Nation: Nobody Influences Me!

Seven Presidents praised him; now he's condemned. How bad was he?

He once was a rather shy and indecisive young princeling, installed on his throne by the foreigners who had forced his humbly born father to abdicate. He became an enormously wealthy monarch, Shah of Iran, King of Kings, Light of the Aryans, who dreamed of creating an economic and military superpower that would recall the Persian Empire of Cyrus the Great. He developed an imperial ego to match his vision, placing his crown on his own head like Napoleon, dismissing all opposition as...