Farhang, Mansur

Browse oral history

Interview with Farhang, Mansur

Date

October 21, 1989; February 25 and December 20, 1990

Location

New York

Interviewer

Afkhami, Mahnaz

Language

English

Abstract

Childhood memories, family background and upbringing; beginnings of political career and activities in the Third Force Party (Niru-ye Sevvom); life as a student in the U.S.; involvement with anti-war and anti-Shah political activism in the U.S.; academic career in the U.S.; recollections of briefing the State Department prior to trip to Paris to meet with Ayatollah Khomeini; cocnerning the set-up and working of the Nauphle le Chateau compound; Iranian politics immediately after the revolution; on the ramification of the clashes between leftist forces and the Bazargan government; recollections of trip to Cuba as part of the Iranian delegation to the Non-Aligned Movement’s congress; contacts between Iranian and Iraqi delegations; recollections of mediating conflicts between the various factions at the Iranian Embassy in Canada; on becoming Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations; recollections of a meeting with Ayatollahs Khomeini and Montazeri to discuss the formation of an international commission to review the crimes committed by the U.S. against the Iranian nation; recollections of the hostage crisis; Kurt Waldheim’s role during the crisis; consequences of the fall of the Bazargan government; on the drafting of a new constitution and discussions which led to the convening of the Council of Experts; on Abol-Hasan Bani-Sadr, his personal qualities, relations with the Mojahedin, stance against Khomeini, and subsequent fall from power; on Bani-Sadr’s escape from Iran; Sadeq Qotbzadeh’s arrest, trial, and chances of clemency; departure from Iran and life in the United States.

Part 1