IN the run-up to yesterday’s US mid-term elections, it became obvious that, almost four decades after the Cold War ended, the ‘spectre of communism’ Marx and Engels identified in the 19th century still haunts Western consciousness.
asserted
Marx → become → consciousness
Islamophobia might have been the most prominent weapon, but it was accompanied by diatribes against Marxists and communists, invariably directed against people who are neither.
uncertain
who → accompany → people
For good measure, some of them are simultaneously derided as Islamist jihadists.
asserted
some → deride → jihadists
The American establishment’s obsession with the communist threat, real or imagined, dates back to the early 20th century, and has served as a guiding principle of its foreign (and domestic) policy since the Truman era.
asserted
obsession → imagine → era
One of the CIA’s first interventions, against Iranian democracy in the early 1950s, was justified as a blow against communist influence, even though the popular nationalist Mohammad Mossadegh was barely left of centre.
asserted
nationalist → justify → centre
Furthermore, the communist party Tudeh had initially misidentified him as a mole for US interests, recognising only belatedly that his oil nationalisation was in Iran’s interest.
asserted
nationalisation → misidentifie → interest
The party was decimated in the wake of the CIA-guided coup that re-established the Shah’s reign, under the aegis of Savak, MI6, and Mossad.
asserted
that → decimate → Savak
The survivors fled abroad, mostly ending up in East Germany, although many underground operatives remained in situ, and retained some influence in the military arm of the state.
asserted
operatives → flee → state
Thus, when Tudeh resurfaced in the lead-up to the 1979 revolution, it wasn’t starting from scratch.
asserted
it → resurface → scratch
It participated in the mass surge against the tyrannical Shah, but, unlike the militant Mujahideen-i-Khalq and others on the left, acknowledged the Khomeini phenomenon as a legitimate expression of the popular will.
asserted
It → participate → will
That helps to explain why Tudeh briefly became the main opposition in a milieu dominated by the Islamic Republican Party.
asserted
Tudeh → help → Party
It’s unlikely this arrangement would anyhow have lasted long, but things came to a head in 1982-83.
asserted
things → ’ → 1982
The US today faces its own Great Game fallout.
asserted
US → face → fallout
The saga is laid out in entertaining detail in espionage specialist author Ben Macintyre’s recently published Redwood — a fascinating, albeit somewhat breathless, account of the defection in Tehran of a senior KGB officer, Vladimir Kuzichkin, the Soviet point man for contacts with Tudeh and a network of spies.
asserted
saga → lay → spies
In Macintyre’s reading, Kuzichkin was disillusioned with his corrupt colleagues, as well as with the Soviet polity, but above all, it was his impotence that drove him to risk approaching MI6, expecting Western medicine to offer a cure.
asserted
medicine → disillusion → cure
(Viagra was more than a decade away, but MI6 was able to organise a discreet circumcision.)
asserted
MI6 → organise → circumcision
More significantly, Kuzichkin passed on to MI6’s Ian McCredie his list of Iranian contacts and details of communications with Moscow.
asserted
Kuzichkin → pass → Moscow
MI6 shared them with the CIA, which was unable to operate in Iran at the time, and the latter insisted on sharing them with Iran’s intelligence agencies.
asserted
latter → share → agencies
Iran had only recently released the hostages taken at the US embassy, but while the American cold warriors might not have been fans of the clergy, in their blinkered worldview the communist threat was paramount.
uncertain
threat → release → worldview
MI6 was happy, as always, to play second fiddle.
asserted
MI6 → play → fiddle
The suspicion was that Moscow’s arms and gold were preparing Tudeh for a coup that could pave the way for a Soviet invasion, as in Afghanistan, and further tilt the Cold War imbalance towards communism.
uncertain
that → prepare → communism
By 1982, it should have been obvious to Moscow that the Afghan occupation was going awry — thanks largely to the CIA’s covert war via Pakistan.
asserted
occupation → go → Pakistan
Macintyre does not mention Zbigniew Brzezinski’s role, through the CIA and regional assets, in luring the Red Army into its biggest folly.
asserted
Macintyre → mention → folly
But, given the state of affairs in the neighbourhood, it’s unlikely Moscow would seriously have contemplated a similar misadventure in Iran.
asserted
Moscow → give → Iran
Nonetheless, it was decided to impart Redwood’s information to the Iranian authorities, and the chosen venue was Islamabad, courtesy of the then ISI chief Gen Abdul Rehman Akhtar.
asserted
venue → decide → chief
Even though senior elements of the Iranian leadership — including Ayatollah Khomeini, parliamentary speaker Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi — had their doubts about the imminence of a communist coup attempt and advised restraint, the president Ali Khamenei and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps chief Mohsen Rezaei favoured haste, leading to thousands of arrests and mass executions, alongside torture and televised ‘confessions’.
asserted
president → include → torture
As in Afghanistan earlier this century, the US is today confronted, in part, with the consequences of its own Great Game machinations.
asserted
US → confront → machinations
But ask any surviving cold warrior, and most likely they’ll still contend it was a price worth paying for keeping the world safe from communism.
asserted
it → ask → communism
Many of us, meanwhile, awaiting this week’s election results, look forward to the impending demise of the American empire.
asserted
Many → await → empire
The Aporia
