To: The People of the United States, May 29, 2026
By Mark Albertson
Who Declared War on Who?
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In the realm of human discourse, many times it is the
ignorant who are most loudest in argument . . . Mark Albertson
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May 4, 2026, Mike Pence, while being interviewed on The Hill, made a remark concerning Iran which resonated with yours truly. With regards to the ongoing round of unpleasantness in the Persian Gulf, the former vice president observed, “It had to happen, Iran has been at war with America and its most cherished ally, Israel, for 47 years. . . “ It certainly behooves us to recall here, too, that the forerunners of the Revolutionary Guards took control of the American Embassy and consigned some fifty-two diplomatic personal to imprisonment. Adding that this action was a violation of American territory, since it is observed internationally that a nation’s embassy is on that nation’s territory.
But the former vice president’s observations do not take into account the long arc of history; such is a lack of reflection to which many politicians seem conveniently imbued with. Of course, this makes it easier to pass off such incomplete analysis to an unenlightened population. Or as Adolf Hitler observed, “The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous.”[1]
Before the nation in question was known as Iran, the West took undue advantage of Persia, once an empire, but by late in the 19th century was borrowing money from the Europeans to stay afloat. Muzaffaru ad-Din Shah of the Qajar Shah Dynasty struck a deal with Britain, offering a concession to drill for oil in 1901. But internal political events towards erecting a parliament and constitution were proceeding apace. Clerics feared secularism and Western domination. Britain’s concern was losing control of Persian oil, since the objective was to wean the Royal Navy off coal and on to the more efficient petroleum.
In 1907, Britain, together with Czarist Russia, which feared a representative government on its southern border, divided Persia; with the former controlling the north and the British controlling the south with the Qajar Shah holding on to a rump state in the middle. And, Britain did strike oil here in 1908, leading to the formation of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, which will eventually result in BP or the British Petroleum Company.
The drive towards parliamentary government caused Muzaffaru ad-Din Shah to capitulate to the masses’ demand for a Majles. But Muzaffaru died and his successor Mohammad Ali Shah conducted a crackdown. Arrested and executed were many in the constitutional movement. But in 1909, the constitutional movement gathered themselves and forcibly deposed Mohammad Ali Shah and installed his son, Ahmed Shah.
In 1914, not wanting the Ottomans to assume control, Czarist Russia and Britain forced Persia to ally itself with the Triple Entente; to which Britain was able to maintain control of the oil.
But Czarist Russia collapsed in 1917 with the Russian Revolution. And in 1919, Britain assumed greater control of Persia. Ahmed Shah would receive a stipend from London as a British stooge. Britain would oversee the Persian Army and control Persian finances. And, of course, maintain a firm grip on the petroleum.
The above agreement led to much discontent among Persians. Ahmed Shah, vacillating and weak as opposed to the more cunning and ruthless Reza Khan Mirpanj, a Persian Cossack cavalry officer, who had charted his course towards power, first becoming the Defense Minister then, Prime Minster. By 1925, he had taken control of the country, launching what will be known as the Pahlavi dynasty.
Over the next sixteen years, Reza Khan attempted to modernize and secularize Persia. The name of the country was changed in 1935 as well, to Iran. Looking to weaken both British and Russian influence, he moved Iran towards relations with Nazi Germany. It has been reputed that in assuming the name of Iran in lieu of Persia, enabled a link to be established to the Aryan strain which would make it much easier to foster relations with Berlin. Result, German advisors began to set up shop in Iran. Trade began to grow between Iran and Hitler’s Reich.
Such political and economic developments did not escape the concern of policymakers in London. And so by 1941, the pot will boil over. For on June 22, 1941, Adolf Hitler hurled 3,300,000 German troops against the Soviet Union, commencing the greatest land war in modern times and the land campaign that would decide the land war for the entire Second World War.
To insure Iran’s compliance with Allied strategic concerns, Churchill and Stalin conducted Operation: COUNTENANCE. August 25, 1941, Soviet troops invaded Iran from the north and British troops swarmed in from the south; along the lines of the Polish fate of September 1939.
Reza Khan appealed to Franklin D. Roosevelt, reminding the president of the recent Atlantic Charter consummated by himself and Prime Minister Churchill. Which in essence was a watered down version of Woodrow Wilson’s earlier 14 Points, by which all peoples will be able to determine their own fate. FDR intimated that the occupation of Iran will end following the defeat of the Axis Powers. The petroleum, of course, was the decisive resource in Man’s greatest industrialized, corporatized, commercialized war. Or as Lord Beaverbrook had correctly observed: The Kingdom of Heaven runs on righteousness, the kingdom of earth runs on oil.
To insure Iran’s compliance, Reza Khan was removed from the Peacock Throne and consigned to exile in Johannesburg, South Africa. He will die here in 1944. Put on the throne was his son, known to Americans as the Shah of Iran. Reza Khan’s son seemed to have a more “enlightened outlook” towards the West.
Following the defeat of the Axis Powers, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi conspired to increase his dictatorial power over Iran. Opponents, though, were many. Shia clerics. Intellectuals. Majles deputies. The Tudeh Party, the Communists, besides the separatist movements such as the Kurds and Azeris. These and other factions will join in a National Front Party. Led by Mohammad Mossadegh, who sought to eliminate foreign influence in Iran; to which the poster child expression of same was the nationalization of Iran’s oil reserves. A decision which will not go unnoticed in London and Washington. With the former, still rebuilding from the carnage left over from 1945, cheap oil was a prerequisite. For the latter, such a trend developing in that area of the world with its massive reserves of oil and gas needed to be stopped; that is, kill the fetus while it is still in the womb.
Operation: AJAX, employed by MI-6 and the CIA. Thus began a campaign of subversion and sabotage of the Mossadegh government; a government duly elected, but one which could not fend off the remorseless machinations of London and Washington, leading in the end to its overthrow by the Iranian military. The Shah, who had left Iran returned in short order. Restored to the throne, Reza Shah wielded the heavy hand of power to insure the compliance of the Iranian masses. His brutal Gestapo-like secret police known as the SAVAK enforced a plastic patriotism based on fear, torture and murder.
Per Mr. Pence, the rise of the Shia Fundamentalist Regime was a declaration of war against the United States, perhaps in response to the American and British declarations of war against Iran in 1953? Of course of greater significance it is merely another sordid episode usually found within the machinations by Big Powers when playing the Great Game; for the United States was the big winner to come out of 1945. The lesser winner, the Soviet Union. Hence a new balance of power in 1945, known popularly as the Cold War; and, both will pursue their efforts in that game of one-upmanship on the Grand Chess Board known as the globe until the collapse of the Soviet Union by 1991.
Endnotes
[1] See page 180, Chapter V, “The World War,” Volume One, The Reckoning, Mein Kampf, by Adolf Hitler.
Bibliography
Country Studies: Iran, Library of Congress. Most research here conducted by the United States State Department and Central Intelligence Agency.
Ghods, M. Reza, Iran in the Twentieth Century: A Political History, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder, Colorado and Adamantine Press Limited, London, United Kingdom, 1989.
Hitler, Adolf, Mein Kampf, Houghton, Mifflin Company, Boston, Massachusetts, 1943. Originally published 1925, by VERLAG FRI, EHER NACHF, G.M.B.H.
Kidde, Nikki R., Roots of Revolution: An Interpretive History of Modern Iran, Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut and London, United Kingdom, 1981.
Plate, Thomas and Darvi, Andrea, Secret Police: The Inside Story of a Network of Terror, Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 1981.
Roraback, Amanda, Iran in a Nutshell, Enisen Publishing, Santa Monica, California, 2006.
