Sunrise at Abadan The British and Soviet Invasion of Iran, 1941

Subjects:

• History » European History -- Modern/20th Century
• History » Middle Eastern History
• History » World War II

Awards:

• Choice Outstanding Academic Book, 1989

Reviews:

• Using official documents in British, German, and US archives, as well as interviews with and the memoirs of more than three dozen participants and observes, Stewart has produced the most detailed and vivid account yet written of the events connected with the Anglo-Russian occupation of Iran in August and September, 1941. The Allies cited the presence of many German nationals in Iran as pretext for their invasion. Their more compelling motives, however, were to forestall a possible German entry entry through the Caucasus, to secure the main supply route for weapons destined for the USSR, and to safeguard Britain's oil interests in Khuzistan. Stewart probes Britain's moral dilemma caused by invading a neutral Iran, but concludes that Britain's desperate military position in 1941 justified the occupation. Competing Russian and Western interests in Iran, however, initiated the Cold War in that land long before VE day in Europe. This work supersedes such earlier military histories as Paiforce: The Official Story of the Persia and Iraq Command, 1941-1946 (London, 1948); and T.H. Vail Motter's The U.S. Army in World War II: The Persian Corridor and Aid to Russia (1956). The Iranian context can be further studied in George Lenczowski's Russia and the West in Iran, 1918-1948 (1949), and Iran Under the Pahlavis, ed. by George Lenczowski Bruce Kuniholm's The Origins of the Cold War in the Near East clearly links the emerging Cold War to the occupation of Iran. Stewart's well-written, fully documented, and well-indexed study of an often overlooked chapter in WW II is highly recommended for college, university, and public libraries.
  —Choice
• . . . It is a welcome addition to the historiography of World War II, telling an interesting, well-researched story. It is worth reading.
  —British Army Review

Table of Contents:

• Game for the Domination of the World
• Helpless Pawn on a Slippery Chessboard
• The Arab Liberation Movement is Our Natural Ally
• The Germans Must Be Expelled from Iran
• Seeking a Magic Formula
• Say One Word to the British, They Would Not Invade Iran
• They're Blowing Her Up!
• The Russian Armor Has Broken Through!
• Handling a "Red-hot Iron"
• Why Should We Quit Fighting? We're Winning!
• There May Be a Revolution in Tehran
• Can You Hold the Throne?