A reader writes:
There is a reason Mousavi has made this move re: Ahmadhi-Nejad’s trip to Moscow. Iranians have long memories.
By August, 1941, Operation BARBAROSSA had been underway for two months and the Germans had just won a smashing victory at Smolensk. Hoth and Guderian simply had to retool and advance on the Tula tank works and the Moscow Ring railroad exchange and Germany would effectively paralyze Russian movement and tank production in the East. It was in this atmosphere that Stalin was desperate to open up a supply corridor to the British, who were willing to send him aid to keep him in the war by any means necessary. Thus, the Persian Corridor.
Reza Shah, the Shah’s daddy, was of two minds about the Nazis in his country. That wasn’t good enough for Winston and Uncle Joe, who promptly invaded in August of 1941 and went about the business of setting up a supply corridor to the Red Army to bypass the Murmansk Run (thick as that was with U-Boats). If I recall correctly, the U.S. was also giving covert aid at this time as well (Japan’s “Go to War” conference would not take place until September). By 1942, Iran was thick with foreign troops. In fact, a legion of American combat engineers was sent to help run the supply railroad to the Red Army.
Trust me. It is incidents such as this one, not simply the Mossadegh Affair, which are being played as hole cards in the propaganda war. The Iranians remember being the plaything of the Imperial powers, and they deeply resent it.