Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T00:14:22.815Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Operation Countenance: The 1941 Invasion of Iran and the Clash of Propaganda Narratives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Mervyn Roberts
Mervyn Roberts*
Affiliation:
Central Texas College, Killeen, TX, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The June 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union unleashed a series of events that culminated in the Allied invasion of Iran two months later. In their propaganda, Britain and the Soviet Union publicly justified that invasion as a means of preventing Iran from falling into the German orbit. However, a review of radio broadcasts of the time shows the theme of a German menace was not widely believed in the region. Using BBC Summary of World Broadcasts transcripts from the period, this paper argues that the decision to base their propaganda on a lie also negatively affected relations in the postwar world. In that sense the decision to justify the invasion on the basis of German presence was a propaganda failure for the allies.

Keywords

PropagandaGreat BritainSoviet UnionSummary of World BroadcastsIranOperation Countenance, 1941BBC
Type
Regular Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 52 , Issue 3-4: Special Section: Commercial, Confessional, and Military Encounters in Ottoman-Iranian Borderlands in the Early Modern Period , July 2019 , pp. 589 - 610
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abdul-Razak, Rowena. “But What Would They Think of Us: Propaganda and the Manipulation of the Anglo-Soviet Occupation of Iran.” Journal of Iranian Studies 49 (November 2016):817–35. doi: 10.1080/00210862.2016.1210294CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amin, Camron M. “The Press and Public Diplomacy in Iran, 1820‒1940.” Iranian Studies 48 (March 2015):269–87. doi: 10.1080/00210862.2013.871145Google Scholar
Basheer, M. Nafi. “The Arabs and the Axis: 1933‒1940.” Arab Studies Quarterly 19, no. 2 (Spring 1997):1–24.Google Scholar
Childs, Harwood L., and White, John B.. “The War on the Shortwaves.” In Propaganda by Shortwave. 1942. Reprint. New York: Arno, 1972.Google Scholar
Cronin, Stephanie. “The Politics of Radicalism within the Iranian Army: The Jahansuz Group of 1939.” Iranian Studies 32, no. 1 (Winter 1999):5–25. doi: 10.1080/00210869908701943CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elwell-Sutton, Laurence Paul.“The Iranian Press, 1941‒1947.” Iran, Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies 8 (1968):65–104.Google Scholar
Ernst, Kris, and Speier, Hans. German Radio Propaganda: Report on Home Broadcasts during the War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1944.Google Scholar
Eshraghi, F. “Anglo-Soviet Occupation of Iran in August.” Middle Eastern Studies 20, no. 1 (January 1984):27–52. doi: 10.1080/00263208408700570Google Scholar
Great Britain. PAIFORCE: The Official History of the Persian and Iraq Command, 1941‒1946. London: His Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1948.Google Scholar
Herf, Jeffrey.Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Hinsley, Francis Harry.British Intelligence in the Second World War: Its Influence on Strategy and Operations. Vol. 2. London: Cambridge University Press, 1981.Google Scholar
Jenkins, Jennifer. “Iran in the Nazi New Order, 1933‒1941.” Iranian Studies 49 (November 2016):727–51. doi: 10.1080/00210862.2016.1217636CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katouzian, Homa.The Persians: Ancient, Mediaeval and Modern Iran. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Motter, T.H. Vail.The Persian Corridor and Aid to Russia. Washington, DC: Center of Military History, United States Army, 1952.Google Scholar
Murray, Williamson, and Millett, Allan R.. A War to be Won: Fighting the Second World War. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Pal, Dharm, and Prasad, Bisheshwar. Official History of the Indian Armed Forces in the Second World War 1939‒45: The Campaign in Western Asia. London: Orient Longmans, 1957.Google Scholar
Plass, Hanno, and Templer, Bill, “Der Welt-Dienst: International Anti-Semitic Propaganda.” The Jewish Quarterly Review 103, no. 4 (Fall 2013):503–22. doi: 10.1353/jqr.2013.0031CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Playfair, Ian S., Malony, C. J. C., Flynn, F. C., and Toomer, S. E.. The Mediterranean and Middle East. Vol. 2. The Germans Come to the Help of Their Ally. London: HMSO, 1956.Google Scholar
Roberts, Mervyn. “Analysis of Radio Propaganda in the 1953 Iran Coup.” Iranian Studies 45 (November 2012):759–77. doi: 10.1080/00210862.2012.726848CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubin, Barry M.The Great Powers in the Middle East, 1941‒1947: The Road to the Cold War. London: Cass, 1980.Google Scholar
Shahidi, Hossein. “Injaa landan ast: BBC Persian Service 60 Years On.” The Iranian, September 24, 2001. https://iranian.com/History/2001/September/BBC/index.html?site=archive (accessed February 10,2019).Google Scholar
Skrine, Clarmont Percival.World War in Iran. London: Constable and Company, 1962.Google Scholar
Sreberny, Annabelle, and Torfeh, Massoumeh. Persian Service: The BBC and British Interests in Iran. London: I.B. Tauris & Co., 2014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stewart, Richard A.Sunrise at Abadan: The British and Soviet Invasion of Iran, 1941. New York: Praeger, 1988.Google Scholar
Toprani, Anand. “The First War for Oil: The Caucasus, German Strategy, and the Turning Point of the War on the Eastern Front, 1942.” Journal of Military History 80 (July 2016):815–54.Google Scholar
Ward, Steven R.Immortal: A Military History of Iran and Its Armed Forces. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2009.Google Scholar