Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1919–80), shah of Iran (1941–79). The British forced his pro-German father, Reza Pahlavi, to abdicate in 1941. Mohammad Reza Pahlavi left the country briefly during the rule of the left-wing Nationalist Muhammad Mossadegh (1953), but returned with CIA-backing to consolidate his power. He instituted certain western social reforms, but exercised a dictatorship bolstered by a pervasive secret police, the Savak. An Islamic revolution forced him into exile in 1979. He died in exile in Egypt.