The Shah And I: The Confidential Diary Of Iran's Royal Court, 1969-77
Asadollah Alam, introduced and edited by Alinaqi Alikhani
This book is must reading for anyone interested in the shah's Iran. More than that, anyone who ever dealt with the shah in the ten years before his fall will want to rush to the index to see what the shah said about them to the head of the royal court, Asadollah Alam. Many will be embarrassed and worse. The diary is filled with insights concerning the shah, his character, the court's stifling atmosphere, forebodings of the revolution to come, the relationship with Israel and hints of illegal involvement with the 1972 Nixon reelection campaign. Ironically, Alam seems to have genuinely admired the shah, but his diary will do nothing to salvage his patron's historical reputation. Instead we see a vain, insecure, ill-tempered despot through the eyes of one of his closest advisers. Not a pretty picture.
