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The monarchy has a special meaning for Iranian families. It is in our way of life. It has been an integral part of our history for 2,500 years.
Empress FarahThe shah's only fault is that he is really too great for his people – his ideas are too great for us.
Assadollah Alam, court ministerInterviewer: “Your Majesty, where have your supporters gone?” The shah: “Search me.”
Press interview in 1978STATE EXPANSION (1953–75)
Muhammad Reza Shah continued after 1953 where his father had been forced to leave off in 1941. He restarted at full speed the drive to expand the three pillars that held up his state: the military, the bureaucracy, and the court patronage system. In many ways, his reign was a continuation of his father's – with some minor variations. Whereas the father had ruled in the age of fascism and talked bluntly of making trains run on time, the son lived at the height of the Cold War and thus shied away from the language of autocracy and racism. But even he, at the peak of his power, could not resist adding to his exalted list of royal titles the brand new one of Arya Mehr (Aryan Sun). Muhammad Reza Shah fulfilled Reza Shah's dream of building a massive state structure.
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