Theu.s. S Foreign Policy

Furthermore, the Shah purchased billions of dollars worth of weapons of security from the US. In 1979 the realm was overthrown by extreme Islam’s that were followers of Ayatollah Khomeini. The intention of the Iranian students was to display their displeasure against the Shah. Their demand was the return of the Shah for a trial followed by his death. In addition, they asked that the US stay out of their country’s affairs. Carter’s approach required the safeguarding of American hostages but also guaranteed an alliance with Iran. Carter’s tactics on the situation had devastating effects on his run for re-election (Hamilton, 1982).

In the late 1970's, the world was hit with the events of the Iranian Revolution, a movement in which the Shah was overthrown in replacement with Ayatollah Khomeini. Causes for this movement included the economic, political, and socio-economic conditions in Iran before the Revolution. Economically, the Shah's hopes for the country ended up being their downfalls while politically, the Shah's ruling as a dictator prohibited the freedom of the Iranians. Socio-economically, the Shah didn't place much emphasis on religion, angering the majority of the population. The overthrow of the Shah led to the uprise of a religious leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, a figure supported by many. Unlike advice

He encouraged his supporters to engage in massive but peaceful protests, that spread through the country in 1978. The Shah and his forces responded by attacking the protesters, killing hundreds. This caused the protests to grow until it callumated in Black Friday on September 8th 1978. The Shah declared martial law and his forces killed thousands of protesters. Losing international support from the United States, the Shah fled to Egypt and the Ayatollah returned back to Iran. Protest continued with many blaming the United States for the Shahs actions and taking hostage workers at the US Embassy in Tehran. They would be held as captives until January of

Various factors influenced the 1979 Iranian revolution, but at the core of this significant event was Islamic fundamentalism. The Iranian religious leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, led this movement to end the thirty-seven-year reign of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, also known as the Shah of Iran (Diller 1991, p.152). The revolution was a combination of mounting social, economic, political and religious strains. The nation of Iran was never colonized, unlike some of its bordering countries, making its people intolerant of external influences. The Shah had gradually westernized and secularized his country, creating a strong American presence that was being felt

On November 4th, 1979, a group of enraged of Islamic revolutionists invaded the United States Embassy in Tehran. They had taken 60 Americans hostage for 444 days until President Ronald Reagan had taken Oath of office. It was nearly minutes after Reagan had taken office that they were released. Ayatollah Khomeini enforced an anti-Western Islamic theocracy, overrode the pro-Western monarchy of the Shah of Iran. Iran had felt that the United States was interfering with their internal affairs. They feared that they would return the Shah to power. The Shah had fled to mexico and the doctors there had uncovered that he was suffering an aggressive cancer. With this recent discovery they pushed the Shah to be admitted into a

In January, The Shah fled the country to Egypt, and a new ruler came into power. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned after being in exile for 14 years, and many of the people happily accepted him back (“The Iranian Hostage Crisis”). Everything went well until October, when the Shah- still in Egypt- obtained permission to travel to the United States for cancer treatment.

“ The Islamic Revolution of 1979: The Downfall of American- Iranian Relations” analyzes American- Iranian diplomacy from 1953- 1979. It is an explanation of the causes and developments of the Iranian revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini’s rise to power and

This fact shattered the hopes of millions of Iranians who thought the revolution would bring more freedom, not less. Women lost many of the social gains they had made under the Shah, and were forced to wear head coverings and full-body cloaks called chadors. Opponents were imprisoned and tortured as harshly and cruel as was done under the Shah. A parliamentary democracy existed mostly on paper, with true authority residing with the mullahs. With the Shah in exile, Khomeini identified the U.S. as 'the Great Satan' and an 'enemy of Islam.' Subsequent to this Khomeini regime, under the Shah dissent was also ruthlessly suppressed, and he jailed and tortured his political opponents. Moreover, under the Shah, Iran became a police state, monitored by the hated SAVAK secret police. Furthermore, the Shah's reforms, particularly those concerning the rights of women, angered Shia clerics such as the Ayatollah Khomeini, who fled into exile in Iraq and later France beginning in 1964. The US was intent on keeping the Shah in place in Iran in the 1970s, for many reasons, especially as a deterring buffer against Soviet expansionism ("Iranian Civil

Following his exile, the Shah was a guest of a number of world leaders including the premiers of Egypt, Morocco, the Bahamas, and Mexico. In October of 1979 the Shah required urgent medical attention and was allowed into the United States for treatment despite warnings from the State Department that allowing the Shah into the country could inflame tensions in Iran. Their warnings proved prescient as Iranian revolutionaries used his admission as propaganda against the United States. Revolutionary leader and autocrat of the new theocratic Islamic state Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who had taken control of the revolutionary government, used

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (The Shah), the son of Reza Shah took the throne after his father on September 16, 1941. The Shah continued his father’s politics and modernization of Iran. He proceeded to Westernize Iran by having the education structure “(primary, secondary, higher

The Iran Hostage Crisis, the beginning of United States interactions with Islamic extremists and economic reform in the middle east lasted from 1979 to 1981. The birth of these extremists lies in the economic policies of the United States and the middle east. The Shah, who was the supreme leader of the nation of Iran, was an ally of the United States for several decades. Despite his support from the U.S. government, he was known as a brutal leader who used excessive force and torture of his people, mostly Iranian students who spoke out against him. After decades of death, torture, abuse and other heinous crimes against humanity, the people of Iran began supporting Ayatollah Khomeini, a fundamentalist. To force events to transpire quicker, students took action by attacking the United States embassy and capturing hostages. These protestors saw the embassy as a physical representation of support for the Shah and his oppressive and cruel regime. The Americans who were working in the embassy on that day were taken hostage. What was suspected as being a relatively short hostage situation

On November 4, 1979 the Iranians had had enough with the United States. Thousands of protesters gathered around the United States embassy, yelling anti-American slogans. At about 10 that morning approximately three thousand people started to climb over the 10-foot wall that surrounded the embassy, forcing their way into the chancery building. The guards were ordered not to fire at the crowd in case it should start a war, but use tear gas. The tear gas was unsuccessful however and the protesters captured the marine guards, military officials and the embassy workers, totaling 66 men and women blindfolded and tied up. It was unclear if Khomeini helped plan the hostage crisis, but he did little to prevent it. Khomeini saw how popular the hostage

Before the revolution, Shah Reza Pahlavi was the ruler of Iran. Under his leadership power was clustered and concentrated among his close allies and networks of friends and others with whom he had close relations. By 1970s, the gap between the poor and the rich was widening and huge distrust about his economic policies grew. Resentment towards his autocratic leadership grew fuelling people to dissent his regime further. Shah now was considered an authoritarian who took full control of the Iran government preventing the Iranians from expressing their opinion. The government has transformed from the traditional monarchial form of government to authoritarian with absolute authority replacing individual freedom of the Iranians. This transformation to Iranian was unacceptable because they needed to control their own affairs. They wanted self-government where they could take control as opposed to what Shah was doing. Shah was seen as a western puppet for embracing authoritarian form of government (Axworthy, 2016).

The unease between the US and Iran seems to stem from the reign of the Shah, who came to power as the result of a coup promoted by the CIA. This coup managed to replace the previous government with one controlled by the Shah, who was pro-American and supported the Westernization of his country. Over time, this angered many of the people in Iran, especially students. In 1979, revolutionaries managed to take control of the United States Embassy in Iran and hold its staff hostage and replace the Shah with the anti-American Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini. The staff would eventually be released after negotiations and when President Reagan came to office. Another event that caused more tension between the United States and Iran was when the United States supported Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War and helped supply them with arms. The United States also began putting sanctions on Iran to

Islamic Revolution, better known as the Iranian Revolution of 1979 holds immense importance in the history of Iran. It was a revolution that shook the world and lead to rearrangements of the global alliances. The Iranian Revolution saw the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty governed under the Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, who was supported by the United States of America – showing his inclination towards modernization and secularizing the country. The revolution was led by Ayatollah Khomeini who later replaced Reza Shah and his dynasty with an Islamic Republic State.