Great Britain and Reza Shah: the plunder of Iran, 1921–1941

I thank the staff of the National Archives and Records Administration
(NARA) in College Park, Maryland, for their help and courtesy during the
many days I spent there in 1999 and 2000. Dr. Milton Gustafson, senior
specialist at NARA, helped in navigating the records of the Department of
State pertaining to Iran. I am deeply grateful to Professor Hafez Farmayan
for his comments on the earlier version of the manuscript, his excitement
at the discovery of the records, his keen interest in the project, and his
helpful suggestions. I also thank Chris Hofgren and Amy Gorelick, acquisitions
editors at the University Press of Florida, for their interest in the
book and for their professional and helpful approach. The task of assembling
the photos again fell to my brother Mohammad Hossein Majd, and
I thank him greatly. I am grateful to the Bureau of Cultural Heritage for
permission to photograph and reproduce a portrait of Reza Shah on a
tapestry located in Niavaran Palace. I thank the Institute for Iranian Contemporary
Historical Studies in Tehran for providing several of the photographs
reproduced in this book.
Finally, I am vastly indebted to my family for help and understanding
that made the completion of this book possible. The computer skills of my
son, Ali, as usual rescued me at the appropriate time.