fact: Whenever a country with a large amount of domestic oil decides to control its own oil and market that oil to the world in whichever way it pleases, it soon becomes an official "enemy" of the USA and Great Britain. What follows is either a foreign-supported coup which brings down that country's government and installs an Anglo-American puppet in its place...or a open war with that country.

As for monarchies, I'm not necessarily against them. Britain has had a monarchy for a very long time, and I'm not against that. Nor am I against the Thai monarchy. Nor the Dutch monarchy. Nor any peaceful and reasonable monarchy. I am opposed to the Shah's dictatorial government following 1953 because it established a totally undemocratic rule, crushed a fledgling democracy, and was allied with foreign oil interests to the detriment of Iranian national independence. I am not well impressed in the least by the revolutionary Islamic government which replaced it in 1979 either, but at least they represent themselves instead of representing American and British oil interests.

If I was Iranian, I would prefer that to having the Shah in power.