Browse oral history

Interview with Tufaniyan, General Hasan

Date

March 28 and April 7, 1989

Location

Chevy Chase, Maryland

Interviewer

Nasr, Vali

Language

Persian

Abstract

Recollections of childhood in Iran; on conditions in Iran during the early Pahlavi period; Iranian armed forces and the occupation of Iran during WWII; history of Imperial Iranian Air Force; reminiscences of the leading Iranian military leaders; on the Shah and his leadership style; structure and mode of organization of the Iranian armed forces; Iran’s military relations with Pakistan; recollections of Iran’s various arms procurement deals; military’s procedures for acquiring new arms and equipment; myth and reality of personal profit making in arms deals; Shah’s reaction to the revolutionary upheaval; on the attempts of military commanders to compel the Shah to decisive action against revolutionary forces; Shah’s indecision before the revolutionary onslaught; on the Iranian military’s arms production and its contribution to the development of an industrial complex.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Transcripts

General Hasan Tufaniyan-I- pdf General Hasan Tufaniyan-II- pdf General Hasan Tufaniyan-English- pdf

Contents

67pp. + summary + biographical note + index + photograph

About the interviewee

Tufaniyan, General Hasan

Air Force Officer; Deputy Minister of War and Director of the Arms Industry and Military Procurement Procurement Organization, 1968-1979.