Patriot of Persia
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* According to the American historian Mark Gasiorowski, the CIA gave $10,000 to an associate of the ayatollah, ‘to give to Kashani to organise demonstrations. It is not clear whether Kashani . . . received this money and, if so, whether he used it for this purpose.’13
* Love had gone to the radio exchange after it fell, where he found ‘a half-dozen tanks swarming with cheering soldiers’. Love told the commanders that ‘a lot of people were being killed trying to storm Dr Mossadegh’s house and that they, the tank commanders, ought to go down there where they would be of some use instead of sitting idle at the radio station. They declared my suggestion to be a splendid idea. They took their machines in a body to [Palace Street].’19
* Fatemi’s wife had become hysterical when she heard of his ‘death’, and he had rushed home to comfort her. Sanjabi had gone off to confer with allies and not returned.
* A few streets away Zahra was suffering agonies at the thought of what was happening to her husband. ‘What are they doing to my house and my children’s houses?’ she demanded, and she prepared to go out and face the mob. Mossadegh’s nephew offered to accompany her, and they got into his car, but it was a trick and he drove her far from the chaos.
* Later, the Shah would explain that he had left the country because he believed that ‘it would force Mossadegh and his henchmen to show their real allegiances, and that thereby it would help to crystallize Persian public opinion.’2
* The Iranian historian Kamal Parsi-Pour has established that, of the eleven Moscow archives with holdings that pertain to Russian-Iranian relations in this period, the majority are effectively off limits to foreign scholars. It may therefore be some years before the Soviet Union’s intentions towards Mossadegh’s Iran are known.4