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300 Arabia, the Gulf and the West

funds for them, was not entirely clear. What they and all the other extensive
funds remitted abroad by the Pahlavi Foundation in recent years would
ensure, however, would be a comfortable exile for the shah should he ever be
forced to seek it.

Of all Muhammad Reza Shah’s follies and extravagances none was more
ridiculous, and in the end more ruinous, than his attempt to make Persia a
great military power. Between 1972 and 1978 the strength of the Persian armed
forces rose from 191,000 men to 413,000, and expenditures upon defence were
commensurate with this expansion. The Persian defence budget in 1970 was
$880 million. It rose steadily every year thereafter until 1973 when it reached
$2,095 million. Under the impact of higher oil revenues it was inflated to
$3,224 million in 1974, $10,405 million in 1975, $9,500 million in 1976, $7,900
million in 1977 and $9,940 million in 1978, making a grand total for the six
years, I973-8 inclusive, of well over $43,000 million. The Persian army, some
285,000 strong, was larger than the British Army. It was equipped with 760
Chieftain tanks, 860 medium tanks, 250 Scorpion light tanks, almost a
thousand armoured personnel carriers and innumerable armoured cars. On

order in 1978 were a further 1,300 Chieftains with Chobham armour and a
more powerful engine, and no Scorpions, which would have eventually given
the Persian army an armoured strength three times as great as that of the
British Army. In addition, the Persian army possessed, or had on order, a
formidable array of artillery (1,500 field guns, 2,000 anti-tank and anti-aircraft
guns), anti-tank and surface-to-air missiles, motorized transport on a large
scale and an army air wing of 60 light aircraft and over 600 helicopters (with
another 500 on order).
The Persian air force, of more than 100,000 men, was larger than the Royal
Air Force. It had well over 400 combat aircraft, including 200 F-4S (Phan­
toms), 150 F-5s (Tigers) and 56 F-14S (Tomcats), the last-named being one of

the most advanced fighters in the world. Another 24 F-14S and 160 of the
newly developed F-i6s (Cobras) were on order. In addition, the Persian air
force was equipped with surface-to-air missiles, nearly a dozen transport
squadrons, and 160 helicopters, with more helicopters, transport planes and
missiles on order. The Persian navy, to which we shall turn our attenuon
shortly, was being developed along comparably lavish lines.
What did this panoply of arms really amount to, and whom was it meant to
frighten? The Persian army has not won great renown on the battlefield in
modern times, or even had much experience of actual warfare. Apart from
brushes with the British and the Bolsheviks during and after the First Worl

War, and with the Soviet and British forces which occupied Persia in I941 > e
Persians have not faced European troops in battle since the Anglo-Persian war
of 1856-7, in which they scarcely acquitted themselves with distinction. e
rest of the Persian army’s service in the field has been limited to campaigning