and was employed at the newly established Ministry of Labor. Initially, he was appointed director of the Labor Department in the Province of Esfahan. Subsequently, he headed up the Labor Department in Khuzestan, center of the oil industry. During the Premiership of Mohammad Mossadegh, Bakhtiar held the post of deputy minister of labor.

Subsequent to the coup of 1953, Bakhtiar was engaged in various activities that are described in this memoir. In January 1979, Bakhtiar was elected prime minister. He was overthrown in less than two months by the Revolution of February 1979.

Subsequently, Bakhtiar fled to France and lived in a suburb of Paris where he formed and led the National Resistance Movement of Iran, opposed to the Islamic Republic. On August 7, 1991, Bakhtiar was murdered in his home.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Memoirs of Shapour Bakhtiar
• Formation of the Iran Party
• Coalition of Iran Party with the Tudeh Party
• Khalil Maleki and His Relations with the National Front
• Labor Unions in Esfahan
• Relations of the Oil Company with Their Iranian Workers
• Non-Political Labor Unions
• Labor Relations during Mossadegh Government
• Need for Mossadegh to Have Established a Party
• Brick Kiln Workers' Strike and the Tudeh Party
• Reasons for the Failure of the National Movement of Iran
• Formation of the National Resistance Movement
• Reform in the Ministry of Labor
• Bakhtiar's Activities after August 1953
• Formation of the Second National Front
• National Front and the Amini Government
• Amini Policy regarding Majles Elections
• Grievance of National Front Students against Front Leaders
• Demonstration and Speeches at Jalalieh Grounds
• First of Bahman Incident at Tehran University
• Discussions between Alam and the National Front
• Membership of the Socialist Society in the National Front
• Opposition of Mossadegh to National Front Structure
• National Front Position on the White Revolution
• Split in Iran Party and Formation of Association of Freedom of the Iranian People
• National Front Policy of "Silence and Tranquillity"
• Reasons for the Failure of the Second National Front Impact of Carter's
• Human Rights Policy on Resurrection of the National Front
• Reemergence of the National Front on Eve of Revolution
• Barriers to Entry of Younger Members Placed by Leadership of the National Front
• Acceptance of Premiership Decree from the Shah
• Prelude to Premiership
• Sanjabi's Three Point Letter to Ayatollah Khomeini
• Bakhtiar's Letter to Ayatollah Khomeini
• The Crown Council
• Return of Ayatollah Khomeini to Iran
• Bakhtiar's Career prior to the Revolution
• Ayatollah Khomeini's Stay in France
• The Guadeloupe Conference
• Most Important Causes of the Revolution
• Appendixes
• Index

EDITOR

Habib Ladjevardi has been the director of the Iranian Oral History Project at Harvard University since 1981. Born in Tehran, he grew up in Scarsdale, N.Y., and was educated at the Yale Engineering School and the Harvard Business School. Dr. Ladjevardi returned to Iran in 1963 and began work as personnel manager in his family's business. Subsequently he was responsible for founding the Iran Center for Management Studies in Tehran, where he taught until 1976. He also served on a number of boards and councils in the private and public sectors. Dr. Ladjevardi received his Ph.D. from the University of Oxford in 1981.