The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power

by Daniel Yergin

Razmara’s murder demoralized the proponents of compromise, weakened the Shah’s position, and emboldened the broad opposition. A week and a half later, the minister of education was also assassinated. The Majlis proceeded to pass a resolution nationalizing the oil industry, but it was not implemented immediately. Then, on April 28, 1951, the Majlis chose Mohammed Mossadegh, who was by now the number-one foe of Anglo-Iranian, as the new Prime Minister, with the specific and wildly popular mandate to execute the nationalization law. The Shah signed the law, and it went into effect on May 1. Anglo-Iranian’s days seemed finished in Iran, for in the nationalization decree it was designated as the “Former Company.” As the British ambassador reported, Anglo-Iranian, though in business around the world, “has been legally abolished” and Tehran “has taken the line it has no further existence.” Mossadegh dispatched the governor of Khuzistan province to Anglo-Iranian’s headquarters at Khorramshahr. On arrival, the governor sacrificed a sheep in front of the building, and then announced to a delirious crowd that the concession was voided. Anglo-Iranian’s facilities in Iran, as well as the oil they produced, now belonged to the nation of Iran. Mossadegh’s son-in-law followed with an emotional speech in which he declared that the days of colonialism were over and those of prosperity at hand. He fainted from the excitement and had to be carried away. Directors of the newly established stat...