The Nuclear Program of the Second Pahlavi’s Government and the Importance of Online Digital Archives in Recognizing It

Iran's vast and costly nuclear program in the 1940s and 1950s was one of the major symbols of economic and foreign relations of The Second Pahlavi. Archival records play an important role in identifying and recognizing this highly confidential process. The online publication of rare records in western world archives is a turning point in the study of the history of Iran's nuclear activities at the time of The Second Pahlavi. Therefore, the author tries to answer the following questions by relying on these primary resources:How did the nuclear developments of The Second Pahlavi Government occur?What is the role of online archives in scientific recognition of the process?

Method and Research Design: 

The records of various archives of Iran, online archives outside of Iran and various Iranian newspapers of the time were investigated, described and analyzed.

The study revealed that the rate of Iranian nuclear progress was constant and slow till the late 1960s. From the beginning of the 1970s, the rate accelerated owing to long-term goals and extensive development activities, and became a symbol of the new era of Iranian history and industry in independent national politics based on the doctrine of the imperial government. Due to the secrecy of the program and a number of ambiguities, Latin online records play a very important role in recognizing this part of contemporary Iranian history.