The General, Bahram Ariana
 

      Bahram Ariana, son of Sadr-ed-din, was born in 1906 in Tehran. His original name was Hossein Manoochehri  who because of strong tendencies towards archaism in 1950 changed his name to Bahram Ariana. He brought to an end his military educations at military school and then in 1924 he went to Paris for passing a two years course in advance military training. When he returned Iran, he proceeded to continue his educations in Higher Military Academy of Iran and after that he succeeded to take doctorate in International Law from France.
 

     After finishing the advanced military training in France, he went to the service of the army and was appointed as the commandant of Military Academy. He was the professor of Infantry training at the military Academy and he taught general tactics at the war university. During the second world war Ariana like many other officers of Iran’s Imperial Army had an inclination to the Nazi Germany and for the same reason he joined the “Kabud Party” led by Habib Allah Nobakht. This party had Nazist inclinations. This tendency caused him to be imprisoned for a short time after August 1941 for his Germanophile tendencies.

     Of his other military posts, we may refer to commander of the first division of Imperial Guard, administration assistant of Military Academy, the commander of training center of Khorasan army, the commander of Mahabad Garrison and the commander of Imperial Guard. During the Dr. Mossadegh’s government he was sent as the chief of dispatched mission and Iran’s first class attaché  in Paris. He came back to Iran after the fall of Dr. Mossadegh’s government and was promoted to the rank of general. In 1955 he was appointed as the chief of ground force army staff. The major general, Bahram Ariana, in 1962 was appointed by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, with full authority, to command the military operations of suppressing the tribes’ revolt in the south.

This revolt which was against the Land Reforms,  was successfully suppressed. In 1965 Ariana was appointed as the chief of the great generals army staff by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and served in that post for four years. At the same period he tried to enforce the Aria party by the leadership of Hadi Sepehr with regard to archaism tendencies he had. Major General Ariana’s ambitiousness caused other army commanders who had no liking for him to spread the rumours of his coup against the Shah. This rumour prepared the grounds for his dismissal from the directorship of the great generals army staff on May 1969 and after a short time he was retired. For a while he was also appointed as the director of cultural society of the army.

      In the same year of 1969, he remarried with a young girl named Sorraya Assar and changed her name to Arianoush. His demonstration about archaistic tendencies increased to the extent that he replaced Shahnameh with Qoran and believed that the Persian writing should be changed to Latin in order to break off relations with Arabs. The SAVAK (the security and intelligence organization of Iran) considered his thoughts indecent so he accompanied with Arianoush Ariana left the country for Paris by the indirect order of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1971. By the rise o Islamic Revolution he  again was the center of attention and settled  at the head of one of the first monarchists groups against the Revolution named “Freedom Giving Army” and the one million dollars budget of foreigner intelligent services was put at his disposal. The Freedom Giving Army was broken up in 1983 by the diversity of opinions between him and other commanders of this army like General Oveisi, thereafter he never engaged himself in political activities. Bahram Ariana died in 1986 in Paris at his 80 years.

There exist 106 documents and many photos of major general Ariana at the Iranian Institute of Contemporary Historical studies. The subject of these documents are family correspondence, his correspondence with other army commanders and his military and official letters.