The John Batchelor Show

Sunday 23 February 2014

Air Date: 
February 23, 2014

Photo, above: . . .  The year was 1951. Mohammed Mossadegh captivated the world with his struggle for independence from the British. He was charismatic and forceful. He was also eccentric. He greeted visitors, even foreign dignitaries, while in bed. He had fainting spells in Parliament. He infuriated the British. But the Americans liked him, according to Gasiorowski.

"He was almost an ideal political leader from the point of view of the United States. In 1951, of course, you had the Truman administration in power, their view was that we need to encourage peaceful moderate change in the world, particularly in the emerging third world, in order to prevent radical change, particularly to prevent communists from emerging," Gasiorowski says.

The British disagreed. Mossadegh's nationalist movement was a threat to them. They clung to the outdated idea that Iranian oil was theirs because they got there first. But they met their match in Mossadegh.  British diplomat George Middleton was stunned by the intensity of the conflict. "I cannot emphasize too strongly how emotive a situation it was and how really this was feelings rather than arguments which were ruling all the time," he later told the BBC.  Instead of negotiating, the British tried to  . . .

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Hour One

Sunday 23 February  2014 / Hour 1, Block A: The True Story of Catch-22: The Real Men and Missions of Joseph Heller's 340th Bomb Group in World War II by Patricia Chapman Meder ( of 2)

Sunday 23 February  2014 / Hour 1, Block B: The True Story of Catch-22: The Real Men and Missions of Joseph Heller's 340th Bomb Group in World War II by Patricia Chapman Meder ( of 2)

Sunday 23 February  2014 / Hour 1, Block C: BEAUTIFUL THING: Inside the Secret World of Bombay's Dance Bars by Sonia Faleiro (1 of 2)

Sunday 23 February  2014 / Hour 1, Block D: BEAUTIFUL THING: Inside the Secret World of Bombay's Dance Bars by Sonia Faleiro (2 of 2)

Hour Two

Sunday 23 February  2014 / Hour 2, Block A:  Warrant for Terror: The Fatwas of Radical Islam, and the Duty of Jihad (Hoover Studies in Politics, Economics,... by Shmuel Bar

Sunday 23 February  2014 / Hour 2, Block B:  Sid Perkins, Science magazine, in re: Pantherine cats; snow leopards

Sunday 23 February  2014 / Hour 2, Block C: Better for All the World: The Secret History of Forced Sterilization and America's Quest for Racial Purity by Harry Brunius

Sunday 23 February  2014 / Hour 2, Block D:  Sid Perkins, Science magazine, in re: the Dead Sea

Hour Three

Below: Mohammed Mossadegh

Sunday 23 February  2014 / Hour 3, Block A: The Twilight War: The Secret History of America's Thirty-Year Conflict with Iran by David Crist (1 of 4)

Sunday 23 February  2014 / Hour 3, Block B: The Twilight War: The Secret History of America's Thirty-Year Conflict with Iran by David Crist (2 of 4)

Sunday 23 February  2014 / Hour 3, Block C: The Twilight War: The Secret History of America's Thirty-Year Conflict with Iran by David Crist (3 of 4)

Sunday 23 February  2014 / Hour 3, Block D: The Twilight War: The Secret History of America's Thirty-Year Conflict with Iran by David Crist (4 of 4)

Hour Four

Sunday 23 February  2014 / Hour 4, Block A: Tough Without a Gun (Vintage) by Stefan Kanfer (1 of 2)

Sunday 23 February  2014 / Hour 4, Block B: Tough Without a Gun (Vintage) by Stefan Kanfer (2 of 2)

Sunday 23 February  2014 / Hour 4, Block C: The True Story of Catch-22: The Real Men and Missions of Joseph Heller's 340th Bomb Group in World War II by Patricia Chapman Meder (1 of 2)

Sunday 23 February  2014 / Hour 4, Block D: The True Story of Catch-22: The Real Men and Missions of Joseph Heller's 340th Bomb Group in World War II by Patricia Chapman Meder (2 of 2)

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