ABSTRACT
Iran’s fascinating revolutionary movement, which started in 1977 and culminated in the Mohammad Reza Shah’s downfall on January 16, 1979, went through eight stages. Before the liberalization, the organized opposition to the Shah was almost checkmated by SAVAK. The Liberation Movement, also under SAVAK’s surveillance, was no more than a small group of unarmed Islamic intellectuals who, like the National Front, hoped to make the Shah’s autocracy a bit more tolerable. The Shah’s regime appeared impregnable, as it enjoyed the support of the Iranian armed forces, the United States, and the major European powers. The Shah was exceptionally sensitive to his image in the international community as a benevolent ruler. In 1975 the Rastakhiz Party, the symbol of the Shah’s utter intolerance for criticism, encouraged the masses to engage in constructive criticism of the government. The human rights campaign worried the Shah, who had never trusted liberal elements of the Democratic Party as his true friends.
