The Presidents and the Shah: A Strategic Partnership
Explore a gallery capturing the close ties between the last Shah of Iran and six U.S. Presidents over a span of three decades.
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, also known as Mohammad Reza Shah, the last Shah of Iran, courted a very close relationship with the United States and its leaders for almost three decades.
The American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) developed a secret plan to overthrow the then-democratically-elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. Code-named Operation Ajax, the CIA carried out the plan in August 1953 and put the Shah in control of Iran. The Shah maintained a close strategic relationship with the United States and its presidents for the next 26 years, until the Shah’s overthrow in the Iranian Revolution in 1979.
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President Eisenhower and Mrs. Eisenhower welcome the Shah and his wife, Queen Soraya, for lunch at the White House on December 14, 1954, just one year after the 1953 coup.
Credit: getty -
The Shah of Iran and President Eisenhower drive through cheering crowds in Tehran on their way to the Shah's marble palace on December 14, 1959.
Credit: Associated Press -
President John F. Kennedy and the Shah of Iran arrive at a U.S. military training facility in North Carolina on April 14, 1962, to view a demonstration of Navy and Marine Corps amphibious landing operations.
Credit: JFK Presidential Library and Museum -
The Shah of Iran with his wife, the Empress Farah Pahlavi, arrive at the White House for a state dinner in their honor on April 11, 1962. (L-R) First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, Shah Pahlavi, the Empress Pahlavi, and President John F. Kennedy.
Credit: JFK Public Library and Museum -
During a state visit on June 5, 1964, the Shah of Iran posed with President Lyndon Johnson outside the White House, Washington D.C. Credit: Library of Congress -
The U.S. Information Agency created this propaganda poster of the Shah of Iran and President Johnson for international distribution between 1950 and 1965. Credit: National Archives and Records Administration -
President Richard Nixon hosted the Shah of Iran at the White House in October 1969.
Credit: Wikimedia -
President Richard Nixon and the Shah of Iran met in the Oval office for almost two hours on July 24, 1973.
Credit: Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum -
President Gerald Ford and the Shah of Iran reviewed troops on the South Lawn of the White House on May 15, 1975.
Credit: National Archives and Records Administration -
On May 15, 1975 President Gerald Ford and the Shah of Iran look at charts from the USS Mayaquez military operation conducted earlier in the month. Credit: National Archives and Records Administration -
President Jimmy Carter welcomes the Shah on his twelfth visit to the U.S. on November 15, 1977. Beyond the White House gates, police forces released tear gas to dispel pro-Shah and anti-Shah demonstrators. President Carter continued his welcome address even as the assembled, the Shah included, wiped away tears. Credit: getty -
President Carter and the Shah perform a ceremonial inspection of the troops during a welcoming ceremony for the Shah on November 15, 1977. Just fourteen months later, the Iranian Revolution would force the Shah into exile.
Credit: National Archives and Records Administration
American presidents hold the most powerful office on earth and occupy a unique place at the center of national and world events. At once chief executive, head of state, commander-in-chief, and leader of a political party, the President of the United States is also a prominent cultural figure, and a bellwether of the society he governs.
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