My Main Mistake Was To Have Made

Was The Collaboration Of Some Slaves Any Different Than The Silence Of Some Iranians Who Stood By And Did Nothing As Savak Thugs Murdered And Tortured Opponents Of The Shah? How Could We Judge Other Men Until We Had Stood In Their Shoes?

The Shah Regarded Politics As The Province Of Demagoguery, An Art In Which Only Charlatans Could Excel. He Had No Time For What He Saw As The Tedious Process Of Achieving Consensus Through Debate And Discussion And Tried To Justify His Solitary Exercise Of Power By Insisting It Was What Iran Needed To Catch Up With Lost Time. He Believed He Was More Patriotic Than Anyone Else And Needed No Advice On How Best To Promote And Protect The Highest Interests Of The Nation.

I Want The Standard Of Living In Iran In Ten Years' Time To Be Exactly On A Level With That In Europe Today. In Twenty Years' Time We Shall Be Ahead Of The United States.

I Did Not Share The Enthusiasm Of Certain Politicians For The National Front Leader, It Was Because I Had Noticed, In The Past, Some Strange Contradictions Between Mossadeq's Declared Ends And His Actions. Officially He Defended Nationalist Anti-colonialism And Was The Most Intransigent Patriot Who Declared That No Concessions Or Advantages Should Be Granted To Foreign Powers. He Described His Doctrine As A "negative Balance" And In Fact His Greatest Failing Was That He Was Negative.

Nixon Is A Strong Leader With A Good Grasp Of The World's Problems. He Knows That The Only Way To Argue With The Communists Is From A Position Of Strength.