The Reformer's Lot

During the 14 months that Ali Amini was Premier of Iran, he cut inflation, introduced sweeping land reforms, battled corruption. But one thing Amini could not do was balance the budget. Last week, faced by a deficit of at least $85 million, he sorrowfully turned in his resignation to the Shah. Amini at first blamed lack of U.S. aid for his downfall; he has long felt that Washington is more generous to neutralists, particularly Egypt, than to its Iranian ally. Next day Amini withdrew the accusation.

For years the U.S. had solved Iran's chronic financial crises by massive, sometimes indiscriminate outlays of cash (total economic and military aid in the last decade: more than $1 billion). But this year Washington had served notice that unless Iran modernized its government bureaucracy--about 40% of its operating expenses is spent on salaries--the U.S. would not continue to foot the bill.

Powerful Foes. Amini had tried to persuade his Cabinet, especially the army, to trim expenditures. The Shah could have used his authority to back the Premier's demands, but did not. While the ministers argued over the budget (two even came to blows), the financial crisis deepened, partly as a result of Amini's realistic reforms. The Treasury lost a major source of revenue after a ban on foreign luxury goods reduced import duties to almost zero; the punctured inflationary balloon resulted in a recession.

Workers opposed Amini because austerity caused rising unemployment; intellectuals and students hated him because he suspended Parliament and ruled by decree; wealthy businessmen and many government officials fought his vigorous anticorruption efforts; large landowners tried to scuttle his land-reform program. Even Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi was cool to Amini, because the Premier's family was a member of the ruling dynasty that the Shah's father overthrew in 1921. Faced by such adversaries, the surprise was not that Amini finally resigned, but that he had survived so long.

Powerful Friend. Amini's replacement is the Shah's boyhood buddy, Assadollah Alam, 43, a frequent fixture of Teheran governments, and known for his willingness to carry out the monarch's orders. Educated at a British school in Iran, Alam was Minister of the Interior at 29, early displayed what an American acquaintance describes as a combination of native toughness and Y.M.C.A. dedication.

Alam was one of Iran's first big landowners to distribute his holdings to the peasants, even now insists that his servants eat the same food as his family. Once, when a would-be assassin was nabbed outside his door, Alam gave the man $40, then had him thrashed and sent into the street without his pants. In 1953, Alam helped organize the counterrevolution that overthrew Mohammed Mossadegh. Before taking over last week as the Shah's chief minister, Alam was the director of the Pahlevi Foundation, a charitable trust worth at least $133 million, set up by the Shah to finance social-welfare plans out of the profits from royal holdings in banks, industries, hotels.

The new Premier pledged Iran's close friendship to the West, promised to pursue Amini's badly needed reforms. As the monarch's oldest friend, Alam will enjoy a confidence never shared by Amini. The more important question is whether he will use that confidence to continue Amini's peaceful revolution from the top. If he does not, the alternative might be a violent revolution from the bottom.

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