Iran: A Wrinkle In A Bad War

It seems nowadays that Iran has been in the news a lot, and for good reason. Iran is always seen as being the model anti-American country seemingly bent on hurting us before we hurt them. Perhaps this is because the Iranian president is a little left field, but perhaps we brought some of the bad rep on ourselves.

The shah of Iran, who would
later be forcefully replaced
by the British by his son

It was the middle of 1941. America has yet to enter into the war, and Germany is having a virtual field day of successes. Although they were stopped by the Battle of Britain, Germany still had control of the majority of the European continent, with their armies marching towards Moscow.

However, Germany was also embroiled in the affairs of the Italians, whose desire to recreate the Roman Empire have left them fighting the British in North Africa and taking a licking, forcing the Afrika Corps under Rommel to assist. In this theater, it would turn out to be a game of back and forth across the continent, and at this stage the Germans were on the rebound with British forces on the retreat.

By the middle of June 1941 Germany had beaten the British to the edge of the west bank of the Nile, and the British desperately needed to regroup. However, Germany had launched their invasion of the Soviet Union and were winning handsomely, and with a common border between the Soviet Union and Iran, the British feared that the Germans would sweep through both countries and attack the British from both sides.

The British fears were justified because the Shah of Iran had adopted an anti-British stance, however he had not yet made any decisions regarding passage through his country. Seeing no other alternative, the British invaded and effectively made the Iranians do whatever they wanted to by whatever means necessary, including occupying Tehran, the capital.

The British would occupy Iran for the rest of the war, and it would prove to be a vital supply line for munitions to help the struggling Soviets. However, fast forward to today and what the world sees Iran as and what Iran sees the world as, it seems important to take into account Iran's reluctant and forced cooperation during the war and what kind of impact those actions had on relations today. Until next time take care, and thanks for reading.