the left- ist Mujahedeen-al-Khalq that took the lives of several senior govern- ment officials.
Systematic repression of dissent-there have been 4,500 documented executions since Khomeini took power in 1979-has been vital to the regime's survival. Another key: effective "state-building." Khomeini quickly replaced the Shah's bureaucrats with loyalists; he established new quasi-governmental organizations, such as the 150,000-man Revo- lutionary Guards and thousands of neighborhood watch...