Rare photos of major oil-producing region of Iran

The project demonstrated the vaunted ambition of American and Iranian developmentalists, and was undone due to divisions within the shah's government and the broader failures of the Second Plan in the early 1960s. This paper draws on the archives of the Development & Resources Corp., interviews with Iranian technocrats, and the archives of the US government to illustrate the ways in which American technical expertise engaged with Iran's national development strategy after the 1953 coup.