DBWI: Britain without the Iranian Occupation

Suppose that Britain doesn't invade Iran and occupy Iran in 1952.

How would Iran have fared under Mosaddegh? Would the British Empire have still collapsed like it did IOTL? I know a lot of Tories like to paint the myth of the Labour Party stabbing Britain in the back after they won the election and pulled out of Iran, so if Britain had never gone to war in Iran, how would that change Britain culturally? Would the UK not be an international pariah state?
 
The Iranian Occupation was one of the biggest mistakes Britain ever made.

From what a buddy of mine who was in the government, it turns out the occupation occurred because the US refused to help the UK plan a coup to Mosaddegh, even with fears of communist ties.

Instead, it was when conservatism as we knew it kinda died. When word of this came out and so on, the Democrats used to pretty much slaughter the Republicans in the elections, especially those that vouched for invading Iran. This is what managed to get the Second Bill of Rights passed (if a toned down one) by them. This also caused a schism between pretty much Europe and the US, with the latter's distrust to the former due to colonial matters and then the former accusing the US of hypocrisy due to the US's not nice practices toward Latin America.

Granted, the Cold War ended and the world was in a more fractured state as Russian and Chinese opportunism instead led to the nasty schism between them and let's face it, Mao and Stalin didn't die natural deaths as we were led to believe (well, maybe Stalin given his increased alcoholism.) China did cool down significantly toward the US and definitely reorganized itself once the Cult of Mao dissolved. Heck, it's why the US trusted China to help rebuild India after the rebellions and now one of the US's closest allies.

The Labour Party has been working to fix Britain's reputation when they finally won back in the 70s and been doing a pretty good job. Iran is barely talking to them (outside of each other's leftish groups and the younger generations) however.

Without the occupation, none of this would've happened. China and Russia probably still would've split, but the crack in relations and alliances wouldnt have caused the Cold War to collapse into a tension-filled era. Granted, the USA technically won (least in terms of spheres of influence since all of the Middle East but Turkey and I guess Egypt is with them, the latter having stayed with Britain after the US backed Israel in that war.)

With Britian out of the way, the US basically went over to manage the Miiddle East for a bit. Or basically give Iran Afghanistan along with Baluchistan and part of what was Iraq (the Shia dominated part) along with making Kurdistan its own nation and the rest of the land along with what was Lebandon and Syria to Jordan. This did mean we got the Hashemite-Saud War, but once the Hashemites patched things with Israel, Saudi Arabia got crushed and now we have The Hashemite Kingdom of Arabia controlling most of the Peninsula (barring Yemen, which has been growing more Jewish by the year and pretty much Israel's wife) and Oman (who just wants to be left alone.)

Granted, this did mean Europe would stick closer together and they eventually managed to start fixing things up with their former African colonies. Without Britain's screw-up, they would've botched it.

Russia's attempt at trying to influence the EU has been somewhat hilarious to say the least, but they did legitimately change for the better. If nothing else, Russia is now a pretty all right place though they're trying very hard to continue Russian culture before the USSR and the Mafiya is still a problem for them.
 
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The biggest thing about the Iranian Occupation was that because it came so soon after WW2, it made them look like blatant Hypocrites on the world stage to have fought against Germany invading and occupying countries, only to turn around and nakedly do the exact same thing to Iran.

I dunno how many people have read Arezu Shireen's book What's Mine is Mine, What's Yours is Mine too, (I had to read that in my high school world lit. class) but the opening chapters of that book really showed the popularity of Mosaddegh's Oil Nationalization plan and the huge inequality that had existed in Iran before the occupation
 
The biggest thing about the Iranian Occupation was that because it came so soon after WW2, it made them look like blatant Hypocrites on the world stage to have fought against Germany invading and occupying countries, only to turn around and nakedly do the exact same thing to Iran.

I dunno how many people have read Arezu Shireen's book What's Mine is Mine, What's Yours is Mine too, (I had to read that in my high school world lit. class) but the opening chapters of that book really showed the popularity of Mosaddegh's Oil Nationalization plan and the huge inequality that had existed in Iran before the occupation

Well, petrol greed was a big motivating factor, something that some of the British veterans would end up joining on. It's the foundation of how the miitary sectors grew closer to the growing "green revolution."

Nothing says priceless like the Hippie movement having the support of most of the veteran populace, at least when it came to the green power and civil rights (more mixed bag on the sexual progression, drugs as therapy and other stuff though.)
 
What's the POD for something like this? A Britain that isn't going to war for its oil interests is a radically different country than the one we know from OTL.


We probably wouldn't see the right-wing ulema get pushed into insignificance by the new anti-British alliance of the Shi'i religious left and the secular Tudeh party members. Playing second fiddle to the Iranian left during the guerilla resistance really neutered any chance of base building on their part, besides the usual popularity of the populist religious left in the Iranian hinterlands.
 
What's the POD for something like this? A Britain that isn't going to war for its oil interests is a radically different country than the one we know from OTL.


We probably wouldn't see the right-wing ulema get pushed into insignificance by the new anti-British alliance of the Shi'i religious left and the secular Tudeh party members. Playing second fiddle to the Iranian left during the guerilla resistance really neutered any chance of base building on their part, besides the usual popularity of the populist religious left in the Iranian hinterlands.

My guess would be Eisenhower caving into his fear and helping the UK with that coup. Granted, the puppet government wouldn't have lasted more than a few decades at most ans Iran would've hate both the UK and USA rather than their cold relations with the UK and the odd bromance it continues with the USA to this day. The rise of religious left did help out the Middle East and even in the US.
 
What's the POD for something like this? A Britain that isn't going to war for its oil interests is a radically different country than the one we know from OTL.


We probably wouldn't see the right-wing ulema get pushed into insignificance by the new anti-British alliance of the Shi'i religious left and the secular Tudeh party members. Playing second fiddle to the Iranian left during the guerilla resistance really neutered any chance of base building on their part, besides the usual popularity of the populist religious left in the Iranian hinterlands.
In '52 it was looking like Stevenson was going to win the election, and Churchill thought that he would tell AIOC to pound sand and jumped the gun. Maybe Churchill doesn't jump the gun and waits out the US election. If Eisenhower had won, he could have asked him to direct the CIA into leading a coup.
 
In '52 it was looking like Stevenson was going to win the election, and Churchill thought that he would tell AIOC to pound sand and jumped the gun. Maybe Churchill doesn't jump the gun and waits out the US election. If Eisenhower had won, he could have asked him to direct the CIA into leading a coup.

Eisenhoweer even mentions this and it was one of the things that led to him retiring early and later becoming a prominent ally of the Hippy movement, or at least, helped make it more serious about its intentions and such.
 
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