The Shah of Iran and SAVAK (1976) | 60 Minutes Archive

In 1976, 60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace interviewed Iran's Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and directly questioned him about torture practices by SAVAK, the shah's secret police force. The interview occurred during a period when international human rights organizations were increasingly documenting allegations of torture and extrajudicial detention by SAVAK against political prisoners and dissidents. The shah's response to Wallace's direct questioning on the torture issue would become a significant moment in American television journalism's coverage of Iran's authoritarian practices. This exchange took place less than three years before the 1979 Iranian Revolution that would overthrow the shah's regime, an uprising partly fueled by widespread resentment of SAVAK's brutal repression. The interview represented rare Western media access to the shah during a time when critical reporting of his government's human rights record was becoming harder to ignore.