I have been ill for several days. Perhaps I can begin to repair this post. The reason for it, I recall an old map of the area during WWII. Iran was divided into 3 parts - the northern third of the country was occupied by Joseph Stalin's forces. The sourthern third by those of Winston Churchill's British Empire, and the middle third was what was left of independent Iran. Churchill, some decades earlier, had thought that the communist menace should have been smothered in the cradle in the early years of the Russian Revolution. The Hitler-Stalin Pact of 1939 was a great surprise to the world, the 2 fiercest foes were suddenly "friens," and all the propaganda they had raged against the other was now buried, as each would use their hatchets on other nations.
Interestingly, when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, Britain declared war on Germany. Stalin was supposed to invade too, but the Soviets were involved in an undeclared war in Asia, officially Mongolia vs Manchukuo, a Soviet satellite vs a Japanese satellite. The Soviets beat the Japs rather handily, and some 6 weeks after Germany invaded Poland from the West, Soviets invaded from the east. There is a telling moment in the film, Europa, Europa, as Poles are seen swimming across a river to the East to flee the incoming German troops. Suddenly, some are not swimming back. What happened? News of Soviets invading from the East. Many Poles now thought it preferable to head toward the Germans, while Jews kept fleeing eastward toward the Soviets and away from the Germans. Hitler and Stalin divided Poland and much of Europe. In summer 1941 Hitler launched his surprise attack against the Soviets; not Germany alone but Finland, Roumania, Bulgaria, etc., civilized Europe against the communist menace. And Stalin's forces lost, surrendered, and were swept out of their positions. Others content the reason the Soviets did so poorly then, they were preparing their own sneak attack on Hitler, and were prepared for offence, parachutes, other types of equipment, but not for defense. Since Hitler struck first, his forces suddenly had millions of POWs, and the armies of Europe marched to crush the Soviet empire. By December, Moscow itself was in sight. The end of the war, in Germany's favor might be concluded by early 1942. As many Latvians, Estonians, Lithuanians, and especially Ukrainians joined the Germans, things were dire for Stalin. It was decided a quick way to supply Stalin with needed material would be through Iran, so Stalin and Churchill agreed ib tge 3part division of Iran.
There was a famine in Iran, 1942-43. Were the Soviets diverting food for Iranians to shipments to the USSR? Or a natural drought that can occur in the Middle East. Meanwhile, in India Churchill is still blamed for a famine killing millions in the Jewel in the Crown of Britain. A friend recently thought the defacing of a London statue of Churchill was quite fitting.
The Teheran Conference from 28 Nov. to 1 Dec. 1943 had the first meeting of the Big Three, Churchill, Stalin, and America's Pres. Franklin Roosevelt. Each nation agreed to the implementation of further plans to weaken and defeat Germany, and Stalin promised to enter the war against Japan after the European war concluded. The Allies won the war, and Britain withdrew on time from the southern third of the nation. Stalin delayed about 9 months and more negotiations, but eventually left the northern sector of Iran too.
My point, in all the discussion now about Iran, almost no one mentions that the nearest major power is Putin's Russia. Admittedly, Putin has had his hands full in Ukraine, but how tempting is it for him to think of Iran perhaps 90 miles across the Caspian Sea??? It is not that close, but Russia is the only major power that close to Iran, juar a Caspian away. And in a nation that was once 1/3 Russian (Soviet) Hugh Murray
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