Sunrise at Abadan: The British and Soviet Invasion of Iran, 1941 [Hardcover]

Richard A. Stewart (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0275927938 | ISBN-13: 978-0275927936 | Publication Date: November 21, 1988

Sunrise at Abadan, portraying the dramatic events leading to the United States' deep involvement in Iran, sets the historic stage for the current crisis in the Persian Gulf region. It rapidly traces the ebb ad flow of Anglo-Russian rivalry over Persia from the reign of Peter the Great to World War II. By late summer of 1941, the Allies were reeling in defeat as Axis forces advaced triumphantly on all fronts. In a desperate move to avert Nazi victory, the British and Soviet governments suspended their political struggle for control of the Persian Gulf and jointly invaded neutral Iran. This controversial action toppled the powerful Shah, secured the vital Persian Gulf oil fields and opened the primary route for U.S. military aid to the beleaguered Soviet Union. Richard A. Stewart describes the rise to power of the late Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and the events leading to the U.S. and Soviet confrontation over Iran in 1946. Carefully documented, his book raises important legal and moral questions about Allied actions while depicting the fate of a small but proud nation caught in a highstakes game of geopoliical intrigue, doublecross and shifting alliances. Sunrise at Abadan will stimulate the informed general reader while its original research will aid scholars of political science, Middle East studies, Soviet history and policy, and military studies.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Using official documents in British, German, and US archives, as well as interviews with and the memoirs of more than three dozen participants and observes, Stewart has produced the most detailed and vivid account yet written of the events connected with the Anglo-Russian occupation of Iran in August and September, 1941. The Allies cited the presence of many German nationals in Iran as pretext for their invasion. Their more compelling motives, however, were to forestall a possible German entry entry through the Caucasus, to secure the main supply route for weapons destined for the USSR, and to safeguard Britain's oil interests in Khuzistan. Stewart probes Britain's moral dilemma caused by invading a neutral Iran, but concludes that Britain's desperate military position in 1941 justified the occupation. Competing Russian and Western interests in Iran, however, initiated the Cold War in that land long before VE day in Europe. This work supersedes such earlier military histories as Paiforce: The Official Story of the Persia and Iraq Command, 1941-1946 (London, 1948); and T.H. Vail Motter's The U.S. Army in World War II: The Persian Corridor and Aid to Russia (1956). The Iranian context can be further studied in George Lenczowski's Russia and the West in Iran, 1918-1948 (1949), and Iran Under the Pahlavis, ed. by George Lenczowski Bruce Kuniholm's The Origins of the Cold War in the Near East clearly links the emerging Cold War to the occupation of Iran. Stewart's well-written, fully documented, and well-indexed study of an often overlooked chapter in WW II is highly recommended for college, university, and public libraries.”–Choice

“. . . It is a welcome addition to the historiography of World War II, telling an interesting, well-researched story. It is worth reading.”–British Army Review

About the Author

RICHARD A. STEWART is a Major in the United States Marine Corps in which he specializes in intelligence and communications.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 303 pages
• Publisher: Praeger Publishers (November 21, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0275927938
• ISBN-13: 978-0275927936
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,861,410 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Detailed history of Soviet and British machinations in Iran during WW II, September 3, 2006

By 

Utah Blaine (Somewhere on Trexalon in District 268) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sunrise at Abadan: The British and Soviet Invasion of Iran, 1941 (Hardcover)

This book recounts the manueverings by the British and Soviets (and to a lesser degree the US and the French) in Iran during WWII. This is more of a political/foreign policy history, rather than a military history. The details of this campaign and the issues that lead up to it were almost totally unknown to me before I read this book. The extant of my knowledge consisted only of a vague awareness that the US and British transfered massive amounts of supplies and equipment through Iran during the war. The events related in this book can only be described as eye-opening. Did you know that the UK and the Soviet Union invaded Iran using a Pearl Harbor style surprise attack while deliberately misleading the Iranian govt about their motives and intentions?

There are so many wonderful pieces of information in this book that it is impossible to list them all. I'll just summarize a few that struck me as particularly interesting, either out of historical interest or relevence to current events. First, Stewart explains the complex nature of the relationships between the major combatants (Germany, Italy, the UK, France, and the Soviet Union) that existed prior to June 22, 1941. It was not at all clear that the UK and France would side with the Soviet Union against Germany. In fact, France and England had a detailed plan in place to bomb the Soviet oil facilities in Baku in 1940! Only the German invasion of France in May of that year prevented this from occuring. Second, the Iranians viewed the US as their natural allies who would respect the rights of neutral non-belligerents and would protect them from the self-serving machinations of the UK and the Soviet Union. At the time, the US was viewed as the country most likely to uphold international laws and moral justice. I wonder how many people feel this way today? Third, Stewart makes in clear how critically important the Khuzestan oil was to the British war effort, the Baku oil fields to the Soviet effort, and the absolute necessity of opening a transit route for US goods to the Soviet Union for the overall war effort. The loss of Baku and Abadan would probably have knocked both the Soviet Union and the UK out of the war. Finally, Stewart discusses at length the moral issues related to surprise attack against Iran. The Germans were rightly criticised for invading non-hostile neutrals such as Norway and Belgium, but the same approbation does not apply to the UK for the same duplicitous act vis-a-vis Iran. It is this last point that makes this book particularly relevent to the situation in Iran today. The neo-con leadership of the US today draws inspiration from Churchill and Trotsky, and one could read Churchill's writings on this affair contained in this book and think they were reading the line from the Bush administration.

This is a dense book written primarily for scholars and is packed with information, so if you have a passing interest in this subject you should probably avoid. This is also more of a political history than a military history, more than 2/3 of the book described the political maneuverings amongst the participants. There wasn't much of a military campaign as the Iranian Army didn't put up much resistance to the British or the Soviets. The price is steep ($108!), I borrowed this book from my local library, and I recommend that even if you are a serious student/collector of books about WWII or Iran, you should think about borrowing before buying. If I had to make any negative comment about this book, the discussions on the purely military aspects contain way too much trivial detail about individuals' personal experiences. There are single paragraphs interspersed where some individual saw this or that, and this person is never referred to again. I got the sense that Stewart wanted to include every anecdote of everyone he interviewed. In any case, for any serious student of WWII, or anyone who wants to better understand the duplicitous and utterly dishonest dealings the West has had with Iran and more generally the Muslim world, this book is a must read.