IRAN: The Aryan Aim

Iran’s personable Shah publicly proclaimed last week that formation of an “Aryan Confederation”*composed of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan is “under careful study.” Comparing the proposed confederation to the anti-Soviet Baghdad Pact, the Shah declared: “I am proud that for the first time Persian-speaking nations are forming such a unity—which is aimed at defending their territories against aggression.” Since there are only two big powers left in the world, he added, Iran had to join one or the other out of self-defense. Iran’s clear choice: the U.S.

*No Nazi, the Shah was using the word “Aryan” in its true ethnic sense, i.e., to refer to the Indo-Iranian peoples who 4,000 years ago occupied the Persian plateau and conquered most of India.