HIM and his Friends

Abstract

[A commentary and review of P.C. Radji, In The Service of The Peacock Throne, Hamish Hamilton, 1983.] The Shah's regime was praised in the West, especially in Britain and the United States, as an example of liberal reformism. This analysis was arrived at partly out of strategic necessity, partly through the work of a highly effective propaganda machine, based in the Iranian Embassies. The Shah, who was a good judge of character within his ruling class, preferred to choose his top civil servants, ministers and diplomats from the liberal intelligentsia, which was renowned across the world for its culture and charm. Mr Radji's book is an account of the three years he served as Iranian Ambassador in London from 1976 to the collapse of the Shah's regime in 1979. It is continuously absorbing, chiefly because it betrays the secrets of the ruling class. It shows what high and important people really say and think. These secrets are made all the more interesting by the tensions in Mr Radji's character. He was no hack of the Shah, at least not in his thoughts. The book constantly slips into self-reproach, which is rare enough in the world of Ambassadors. Deep down, Radji despises the Shah, and hates his own obsequiousness towards the Royal Family. It is as though he knows that his country is plunging to ruin under a corrupt and brutal regime, but steadfastly tells himself that it is his job to stick up for that regime, whatever his private feelings.