Asadollah Alam

Asadollah Alam (24 July 1919 – 14 April 1978) was an Iranian politician who was prime minister during the Shah's regime from 1962 to 1964.

He was also minister of Royal Court, president of Pahlavi University and governor of Sistan and Baluchestan Province.

Alam was born on 24 July 1919 in Birjand and was educated at a British school in Iran.

By a royal order from Reza Shah, Alam married Malektaj, the daughter of Qavam Al-Molk Shirazi.

The son of Qavam ol-molk was then married to a sister of the Shah, Ashraf Pahlavi.

Shortly after deposing the Qajar dynasty, Reza Shah intended to unite Iran's non-Qajar nobility through inter-marriage.

At the age of 26, he was appointed governor of Sistan and Baluchestan Province.

At the age of 29, he became Minister of Agriculture in the cabinet of Mohammad Sa'ed.

He early displayed what an American acquaintance describes as a combination of native toughness and Y.M.C.A. dedication.

Assadollah Alam became the main landowner of Birjand after his father's death.

He was one of Iran's first big landowners to distribute his holdings to the peasants, insisting that his servants eat the same food as his family.

Once, when a would-be assassin was nabbed outside his door, Alam gave the man $40, then had him thrashed and sent into the street without his pants.

Amir Asadollah Alam was the longest serving minister of the Pahlavi era.

The title amir (also transliterated "emir") is Arabic for ruler or governor.

The name Alam means a banner or a flag in Arabic.

Alam's father Amir Ebrahim Alam (AKA Shokat ol-molk) was the governor of the region of Qa'enaat.

In the era of Reza Shah Pahlavi he was the Minister of Telecommunications.

In 1953, Alam helped organize the coup (also known as the CIA and MI6 backed Operation Ajax) that overthrew Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh.

Alam was subsequently made the director of the Pahlavi Foundation, a charitable trust worth at least $133 million, set up by the Shah to finance social-welfare plans out of the profits from royal holdings in banks, industries, hotels.

In 1962, he became prime minister at the age of 43.

As prime minister, Assadollah Alam pledged to undertake "an anticorruption campaign with great diligence and all severity."

Though the cynical snickered, Alam got free rein from the Shah, and carefully began building airtight cases against suspected grafters among Iran's leading bureaucrats and government leaders.

His first major target was General Mohammed Ali Khazai, the Iranian army's chief of ordnance, who had parlayed his $6,000 salary into three houses in the suburbs of Tehran, four apartment houses in France, five automobiles, $100,000 in European banks and $200,000 in cash.

A military court convicted Khazai of taking a cut out of government contracts and sentenced him to five years of solitary confinement.

In May 1963, Alam's anti-corruption drive was in full swing.

In Tehran, a military tribunal sentenced General Abdullah Hedayat, Iran's first four-star general and once a close advisor of the Shah, to two years in prison for embezzling money on military housing contracts, brushed aside his plea for appeal with the brusque explanation that "more charges are pending."

The former boss of the Tehran Electricity Board was in solitary confinement for five years; cases were in preparation against an ex-war minister and twelve other generals for graft.

The most important event in Alam's premiership was the riots that took place in June 1963 in response to some of the reforms enforced by the Shah and Alam.

It was the clerics who triggered the riots during the Muharram holy days.

As the faithful jammed the mosques, the clerics assailed "illegal" Cabinet decisions and urged their followers to "protect your religion".

Small-scale riots, led by Ruhollah Khomeini, quickly broke out in the clerical capital of Qum and in several other cities.

Police struck back, arrested Khomeini and some 15 other ringleaders.

With that, both sides declared open war and the battle was on.

Screaming "Down with the Shah", 10,000 people, swept through the capital, carrying pictures of Khomeini.

Though the whereabouts of the Shah were kept secret, rows of white-helmeted troops, backed by tanks, immediately sealed off access to royal palaces in the city and suburbs.

In the heart of town green, they fired for 40 minutes.

When the mobs entered government buildings, the troops opened up at point-blank range.

The crowd fell back in confusion, regrouped, and raced down main avenues.

Nearly 7,000 troops were called out by Alam's government to restore peace, albeit an uneasy one, in Tehran; by then damage was estimated in the millions, at least 1,000 were injured, and the officially reported death toll was 86.

It was undoubtedly higher, but since the public cemetery was closed and under heavy guard to prevent further clashes at gravesides, the real number remained unknown.