- [Narrator] These
are the last images
that the Shah of Iran saw
on the morning of
January 16th, 1979
onboard a m*llitary helicopter
for what was to be his last trip
to Mehrabad
International Airport.
(chanting in a foreign language)
Few people understood the
rationale for his decision
to leave the country at
such a critical juncture.
The King of Kings
left his Pahlavi reign
and went on to die
19 months later
in exile due to
medical complications.
His departure changed
the future history
of the Middle East
and the world.
This is the medical story
of that 19 month odyssey
which brought about his death.
(dramatic instrumental music)
The Shah's decline from power
was a classical tragedy,
but the kingship bestowed
upon him overnight
resembled a fairy tale.
His father Reza Shah,
the founder of the
Pahlavi dynasty,
declared neutrality
in World w*r II
and denied Iran's use
as a transport corridor
for the Allies.
This stand instigated
the Anglo-Soviet invasion
and subsequent division of
Iran into spheres of influence.
In September 1941,
Reza Shah's abdication,
forced by the British,
brought his 21 yeah old
son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
into power.
The young Shah nearly
lost his symbolic reign
when in 1953 the Prime
Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh
nationalized Iran's oil industry
and demanded autonomy from
Western colonial rule.
The Shah dismissed
the prime minister,
but Mosaddegh refused
to step aside.
Fearing for his life,
the young monarch fled
Iran into exile in Rome.
In his absence,
the Iranian m*llitary,
with support from the American
and British
intelligence services,
conducted a covert operation
to depose Mosaddegh.
Protests erupted on
the streets of Tehran,
leaving hundreds dead.
Pro-Shah t*nk regiments
stormed the capital
and bombarded the prime
minister's official residence.
Mosaddegh was arrested,
and on August 22nd, 1953,
the reluctant Shah
returned to Iran.
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi began
his reign a timid monarch.
Yet on October 26, 1967,
26 years into his reign
during an extravagant
coronation ceremony,
he designated himself
the Shah-an-Shah
and crowned his third
wife Farah as Shah-banoo.
This gave the Pahlavi
dynasty exactly
what it was longing for,
an empress and heirs.
(speaking in a foreign language)
He pronounced himself
the King of Kings.
Oil income combined
with Western support
gave the Shah a false
sense of comfort.
Ironically the Shah came
to believe it his mission
to change the world order
which had placed him in power.
- In the old days,
you British and others
who had influence here,
you could change the prime
ministers as you wished.
Are you sorry for that
time that you have lost?
Do you want the same thing,
to manipulate our
internal affairs?
We won't let you.
- [Narrator] Ending
20 years of U.S. aid
to Iran in 1973,
President Nixon gave the
Shah full discretionary power
to buy almost any American
weapons he desired.
Nonetheless the king's
appetite for power
and arms would not be satiated.
- [Reporter] If the United
States limits the supply
of American weapons,
will you buy weapons elsewhere?
- Definitely.
- [Narrator] The U.S.
had invested a great deal
in making the Shah's
Iranian m*llitary regime
a front line against the
spread of Soviet influence
in the region,
but the Shah had other
agendas on his mind.
In a race to transform Iran
into a major world power
within a single generation,
he expedited a grand plan
to modernize the country.
By rallying Arab
nations to join him
in cutting output,
world oil prices increased
almost five fold in 12 months.
Iran's GNP expanded by
the unsustainable rate
of 50% per year.
The Shah was unmoved
by the negative impact
of his policies on
Western economies.
- It's true that when we
started to defend our interests,
the price of commodities
also rocketed up
by several hundred percent,
but this cannot continue.
If you increase, we increase.
If we increase, you increase.
We have got to find
some solution for this.
- [Narrator] The
oil revenue windfall
financed modernization,
liberalization,
and expanded education
of Iranian society.
However, the political
and intellectual awakening
of the middle class
meant the masses
demanded more freedom
from the Pahlavi government.
Numerous assassination
attempts on the Shah
did nothing to slow this trend.
As the rapid
modernization continued,
poor infrastructure,
lack of planning,
mismanagement, and corruption
brought many of the
Shah's plans to a halt.
Average Iranians
were disillusioned.
The king had misjudged
the oil markets
as well as his own power,
as far as threatening to cancel
longstanding oil contracts
with Western consortiums
coming due in 1979.
Iran's economy was in shambles.
The Pahlavi monarch
was losing support
at home and abroad.
In 1977, the incoming U.S.
President Jimmy Carter
put pressure on the Shah
to improve the human
rights situation in Iran.
Opposition groups
saw this as a sign
to step up their pressure.
They united behind
a religious leader,
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini,
who orchestrated the revolution
from exile in France by
broadcasting into Iran
via Western media outlets.
Iran was overwhelmed
by strikes and riots.
The Shah made concessions
to the opposition
by arresting and imprisoning
some of his main supporters,
but the protests
only grew louder.
President Carter sent
in NATO commander
four star general Robert Heuser
to ensure the Iranian
m*llitary stood down,
paving the way for the
king to leave the country
and Khomeini to take his place,
(gentle instrumental music)
but what influenced the Shah
to defy his U.S. masters?
And what persuaded
Western powers,
mainly the United States,
to abandon an old
familiar friend
in place of political Islam?
The answers surprisingly start
with the Shah's illness.
(gentle instrumental music)
The prevailing story
as told by the queen
in her book An Enduring Love
contends that the Shah's
cancer was first discovered
by the French doctors in 1974
who kept it a secret
even from the king,
having only learned of his
illness at the very end,
sometime around 1977.
- Well, there was
a lot of secrecy
as far and even
conspiracy of silence.
Apparently when the Shah was on
one of his vacations on the
Isle of Kish, water skiing,
he noticed a lump in
his upper left side,
and I think he himself
I understand thought
it was the spleen.
- [Narrator] The
Shah shared his pain
with his longtime confidante
and trusted minister of
court Asadullah Alam.
In 1974, world famous
French cancer specialist,
Dr. Jean Bernard and
his lab technician,
Dr. Georges Flandrin,
were secretly flown into
Iran to examine the Shah.
- When the doctors and France,
the specialists, were called,
they were not told
that they were
gonna see the Shah.
They thought they
were being called
to see the court minister
or an aide to the Shah.
- [Narrator] Dr.
Georges Flandrin,
the queen's medical voice
on the Shah's illness,
who throughout her
book recounts the story
via letters he supposedly sent
to his mentor Dr. Jean Bernard,
claims that both French
doctors made their diagnosis
after looking at the
Shah's blood samples
under a microscope
inside the marble tiled
bathroom of the palace.
- After they did
some blood tests,
they determined that it was
a chronic lymphatic leukemia,
but the people surrounding
the Shah the Court Minister,
his physicians, other officials,
felt that it would not
be wise to disclose that
at that time even to the Shah,
and they told the Shah that,
not that he had leukemia,
which was a form
of cancer of blood,
but that he had a disease
called Waldenstrom's Disease.
- [Narrator] Dr.
Flandrin further claims
that General Aaydi,
the Shah's enigmatic and
obscure personal physician
who was entrusted with all
of his medical decisions,
requested that the
French doctors refer
to the Shah's cancer
as Waldenstrom's,
so that the Shah would not
become alarmed at the diagnosis.
A quick look up of
the word Waldenstrom's
in any dictionary
would have confirmed it
as a type of cancer.
It seems unlikely that
they could have used
such a trick to hide the
illness from the Shah.
- I don't know what
was in the Shah's mind.
He might have suspected
that he had something
more serious,
but he did not let on,
and it was agreed by
all that the public
should not know anything.
(gentle instrumental music)
- [Narrator] But the Shah
did see other doctors
before the French examined him,
and he knew about his illness.
Why else would he
specifically seek
the services of a
cancer specialist?
With a great love for skiing,
the Shah made
regular winter trips
to Switzerland and Austria.
He would also use these
trips as an opportunity
for secret annual visits
with his primary
doctor for checkups.
At the time, radio
isotope technology
in nuclear medicine
used radiation
to provide diagnostic
information
about specific organs
or to treat various
medical conditions,
particularly cancer.
(dramatic instrumental music)
- On the behalf
of the Shah-banoo
myself, and the Iranian people,
I welcome you.
- [Narrator] Why does it
matter when the Shah got sick?
As the cornerstone of
U.S. foreign policy
in the Middle East,
his mortality
embodied the breakdown
of American strategy for
the future of the region.
- Iran, because of the great
leadership of the Shah,
is an island of stability
in one of the more troubled
areas of the world.
- [Man] He chose to treat his
own illness as a state secret.
He kept it secret from his wife,
from his own family
for six years,
that he had cancer.
He did not tell his twin
sister Princess Ashraf,
and he certainly didn't
tell the United States.
In fact, at one point he
misled American doctors
who were examining his mother
and asked about the
family medical history.
- He was under the
opinion that Iranians
once they learn
about his illness
would not be supportive
of him as before.
(gentle instrumental music)
- The interesting
part of understanding
the psychology of
the alpha person
is that for every alpha person,
there are people who really are
in a sense conspiring
against him.
You can't have a
leader without people
wanting to be in his
leadership position,
and when a person starts
to feel the weaknesses
when they start to
feel things going wrong
that they can't control,
and, by the way, control
is an essential aspect
of being an alpha person.
- The man was getting
sicker and sicker.
I had the gentleman agreement
with my beloved king,
we never should
lie to each other.
I said to him, why did
you ever didn't tell me?
The answer was,
"If I had told you,
"you would have gone public."
I said, 100%, I would.
Your people have to
know what you have
so they would have
sympathy for you.
They would cry a lot for you.
- Those days I had
seen some symptoms
of something
unusual is going on.
- [Narrator] The queen recalls
the unexpected decision
by the Shah to involve her
and their elder son
the crown prince
in meetings with the prime
minister, parliament,
and chiefs of armed forces.
She specifically
mentions a visit in 1975
by the French president,
who expresses his
surprise at the speed
of growth in Iran.
The Shah simply replies,
"My problem is that I
haven't got enough time."
- Since his illness
things changed.
What we saw, which
was unbelievable,
was a man who was
ordering arrest
and imprisonment of some
of the most loyal people to him.
(gentle instrumental music)
- Until Mister Alam was alive,
they couldn't do much,
but after he d*ed,
and the Shah became
alone, you know,
the Queen's influence
increased tremendously.
- [Narrator] On
April 14th, 1978,
less than a year before
the Iranian Revolution,
Asadullah Alam, the Shah's most
trusted adviser and friend,
passed away.
The cause of his
death ironically
was cancer of the blood.
Alam's death, particularly
dying of the same illness,
immensely weakened the Shah
both physically and emotionally.
- Basically, the
queen took over,
and they always believed that
the Shah is very much hated.
The queen is very much loved,
and so if the Shah goes,
they can take over,
but and they never put
any value on religion.
- [Narrator] With the
backing of a small,
obscure committee created
to council the queen
a few years earlier,
the ailing king's
condition paved the way
for the Empress Farah to begin
making critical
national decisions.
- They released
all the communists,
all the prisoners,
and they put their
own people in jail.
This is Mrs. Farah's doing.
- I said if you think this
lady, that means our Queen,
or your son could
take your place,
I'm sorry to say
you're mistaken.
If you go, everything
would fall down.
It probably would be
blood in the streets.
If you go, all the
people who has served you
with their heart and loyalty,
they would be those who would
not say good thing about you.
- I think most of it was queen
and the head entourage.
I really think those days,
those decisions were
imposed on the Shah,
and it wasn't him who
had taken the initiative.
(gentle instrumental music)
- [Narrator] Betrayed
by friends at home
and abandoned by allies abroad,
the Shah was faced
with a country
on the brink of collapse.
- [Man] At the time that
the Shah was meeting
his new civilian government
this past weekend,
he was aware that the U.S.
had made its decision.
It was a subtle decision.
It did not constitute
a public disavowal
of the Shah nor in any way
call for his abdication.
The decision was simply
to instruct U.S.
Ambassador Solomon
that the next time
the Shah asked
for advice on whether or
not to take a vacation,
the advice should be,
by all means, yes.
This was done in
the full knowledge
that if the Shah leaves
he may never get back.
(gentle instrumental music)
- [Narrator] America
was indeed glad
with the Shah's decision
to depart the country
and abandon his reign.
- He was under the impression
when he left Tehran
that he was gonna
be going to the United States
where a living arrangement
had already been arranged.
- He should not have
listened to the American
or the British ambassador.
(gentle instrumental music)
- [Narrator] In
January 16th, 1979,
the sick king and
his family left Iran.
(plane engine running)
(gentle instrumental music)
Not trusting his pilot,
the Shah himself flew
the royal family's 707
to Aswan where he met his old
friend President Anwar Sadat.
He received the Royal treatment,
with a 21 g*n salute
and honor guard,
but the king's mood was somber.
It was a terrible
day for the Shah,
representing his entry
into a life of exile.
As the Shah stayed in
a grand hotel suite
on an island in the
middle of the Nile River,
back in Iran people
were on the streets
in the millions rejoicing
in his departure
and celebrating Khomeini's
victorious return.
(cars honking)
- It is not known how
long the Shah will stay
in Egypt or when he will
arrive in the United States.
Early today three
of his children
and his mother in
law arrived in Texas
near Lubbock to join
the Shah's son there.
It is believed that
the Shah and his family
will take up temporary sanctuary
in the Palm Springs,
California, estate
of publisher Walter Annenberg
where the Shah's sister
and mother now are staying.
- [Narrator] The Shah
had lost his throne,
but the crisis of Iran
was just beginning.
- He remained in Egypt
only for about five days.
It's interesting that
Dr. Flandrin came
to Aswan to do a
blood count on him.
- [Narrator] The illness still
remained a guarded secret.
His travel plans to the
U.S. were about to change.
(gentle instrumental music)
Lured out of Iran,
the Shah was told he could
no longer stay in Egypt.
His presence there was
creating complications
for the Sadat regime
amongst Arab Muslims,
but where would he go?
Few countries were willing to
welcome the fallen monarch.
King Hassan of Morocco
temporarily admitted the Shah
as a favor to the U.S.
(gentle instrumental music)
The Shah's two months
stay in Morocco began
on a positive note.
He was reunited with
the royal family.
The king's illness was
still being kept secret
from the media.
- You went to Morocco
where he had some
comfortable quarters,
but on February the 14th, 1979,
there was a mob that went
into the American embassy.
(murmuring)
- [Narrator] Khomeini's
followers in Iran,
fearing a repeat of the
Shah's return to power,
stormed the American embassy.
(sirens ringing)
(speaking in a foreign language)
Negotiations between the
Carter administration
and the Iranian moderates
produced a tentative
de-escalation of the situation,
but President Carter
was put on notice
for the first time and
knew from this point on
that allowing the
Shah into the U.S.
would cause harm for American
personnel stationed in Iran.
- With that trouble in Tehran,
the government of
Morocco and King Hassan
felt very uncomfortable
with him staying in Morocco
and asked him to leave,
(upbeat instrumental music)
but where was he going to go?
Nobody wanted to take him.
They were afraid of reprisal,
and finally with the
intervention of Princess Ashraf,
his twin sister,
and Henry Kissinger,
and David Rockefeller,
they prevailed upon the
government of the Bahamas.
(gentle instrumental music)
- [Narrator] Powerful
friends were able
to get the Shah and his
entourage temporary safe haven
in the Bahamas.
Exorbitant sums were
charged for the royal stay.
The king and queen did not
enjoy their new residence.
Their quarters were cramped
and afforded little privacy.
The Shah swam in
the tropical waters
and took strolls down the beach,
but his health was
continually deteriorating.
Rockefeller employee Robert
Armao was sent to the Bahamas.
From there on,
Armao would become
the King's main
adviser, handler,
spokesman, and chief of staff.
Blue skies and clear
waters did not change
the fact that the Shah was sick.
- Doctor Flandrin came to
see him in the Bahamas,
and that was the first time
that the Shah's illness
seemed to become more severe.
- Apparently while he
was in the Bahamas,
he had developed a
lymph node in his neck,
and they had done
a needle biopsy
and had made a diagnosis
of Hodgkin's disease,
a needle biopsy
really not a good way
to make a primary
diagnosis of lymphoma.
They had contended
that it was because
of the nature of secrecy
that they were not able
to get a genuine biopsy,
an incisional biopsy.
I find that a little
hard to believe
because taking
the lymph node out
from the neck is a
rather simple procedure.
- The disease, which
had previously been
a more benign cancer in 1974,
was becoming more malignant
and required more
active treatment,
preferably in a hospital.
- They thought that he had a
lymphoproliferative disorder
and now a low grade
lymph malignancy
of non-Hodgkin's variety,
and now they thought he
had Hodgkin's disease.
- Now instead of being
chronic lymphocytic leukemia,
had turned into a
large cell lymphoma,
which is a more
dangerous disease
with a much more
serious outcome.
- [Narrator] Chronic
lymphocytic leukemia
is a type of cancer that starts
with certain white blood
cells in the bone marrow.
These cancer cells
travel from the marrow
into the blood.
The size of the cancer cells
is one classification
system for lymphoma.
- [Coleman] Certainly, I
would not have accepted
a needle biopsy as the
basis for treating someone.
(gentle instrumental music)
- [Narrator] After
a couple of months,
the British government decided
that the Shah was no longer
welcome in the Bahamas.
- [Morgenstern] He was like
a citizen without a country,
and with a lot of
diplomatic maneuvering
through David Rockefeller
and through Henry Kissinger,
the Mexican government and
the president of Mexico,
Lopez Portillo, agreed to
have the Shah come to Mexico.
(gentle instrumental music)
- [Narrator] But why Mexico?
It was the closest
destination to the U.S.
- That was a good place
because they didn't they
didn't need oil from Iran.
They didn't have really
any political interests
in the region that were
very important to them.
- They arranged
to have them live
in a comfortable villa in the
resort town of Cuernavaca.
At this point he began to
have many, many doctors.
There were doctors in
Mexico who saw him,
Dr. Flandrin who
came to see him.
And the American government
through David Rockefeller
sent down another doctor,
Dr. Benjamin Kean, an
internist and a specialist
in tropical diseases
from New York,
but he thought he
was being called down
to see the Shah
because he had malaria.
- Then Kean went down there
and thought that what
they were thinking
was malaria was
really platelets,
which is a blood
clotting element.
- [Narrator] As the royal
family did their time
in Cuernavaca hoping for
an invitation to the U.S.,
the Shah was visited
by an old friend,
President Richard Nixon.
- If the United States does
not stand by its friends,
we are going to end
up with no friends.
(gentle instrumental music)
- He had an obstruction
in the liver
or the common bile
duct and probably due
to a stone or due
to a malignancy.
Well, that was the first time
that there began to be
a serious disagreement
among the doctors.
- Dr. Kean is a parasitologist.
He wasn't really a hematologist
or an oncologist.
- [Narrator] The
queen's memoirs describe
the arrival of Dr.
Kean as a start
of a period of
diagnostic cacophony
which transpired into a
chain of critical disasters.
Dr. Kean on the other hand,
depicted the Shah as a
difficult and secretive patient
for refusing to
provide blood samples
and withholding critical
information about his illness.
- Ben had worked
with the Rockefellers
for a number of years
and that the Rockefellers
were good friends of the Shah,
and they implored him to
bring him to New York.
(gentle instrumental music)
- The Mexican doctors felt
that they could treat
the Shah in Mexico.
They had the facilities
at their hospital.
Doctor Flandrin
initially thought
that the Shah could
be treated in Mexico.
- [Narrator] He inspects
the hospital in Mexico City
and gives a favorable
report to Armao,
who responds to Dr. Flandrin,
"For a patient like his Majesty,
"this is not enough.
"We have to go for the best,
"and only the United States
can provide the best."
Dr. Kean, the only
American physician
to have personally
examined the Shah,
was at this point
in direct talks
with the State Department's
chief medical officer,
Dr. Eben Dustin.
Recalling these
events in his book,
Dr. Kean highlights five
distinct conditions,
all demanding
immediate treatment.
The Shah's cancer
and enlarged spleen
were included in the report.
Answering the question of
how much time the Shah has,
Dr. Kean reiterates,
"Days, maybe weeks.
"We do not have months."
When asked if he can
treat the Shah in Mexico,
Dr. Kean replies, "Not
as easily or as quickly,
"but it could be done."
- And I have no idea if the Shah
ever made a decision himself.
He took Dr. Kean's word
for most of the things.
- I felt that, and so
did Henry Kissinger,
who also knew him and
worked with me on this,
worked together,
we felt that at the very least
he should be invited to find
refuge in the United States.
- [Narrator] And what
about the Rockefellers?
What was their interest
in the Shah's affairs?
Chase Manhattan Bank, which
was owned by the Rockefellers
and on whose board
Henry Kissinger sat,
was the exclusive bank
to the Shah's government.
The main accounts for
the Central Bank of Iran
as well as the National
Iranian Oil Company
were held at Chase.
- But even though I don't
think he was convinced,
he thought, "Well, if
everyone else is pushing this,
"then perhaps it's
the best thing to do.
"Maybe I'm not seeing something
"that should be seen
in this situation ,
"and I'm not gonna
hold out forever
"against my top advisers
"who are all now advising
me to do the opposite."
- [Narrator] What force
could possibly influence
a standing U.S. president to go
against his own best
judgment and acquiesce?
- One of the items that I
don't think is well known
or I certainly
learned in the process
of my research was
that the embassy
had already been
overrun three times
before the one that is so famous
where the hostages were
actually taken and kept.
(speaking in a foreign language)
- We came under
very heavy att*ck
from two or three
sides of the compound,
and a group of very
well equipped armed men
came in here, sh*t up my house,
and occupied it, sh*t up
the embassy, Chancery.
We telephoned to the
Security Committee
with the Khomeini group.
They managed to send
a group of people here
just in the nick of time
because we had abandoned
the ground floor,
and were all on the upper floor
by the time these lads came,
these freedom fighters,
and they apparently routed
the others and saved us.
(gentle instrumental music)
- [Boyd] I didn't
realize this was a fact,
and I think a lot
of Americans didn't,
that Carter was very concerned
about our embassy personnel.
- [Morgenstern] The
treatment was delayed
and after several
months in Mexico,
the Shah was flown
to the United States
to New York Hospital.
- The Carter administration
did a humanitarian thing
and let him in,
and then all the
trouble started.
(plane engine running)
(upbeat instrumental music)
- [Narrator] The Shah
was granted entry
to the U.S. based on Mexico
lacking the necessary
doctors and equipment
to do the surgery.
- He arrived in
New York Hospital,
had a CAT scan, an
ultrasound investigation.
It was determined that he
had a common bile duct stone
which was obstructing
his common bile duct.
- [Narrator] The gallbladder,
a small pear shaped organ,
holds a digestive
fluid called bile.
Hardened deposits
of digestive fluid,
which formed in the
gallbladder, create gallstones,
and can block the bile duct.
This obstruction can result
in various complications,
the most common being jaundice.
- It was actually his
trainee and student.
- Dr. Glenn was my mentor,
was my teacher, was retired.
- [Narrator] The operation
was actually done
by Dr. Bjorn Thorbjarnarson.
- I was in my office
across the street
from the New York Hospital.
I got a call from
Dr. Hibbard Williams.
He told me he had a patient
with common duct stones
and asked me whether
I would consult on him
and take care of the problems.
I went over to the
hospital and saw him.
He told me the patient
was the Shah of Iran
who had been admitted
to the hospital
the day before under an alias.
- [Narrator] Armao, annoyed
by the Undersecretary
of State's unwillingness
to allow the Shah
entry into the U.S.,
arranges for New York Hospital
to admit the ill king under
his very name, David Newsom.
- Went into the room,
Shah sat up and shook my hand
and said that he was glad
to have me take care of him
since I was the doctor
that other doctors
came to for their own care.
Where he got that information
from I have no idea.
- [Narrator] The
patient was not informed
of who was going
to operate on him.
(gentle instrumental music)
- What drove me absolutely
crazy was that Ben Kean,
and I don't know
what his agenda was,
would never let me know in
advance of what was going on.
- The oncologist who was engaged
in New York Hospital
apparently did not even know
that the Shah was
being operated on.
- We discussed the case
and what we should do,
and I was looking at
some of the records,
and I noticed that
he had a big spleen,
and it kept bugging me
and bugging me and bugging me,
and everyone said,
"Well, you know,
"we've got to take care of
this gallbladder first."
So here I have a spleen
that I don't know
what's in there,
and I need to know
what's in that spleen
because I know he
has got lymphoma
up at his neck which would
make him localized lymphoma,
but if he has it in his spleen,
this large cell lymphoma
as this high grade disease,
as opposed to low grade disease,
then I wouldn't
have irradiated him.
I would have given
him chemotherapy.
- The day of operation
was the next morning.
The administration arranged
to give me the early time.
Eight o'clock, I believe it was.
- I drove in the next morning
determined to say, to
meet with the people
and say we need to
take out the spleen.
I show up, and I'm told that
he's in the operating room,
and I ran up to
the operating room,
knocked on the door.
- Stuck his head to
the operating room,
and said, "Why don't
you remove the spleen
"at the same time
while you do it?"
- I was furious.
Had I been told that they
were gonna go to surgery,
I instead of showing up at
eight o'clock in the morning,
I would have showed up at
five o'clock in the morning
and say, "Fellas, let's
take out the spleen."
- The surgeon didn't want
to take out the spleen.
He said, "You want to
take out the spleen?"
- You are a braver man than I.
- I was doing a
semi-emergency operation.
I did not have the
Shah's permission to
take out his spleen.
I had never talked
to him about the need
to take out the spleen.
- [Narrator] Finally, the
long awaited operation
took place in New York Hospital,
the place where, according
to Armao and Kean,
it could only be done best.
- The operation went well,
removed the gallbladder,
removed the stones
from the lower end
of the common duct without
any problem at all.
Removed all the other
stones in the lower end
of the common duct.
- A T-tube, a tube was
inserted in the bile duct,
and the abdomen was
closed, closed at that time
without a splenectomy.
- The Shah kept asking
me after he had woken up
from his operation
how sure I was
that there were no stones
left in the biliary tree.
I told him that I did
not think there was any.
- Of course, one gall
stone was left in.
- [Narrator] The Shah's
simple and routine operation
handled by the trainee
ended up with complications.
- I felt a little bit
uneasy about the fact
that the left hepatic
stone had not come out
as an identifiable stone,
but both the scoping
and the X-rays
failed to show any
remaining stones
so there was nothing
else we could do.
X-rays done in an operating room
never are the best quality.
They are done through
a portable machine
and lack the fine definition
that you do in a regular X-ray.
- So, they called a specialist
from British Columbia.
- Called Dr. Burhenne
from Vancouver.
- [Morgenstern] To come
in to remove the stone
through the tube.
- [Garcia] Which he
did successfully.
(gentle instrumental music)
- [Narrator] On November 3rd,
there was a medical
news conference
in New York discussing
the Shah's health.
Cancer was the main topic.
- His Imperial Majesty
Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi
was admitted to
New York Hospital
on Monday evening, October 22nd,
with the diagnosis of lymphoma
for which he has been treated
for approximately
six years by a team
of renowned French physicians.
(gentle instrumental music)
- [Narrator] The
medical secret the Shah
had tried so hard to keep
even from his own people
was let out on a global stage.
- So at the news conference,
they're not interested
in gallstones.
What they were interested in
of course was his lymphoma.
I'm going to this
news conference.
I don't know if he's
got stage one disease,
whether he's got
stage three disease,
and I'm sort of in a quandary,
and I don't want to release
too much information.
People are saying,
"Well, he may,
"if you say too much,
"he may want to go back
one day to take over Iran,"
et cetera, et cetera,
et cetera, et cetera.
Okay, we know at least that
it's in his lymph nodes
in his neck and in his spleen.
I think most chemotherapists
and throughout the
world would assume
that this is considered
relatively widespread lymphoma.
But I said at the
news conference
if you need chemotherapy,
good medical practice
would suggest
that you stay near your doctors,
and someone asked me,
"How long was the therapy?
And I said, I don't make
political decisions,
but if I had to make
a medical decision,
I would insist on his
being in the United States
as if he's under my care
for the next six
months at least.
- [Man] Or year and a half.
- Or perhaps a year and a half.
(dramatic instrumental music)
- [Narrator] The next
day, November 4th,
after hearing the
Shah was to stay
in America for six
months or more,
Iranian students stormed
the U.S. embassy in Tehran
for the final time
and held U.S. citizens
and diplomats c*ptive.
- [Reporter] The American
embassy in Tehran
is in the hands of
Muslim students tonight.
- I have received assurances
that they will be
kept safe and well.
- [Reporter] The
administration's
problem is no one knows
whom to blame for the
takeover of the embassy.
- In fact, I was
accused by one wag
that said I was
responsible for the capture
of the U.S. embassy
because when they heard
I said six months.
They thought there was
gonna be six months
of conspiracies going
on in the United States
to put the Shah
back into control,
and they took over the embassy.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- [Narrator] So why did
Carter allowed the Shah
to enter the U.S.
when he knew Americans
would be held hostage in Iran?
- There's an interview
on Meet the Press
where he describes before
allowing the Shah in,
going to the Iranian government,
and getting their assurance
that they would step
in because he assumed
at that point the
embassy would be overrun,
which I didn't realize until
looking into this further,
that he thought,
"Well, certainly this
will happen again,
"and can you guarantee me that
my Americans will be safe?"
And they assured him
that they would step in,
and then for the first time
in history they didn't.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- [Narrator] The
taking of U.S. hostages
conveniently gave President
Carter justification
to revoke the Emergency
Economic Powers Act.
Iranian assets were frozen,
and sanctions were placed
on the government of Iran
that still stand today.
The sanctions did nothing
but anger the hostage takers,
though by this time, the ball
was certainly in their court.
The Iranians set
out their conditions
for the release of the hostages.
- They wanted a public
apology from the United States
about meddling in
its domestic affairs
and a commitment not
to do so in the future,
and then they wanted the
Shah returned for trial.
- These are the four conditions,
an unfreezing of assets,
Iranian assets by
the United States,
a canceling of claims against
Iran by the United States,
the return of the Shah's wealth,
and a pledge of noninterference
by the United States
in Iranian internal affairs
with the stipulation
that all four conditions
must be fulfilled,
that word is fulfilled,
and not merely accepted
by the United States
to win the release
of the hostages.
- [Narrator] But
the Iranian assets
were spread all over the place.
The Federal Reserve
had a big chunk
of the frozen Iranian assets,
$1.3 billion in securities
and another billion
dollars' worth in gold.
This was the easiest to get back
as it was under
government control.
The U.S. Treasury also
had Iranian assets,
$400 million worth on deposits
for American m*llitary
equipment that was paid for
by the Shah but never delivered.
This sum is the source of
the controversial payments
made to the Islamic
Government of Iran
by the Obama administration.
Financial institutions
in this country
also had a lot of Iranian money,
more than a billion
dollars' worth.
Most of it was immediately
taken by the banks
to offset loans made to the
Shah that weren't being paid.
Foreign branches of American
banks had the largest amount,
four billion dollars' worth,
mostly held at the Chase
Manhattan London branch.
Freezing that money was
especially contentious
because European banking
laws did not allow
the government
freezing of assets
to offset business losses.
Finally, U.S. corporations
had frozen Iranian money,
500 million dollars' worth,
which Iran never
gained access to.
As for outstanding loans
or claims against
the frozen assets,
they totaled nearly $10 billion.
That's roughly 50 billion
in today's dollars,
but no one knew for sure.
(gentle instrumental music)
The Shah's wealth
was a second part
of the financial deal to
get the hostages back.
The Islamic Government
wanted that money too.
By some estimates, it ranged
in the billions of dollars.
With only about a tenth
of that physically located
in this country,
the U.S. had no legal
right to touch that money.
The financial aspects
of the hostage crisis
were never publicly discussed.
There were at least 275 lawsuits
in the getting Iranian money.
- The United States
government at that time
was convinced that the Shah had
to leave the United States,
and I think Shah himself
said that to ensure
the fact that the hostages
were not in danger,
he knew that he had to leave.
Frantically, they began
to look for another place
that he might go.
Again that where came up,
and again the
delay in treatment.
- [Narrator] The Shah
thought he would be allowed
back in Mexico.
- [Narrator] The risk posed
by the Shah's presence
in the U.S. was such
that President Carter
sent his chief of
staff, Hamilton Jordan,
in an exhaustive search
for possible countries
to admit the Shah.
- They began
negotiations with Panama,
but in the meantime,
they decided that they should go
to an air base in Texas
where he and the
queen were allowed
to establish their quarters.
- [Narrator] The
transferal from New York
to Lackland was arranged
under tight security.
The confined quarters
at the psychiatric wing
of the m*llitary base
finally generated
a vocal complaint by the queen.
Ironically, the ill
treatment and misdiagnosis
of the Shah up to that
point or afterwards
did not warrant such an
outward display from her.
- But meanwhile the
spleen became larger.
The blood count became worse,
and it was evident that
his spleen had to come out.
Arrangements were
made to fly him
to Panama with his entourage,
and he was flown to
Contadora Island.
- [Narrator] The Shah was let in
with the understanding
that the reason
for his visit was medical
and for humanitarian
purposes only.
After the taking of
the American hostages,
medical or humanitarian grounds
did not warrant his
presence in the U.S.
(plane engine running)
(gentle instrumental music)
With his pride injured,
the fallen monarch
arrived in Panama City
and was flown by helicopter
to the Pacific resort
island of Contadora,
35 miles southwest
of the capital.
(helicopter engine running)
The king and queen found
comfortable respite
in the vacation home of
former Panamanian ambassador
to the United States.
- He was given refuge in Panama
because the Americans couldn't
find any place to send him,
and you remember that
Carter and Torrijos
signed the Canal Treaty.
So General Torrijos felt
he owed Carter a favor,
and that was the
favor that was done
is to accept the Shah in Panama.
- [Reporter] Diplomats
speculate that Washington
wants the Shah to
remain here in Panama
until the hostage
question is settled.
- We were informed
by Dr. Carlos Garcia
that the Shah was going
to have an operation
because Dr. Garcia and
Dr. Rios, Adan Rios,
had been taking
care of the Shah,
and his blood
count was very low,
and that he needed to
have his spleen out
because it was destroying
his blood cells.
- [Morgenstern]
Dr. Kean came down
and initially thought
that he would be treated
at Gorgas Hospital,
which was in the
Panama Canal zone
and was an American
administrated hospital.
The Panamanians felt
that he could be treated
as well as in a
Panamanian hospital.
- And so the next morning,
they called the Gorgas
Army Hospital director
and asked for the Shah
to be transferred.
Of course, it was denied
because the American
government did not want
the Shah anywhere near
any American facility
or any American doctor
or anything that spelled USA
to protect the
hostages in Tehran.
- We were so shocked by
this question of hostages
that I even volunteered
to leave the New York Hospital
when I was under treatment
to eventually help
solve this problem,
and (murmuring).
- In Panama, they wanted
to do the surgery,
and the physician in
Panama wanted to do that.
They asked, "Let us do it,"
but Ashraf, his sister, said,
"No, I want an American
physician to do this."
- We had prepared
to do the surgery
on a Sunday morning very early.
Also, we had negotiated
through the American embassy
and the U.S. Army to have a
blood separator sent to Panama.
At that time that
was a very new type
of equipment with
Dr. Jean Hester,
who was a hematologist
in Houston,
and they had about
10 U.S. soldiers
of his blood type set up
there just fresh blood.
- [Narrator] The aim was
processing large volumes
of normal donor blood
to collect and concentrate
sufficient granulocytes
for replacement therapy
on leukemia patients,
a technique Dr. Hester
had been involved
in developing since
the early '70s.
- So we seem to have
everything going very well
when all of a sudden
we got an article
from New York where
Dr. Kean had stated
that the Shah would be admitted
that weekend to a Panamanian
hospital for a splenectomy,
and then on Wednesday Dr.
DeBakey made a statement
to the press that he was coming
because nobody in Panama knew
how to take care of his spleen.
- Dr. Kean decided
that Dr. DeBakey
should be the surgeon
rather than the
Panamanian surgeon,
but Dr. DeBakey was
not a spleen surgeon.
He was a very noted
and deservedly
noted cardiovascular
surgeon, world famous.
- They just went by the name.
They just went for the prestige.
They just go for
the, "You know what?
"My gallbladder was
took out by DeBakey."
- Typical Ben Kean.
I'm gonna get the
biggest name I can get.
That's pure and simple Ben Kean.
- I said, for God's
sake why they chose him?
He's not the man
for this procedure,
just like that,
but I knew that nobody
going to tell him,
"You know what?
"Dr. DeBakey, please don't go.
"This is not your job."
- Now a good cardiac surgeon
can do abdominal surgery,
but why not get a guy who does
splenectomies all the time?
- Dr. Kean says in his book
that he had a brainstorm
and called Dr. DeBakey
because Dr. DeBakey had operated
on many world celebrities,
and the Shah deserved
a celebrity surgeon.
- Dr. DeBakey was
under the impression
that he had been
hired by Ben Kean
and probably Rockefeller to come
to Panama to do the surgery.
He's such a famous
man that he thought
that, you know, all
doors would be open
to him right away.
That wasn't the way
the U.S. embassy
and our government
had planned it
because he's not allowed
to practice in Panama.
He's not a Panamanian,
but our government
issued a special ruling
saying that he could
work as an observer
and a consultant to our team.
We had told Dr. Kean
that he was welcome
to join our team.
What happened was he got
off the plane with his team.
- There was a certain
arrogance there.
I think they felt they had
been up ended all this time.
- Dr. Kean was furious,
and said, "Dr.
Garcia De Parades,
"but Dr. DeBakey goes
all over the world
"operating on people.
I told him, this is not
Afghanistan, you know.
(gentle instrumental music)
- [Narrator] Settled
on a miniature chair
in a foreign land, far removed
from the Peacock Throne,
once again the
King's indecisiveness
had created a vacuum for others
to make important decisions
about his affairs.
- And it went back and forth
between Dr. Flandrin, DeBakey,
Kean, the Panamanian surgeons.
To where would the
operation take place,
and who would do it,
when it would be done.
Meanwhile the spleen
was getting worse.
- And he was afraid
that the Iranians
would pay General
Torrijos for us
to k*ll him during the surgery,
and General Torrijos had
told us if the Shah dies,
you're all going to jail.
- And Ben Kean was there
manipulating all the way around.
- And in terms of the
facilities that I found there,
I recommended that
operation not be done there
because I felt it would
increase the risk.
- And Dr. DeBakey
never even went
to see our operating rooms
or any installation
in the hospital.
He never, he just came,
and we met in the library,
and that's where
we had our meeting.
That's the only time
he was in our hospital.
How can he say all these things?
He never even walked in
to see our recovery
rooms or anything?
- [Morgenstern]
Meanwhile, the government
of Iran had arranged
for a lawyer from France
to come to Panama City
to arrange for the extradition,
or the arrest of the Shah.
- I believe that the Republic
of Panama has sort of,
is trying to contribute
to the peaceful solution
to the whole crisis.
- And one of General Torrijos'
very, very important consultants
and assistants went to Teheran.
- [Narrator] Adding
to the failing health,
the Shah now had an extradition
and possible a f*ring squad
in Iran hanging over his neck.
(gentle instrumental music)
- And when I interviewed
the Panamanian lawyer,
Juan Materno Vasquez, who had
been a Supreme Court judge,
and he told me, "You
know, we had arranged
"to have the Shah placed
under house arrest,
"to have the trial
to have the hostages
"immediately transferred
to the Swiss embassy,
"and once the trial was over
they would be released."
(dramatic instrumental music)
On the Saturday, the two lawyers
from the Iranian government
arrived in Panama.
They were gonna place
in our courts the file
for extradition on the Monday,
and he left on a
Sunday, the day before.
- Queen Farah called
her friend in Egypt,
the wife of Sadat,
and she said, "Come to Egypt."
(dramatic instrumental music)
- [Narrator] Relieved to be
escaping Panama and Torrijos,
the Shah declined Sadat's offer
of the use of the
presidential plane.
Instead for his trip to Egypt,
he follows American advice in
chartering an Evergreen Jet,
a former CIA operative airliner.
As soon as the Shah's
plane left the tarmac,
Hamilton Jordan and the
Carter administration
made one last effort to
negotiate the freedom
of the hostages via the
French lawyer Bourguet
in extraditing the Shah.
Khomeini had made it
clear to his people
that he did not want
the Shah to reach Egypt.
As a final sign of appeasement,
the Americans forced
an unscheduled landing
of the Shah's plane in the
small Portuguese island
of Azores in the Atlantic
for alleged refueling.
Hamilton Jordan and his
counterpart Ghotbzadeh
continued discussing
the Shah's fate.
Everything was in place for
a new extradition process,
but at the last minute,
Ghotbzadeh informs Jordan
that the deal was not approved.
The negotiations fell apart.
(dramatic instrumental music)
After a six hour delay,
the sick, feverish king
was allowed to proceed,
oblivious to the danger
that had just passed
and helpless in stopping
what was about to come.
- [Reporter] Will the
Shah be staying in Egypt?
- We'll have ample time--
- [Sadat] Yes, it's
permanent stay.
- We'll have ample time
after the operation
to speak with you
gentlemen and ladies.
- [Reporter] Will you stay
here permanently, sir?
- Yes.
(gentle instrumental music)
- President Sadat and
his wife were there
to greet the Shah and the queen.
They were very amazed at how
worn and thin the Shah looked.
- [Narrator] The Shah
had nowhere else to go.
One way or another, Egypt
would be his final stop.
- Dr. DeBakey came
three days later,
ready for operation,
and the splenectomy
was scheduled and done
it took about 80 minutes.
The spleen came out easily,
and shortly after the operation,
the Shah looked quite well.
- So in effect what
you're saying is
that the operation
for the removal
of his spleen went well,
and if he now
continues to respond
to chemotherapy he will continue
to live at a fairly normal rate.
- Exactly, and he's
done extremely well
following the operation.
Really, I think his progress
has been much more rapid
than we had hoped for.
- Dr. DeBakey was awarded the
Order of the Egyptian Empire
by President Sadat
for his operation,
but within a couple
of weeks the Shah
began to have pain in his chest,
develop fevers, chill,
and he was not doing well.
(gentle instrumental music)
- [Narrator] Dr.
DeBakey had decided
to leave his patient
without a drain.
- You drain it.
- Oh, definitely I would
have put a drain in
because there was a
hole that we're leaving.
The spleen was about that big.
- Usually when we
do a splenectomy,
especially in cases like this,
we leave it drained to make sure
that everything is
able to drain out
which doesn't belong there,
especially since there is
a very close relationship
to the pancreas.
- The pancreas they say
is the thing you have
to pay a good deal
of attention to
when you do a splenectomy.
The tail of the pancreas,
the end of the pancreas,
is usually intimately stuck
into what you call a
hilum of the spleen.
The specimen from
the Egypt operation
ended up in the
New York Hospital.
- [Narrator] An avoidable
injury to the pancreas
caused by the
carelessness of a surgeon
is added to the Shah's
list of complications.
- So I fly in to Egypt,
and I see the Shah,
and I speak to the
Egyptian doctors,
and they tell me that
he nicked the pancreas,
and he was running fever.
I said, you must start him
on intravenous antibiotics.
He said, "His Majesty doesn't
want intravenous antibiotics.
"He wants oral antibiotics."
I said, I don't care
what His Majesty wants.
I'm telling you you've got
to give him intravenous
antibiotics.
- [Narrator] In this
most crucial juncture
in the Shah's health,
the sole medical decision maker
and self professed doctor
to the Shah, Ben Kean,
suddenly leaves the scene
and returns to New York.
In his absence,
Flandrin observes
that no one is inclined
to accept the diagnosis
of subphrenic abscess,
not even Dr. Coleman.
- I was worried to death
that he had a
subphrenic abscess,
and DeBakey called
and assured me.
He went back to see me,
says he does not have
subphrenic abscess.
Now he was on steroids.
They put him on
steroids, which mask.
This is not what you do.
I mean, it masks
an acute abdomen.
- Conflicting reports
are coming out
of Cairo Egypt on the health
of the deposed Shah of Iran.
The newspaper Al-Ahram says
his condition is deteriorating,
but his doctor says he's better,
and official spokesman Robert
Kameo seems optimistic.
- The fever and the infection
is being dealt with
with antibiotics.
That normally is a slow process,
but the doctors tell me
it's moving along well.
- Well, now of course
the spleen is removed.
His blood has
returned to normal.
The bone marrow is
normal in its activity,
and they can resume
the chemotherapy
that they've been using.
- When Dr. DeBakey said
he did not have a
subphrenic abscess,
he was not operated on,
but he got worse and worse.
His fevers got
higher and higher.
The pain got worse and worse.
- His ego would not
let him to admit.
- [Narrator] According
to Dr. DeBakey's account,
the Shah's bone marrow and
blood were back to normal
to the point that he was ready
to continue chemotherapy.
- Now the gold standard
therapy at that time was CHOP,
and we had developed a
therapy called Coplam,
and you use many
of the same dr*gs,
but the dosing is different.
They're all good
standard therapy,
but you cannot mix the two,
and if I remember correctly,
the Egyptians tried
to mix the two.
- [Narrator] At this stage,
a massive infection caused
by Dr. DeBakey's splenectomy,
his negligence in
not leaving a drain,
injuring the pancreas,
using steroids which
masked the infection,
the mixing of chemo dr*gs,
and two months delay in
treating the subphrenic abscess,
are the main reasons
for the Shah's
deteriorating health,
and not his cancer.
- And finally Dr. Flandrin
called a specialist
in France by the
name of Dr. Fagniez
who specialized strangely
enough in complications
of surgery to come to Egypt
and operate on the Shah.
- And what I heard later from
one of the Egyptian doctors
was they were really,
really very upset
with the French,
and they told Sadat about it,
and Sadat, being a clever man,
came over and saw the Shah,
and he said to the
Egyptian doctors,
"Can't you see
this man is dying?"
He said, "Let them
take the heat for it."
(gentle instrumental music)
- Dr. Fagniez operated on
the Shah almost immediately,
drained the subphrenic abscess,
and then he drained
approximately
a liter and a half of puss,
but he had really suffered
from this infection
for a long, long time,
and in July of 1980,
he finally lapsed
into a coma and d*ed.
(gentle instrumental music)
I think that he suffered
for much too long.
The subphrenic abscess
could have been drained
a long time before that,
but because there were
too many doctors involved,
too many interpretations,
he endured much too
much for too long.
- What happened here is
you had too many cooks,
spoiling the broth,
and there were huge
political ramifications,
but you've got to have
a captain at the helm,
and a captain at the
helm whose only agenda
is to get that patient better.
- It's sad that a person
with so much power,
so much money, couldn't
get the care that he needed
because of his political needs
and the political situation
of the American government,
and the Iranian government,
and everybody else involved.
- Through some what seemed to be
some small medical decisions
that it changed the
consequences of that revolution
and U.S. relationships with
that part of the world.
It wasn't so much
I think the death
of the Shah as it was the way
his health issues were handled.
- The Shah got into
a position of where
he was almost never
seeing the reality
of his sickness, of his
relationships, of his positions,
of the people who were
taking care of him,
and it had to result in a
personal disaster for him.
- [Narrator] Muhammad
Reza Pahlavi d*ed
on the morning of July 27, 1980,
at 9:50 A.M., aged 60 years old.
He was buried at the
Al-rifai Mosque in Cairo,
the same mausoleum
where years earlier
his predecessor and
father Reza Shah
was initially buried in exile.
(gentle instrumental music)
On January 16th, 1979,
the Shah left Iran
for the last time.
10 days prior to his departure,
the heads of the four
great Western powers,
the United States, Britain,
Germany, and France met
in the small Caribbean
island of Guadalupe
to decide the future
of the King of Kings
and his nation Iran.
After all, this was the
year their oil contracts
were to expire.
Lord David Owen,
then British Foreign Secretary,
writes that after
leaving office,
the French Foreign
Minister told them
that the French were indeed
aware of the Shah's diagnosis.
President Carter
involved himself
in an unsteady game
of musical allies
and facilitated the toppling
of the already unstable monarch
in favor of political Islam.
This was all achieved under
the banner of democracy,
human rights, and the
Iranian people's right
to self determination,
but for Carter and the
U.S., there was blow back.
The president was also
consumed in the inferno
more than any of his
co-conspirers from Guadalupe.
- Students think that
Iran is our enemy
because they're building
nuclear weapons,
and I find that interesting,
and a lot of it stems as well
from George W. Bush's
speech and the axis of evil
and so many verbs,
and a year after that at least,
maybe even longer,
every time those three
countries were mentioned,
the axis of evil was
put right next to it.
So you get these kids at
very impressionable ages
who just think they've
always been right.
They had no idea that
we were ever allies.
They had no idea there
was something particular,
that there was a set
of decisions made
during a very brief
period of time
that have led us
to where we are now
with these decades
now of sanctions
that have affected
our relationships,
well, and Iran's
relationship with the rest
of the world for that matter.
(gentle instrumental music)
- [Narrator] The Carter
administration failed
to grasp the real meaning
of political Islam.
Fast forward 30 years later,
President Barack Obama
followed the line
of his predecessor Jimmy Carter
in trying to reforge a
path of reconciliation
between the U.S. and
political Islam in Iran.
Relations with Iran
were the one legacy
President Obama pursued
vigorously to all ends.
But at what price?
The price of democracy,
the price of human rights,
and the price of the
Iranian people's right
to self determination?
The same idealism and naivety
that brought down
the Carter presidency
can no longer touch
President Obama.
However, the impact
of his decision
to negotiate with the
Shia Islamic clergy
that hold actual power in Iran,
or President Tr*mp's willingness
to further pursue this path,
will be the real legacy left
behind for future generations.
(gentle instrumental music)
(dramatic instrumental music)
A Dying King: The Shah of Iran (2017)
Moderator: Maskath3